Yes, was gonna comment on the cover - it's fantastic, probably her best (that or True Blue, also iconic). Simple but effective - love the lettering, and the photograph is one of the lasting images of the '80s. The look that launched 20 million imitators worldwide.
Madonna was an instant role model for all the little girls who really didn't have anyone young and fresh to look up to at that time. She was like a very cool, slightly terrifying big sister.
She was always, in movie terms, the director of her career. And that's a skill in itself. She always seemed to know exactly what she was doing, or what she wanted the outcome to be. Love her or hate her, I think it's undeniable she's always been a smart businesswoman.
And there have been no drink or drugs type scandals to derail her. If she has over-indulged in either, she's covered it very well.
Love Debbie Harry, She was the perfect lead singer and poster girl of the punk scene movement in the late 70s and Blondie's catchy pop songs with a punkish attitude but Madonna is the queen of pop. It's just the way it is.
They were both these Manhattanite pop stars who had in-your-face attitude and played with blonde bombshell iconography. The parallels were obvious (and pissed me off royally for a couple of years!). Debbie absolutely had an iconic style to her, a kind of debauched glamor. That had a major influence on Madonna but also a slew of other pop stars at the time. I think probably her most iconic look wasn't clothing - she was a clothes horse and could wear anything - but that hair. First it was the platinum blonde thing, but by the time of Autoamerican in '81 she was letting her roots grow out - way out - which just hadn't been done much before if ever. I remember seeing it and just thinking how striking and how punk it was, dolled up to the nines but with this mass of dark roots showing. Overnight it became a fashionable thing to do, edgy instead of just trashy.
It's funny how Nile Rodgers had a hand in the demise of one (having produced the wildly uneven Koo Koo with Bernard Edwards) and the rise of the other (producing Like a Virgin, the album that made Madonna a superstar). Which I guess goes to show that at the end of the day it comes down to the songs, and Koo Koo didn't have that many memorable ones.
I never thought of that! Yes, Koo Koo certainly wasn't the album anyone expected from her. Which was probably her intention. Fantastic sleeve, though.
Cyndi Lauper was more like Debbie Harry than Madonna. Speaking of Cyndi, did the "rivalry" start with Madonna or Like a Virgin?
Probably the former. Though Madonna had 2 albums released while Cyndi was working She's So Unusual. After True Colors, nobody compared them anymore.
Indeed. I think that's one of the reasons I can't part with my copy, despite the fact that I rarely play it -- it is such an striking album cover.
This page (on SquareMadonna.com) has more images from the Gary Heery photoshoot for the album: GARY HEERY PHOTOSHOOT FOR “MADONNA” »
I think Madonna completely revolutionized the image of the female pop star in the 80's. To quote a critic I read once she wasn't as 'Glamorous' as the divas before her who reigned the decade prior (Olivia Newton John, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross etc.) But she was sexier, bolder and had far more to say. I think in a lot of ways her career fostered in a new era of female pop stars. By the time the early 90's came along Janet Jackson, Whitney, Mariah and Celine were making massive waves on the charts. Just 10 years earlier Diana, Barbra, Linda, Donna and Olivia were still the top dogs.
It has been a couple of decades since i've listened to that first album. It's a good one, too, except I can do without "Everybody".
Madonna massively changed things. The other acts you mentioned (Babs excepting as she'd continue to sell albums and be a huge draw to this very day) always presented a more family friendly image and were coming to the end of their glory days anyway. Madonna was just what the pop industry needed and you're right in saying that she opened the doors for many future acts.
I didn't buy the first album at the time, but I bought the 2001 CD issue later. However, I have yet to play it because I haven't been through my Madonna collection properly. She is an artist that I want to really take my time over studying every different version of every song and making sure I've got everything I want. Up until now I have been buying her music and filing it away for later appraisal. Another reason I haven't got to Madonna yet is I keep hoping there will be deluxe editions or a collection which includes all the original 7" versions. But I'm beginning to think that will never happen....... Anyway.... Back at the beginning of Madonna's career, I did have the 12" singles from the album and liked them very much. I'm going from recollection here and trying to piece these memories together looking at the chart positions. If I get anything wrong, feel free to correct me. I enjoyed a lot of club music back in the early 80s and I used to keep up to date with everything by listening to radio (including pirate radio), looking at the music press and visiting shops every week. I think very few people in the UK were aware of Madonna's first single "Everybody" at the time. I certainly didn't notice it and it failed to chart. I don't recall ever seeing it in my local shops. The first 12" I was aware of was "Lucky Star" with Madonna on the sleeve wearing sunglasses on the front image and chewing on a chain on the back image. I bought this, but none of my friends did. The single didn't do anything chartwise so they brought out another 12" with a die-cut plain white sleeve with U.S. Remix written across the front. I bought that one too. My friends were still taking no notice. Then next came "Holiday" which came in a train sleeve and that went into the charts and made it to number 6. But there was nothing about Madonna that suggested she was about to become a global superstar. They then gave "Lucky Star" a re-release in a TV screen sleeve this time and it reached number 14, coming and going quite quickly and followed up by "Borderline" which stiffed at number 56. I bought all of those 12" singles and considered them to be excellent. But things didn't really properly get going for Madonna until the first single from the next album; "Like A Virgin".
Madonna's influence was more about teenage girls wearing lots of dangling jewelry, and bras over their street clothes. The "boy toy" image in late 1984 alarmed a lot of parents. The main thing that saved Madonna from becoming a cultural pariah was her music, which was selling like crazy. She didn't start getting negatively controversial until 1989, when she released the "Like A Prayer" video. But,that's another thread. This one's about the music.
And also in that November 6 1982 issue, Madonna's debut on a Billboard chart (in at No. 40 on the Dance/Disco Top 80):
I remember the controversy starting around the time of the Like A Virgin tour. People were offended by the crucifixes that she adorned herself with and called her rolling around the floor in a white wedding dress antics trashy. Like A Virgin itself had it's moral police detractors which only intensified with the sentiments of Papa Don't Preach. Her f-u attitude also got lots of folk's dander up.
