Madonna's '84 VMA performance, what was your first impression?

Thought it was pathetic, not in a shocked or offended sense, but just that it was so calculated and obvious. I was out of my teens by then. Later on, I did come around to liking her and enjoying some of her stuff.
The "shocking" thing for me was when Playboy and Penthouse dropped the bombshell front-page news that they had nude pix of her and were going to publish them, and instead of taking the expected route of flying into a desperate panic and having her lawyers threaten to sue them into the ground, she just brushed it off with a "Who the hell cares?" attitude. Nobody in similar circumstances (Suzanne Somers, Vanessa Williams, etc.) had ever responded like that. I was shocked and impressed that she was so self-possessed. She didn't care what anyone thought.

 

She didn't sue them because A). She wouldn't have had a case and B). She knew it was great P.R.

 

I don't think I saw this performance at the time, but I know it generated a lot of chatter.

I remember seeing the live premiere of the Like a Prayer video and then the you-know-what storm that followed. It's funny because the Like a Prayer video was considered highly offensive in 1989, but now it looks so tame.

Say what you want about Madonna, but she was a marketing genius.

 

Pepsi pulled their commercial pretty quickly and dropped her.

 

I had just turned 13 so while it was um "titillating" for back then, as others have said it was also not all that shocking to me. I remember thinking it would cause a bit of a stir and it did to an extent but nothing like Michael's Motown 25 Billie Jean performance. I mean everyone was talking about that the days and weeks after it aired.

 

Still, I was 11-years old when this song came out, and I already subscribed to Quentin Tarantino's theory about this song.

(If you don't know what that is, be aware, it's not for the easily shocked or offended.)

 

She did sing live though.

 

And she sang it live. Of course with background vocals in the chorus.

 

That is the brilliance of that song even if Madonna denies the theory.

The idea of being shiny and new after experience can take many meanings. Tarantino takes it to another level, but only if you forget that it is from a simplistic male standpoint. Madonna just like any woman doesn't truly believe in kiss and tell. Everything is calculated and few if any truly know the real Madonna. If she was a man with that kind of Beatles/Elvis chart success no one would doubt her place in the RnR Hall of Fame or her collaborative songwriting ability.

Though I think anyone denying her creating art from pieces knows nothing about her entire career.

When I saw that performance it changed me just like so many others forever. For the true first time it was a woman raw and uncensored in congruence (keep part here) with her equally raw experience and calculation. This woman was dangerous.

 

Nothing I didn't expect. MTV wanted publicity, Madonna wanted attention. The song was already getting lots of tsk tsk publicity from the media and older people.
So she does the old male fantasy of the quiet bride who becomes a tiger on the wedding night. Yawn.
If it wasn't network TV, she'd have gone further. It's funny how she arranges her writhing and the camera shots so she can quietly slip on her spike heels--old magician trick.
She did what was expected and got a lot of attention and MTV was happy. What did people think? She'd come out and croon like when Elvis was only shot from the waist up?
Please.

 

Not buying it, and the song is about more than that. The squeeky image is just for the masses.

 

squeeky??? heh

 

As I recall, I was watching in a dorm TV room with a bunch of fellow red-blooded airmen, all in our early to mid 20s. The performance went over as you might expect.

The coolest thing about that night was that Herbie Hancock was the biggest winner, with 5 Moonmen for the "Rockit" video.

 

In the video, not Madonna...or the theme of the song.

If you haven't heard Tarantino's metaphor youtube that.

 

yeah, she's never gonna amount to nothin'

 

I'll take Madonna in her 20's (or 30's) over nearly-60 year old Madonna pretending to be in her 20's any day.

 

I was amused...

 

she did not age well at all...

 

Well, she looks like an aging Italian gym rat who refuses to accept that she's 59 years old. It's not a great look for her, no... Maybe if she was deciding to age gracefully.

 

Even with the improved video clarity on the second clip I cannot confirm that the waistband of her wedding dress reads "Everlast". I prefer to think that it does.

 

well, when you have an English accent much is forgiven, I suppose

 

Oh geez, I forgot about that... That was so perplexing.

 

A 60 year old not looking like a 20 year old. Wow ..just wow. What this has to do with music I'll never know. So Mick Jagger hopping around, now that is something

Meanwhile during the Confessions tour she was smoking hot. Not aged well my ass.

The overdone plastic surgery is what made her look wrong.

 

She's pretending to be in her 20's because she doesn't like that she's aging. It's just kinda sad.

 

I was 14 years old at the time, and thought she was hot.