Don't go for second best, baby. Put your ILM ARTIST POLL #31: MADONNA to the test.

Ozark Mountain Daredevils?

keep seeing EDM and thinking it's EBM.

(Sorry--I'm recycling that joke from 20 years ago.)

now I want Madonna to do a cover of "Bend My Body Armor"

lol

http://i.imgur.com/PZwB6Xe.jpg

13. "PAPA DON'T PREACH" from True Blue (1986) [29 votes, 602 points, 1 first place vote]

Man, she sings the hell out of PDP. One of her best early voxals.

actually switched up my ballot after sending it to make room for "papa don't preach". she sells the narrative so well

Why again was it religious groups had issues with this song? Did they not get past the title? It's about KEEPING MY BABY.

for some reason I always paired this with Billie Jean - great storytelling.

also love the dissonance/tension right before the chorus starts and also as she sings "I'm....... keeping my baby".

the instrumental bit at the end with the strings repeating (technical term) could last forever afaic. TOO LOW (but glad to see it up here as had weird feeling it might be under appreciated around here.

Man, she really does sing the hell out of this.

Here's the songwriter: http://www.bluedesert.dk/elliott.html

Why again was it religious groups had issues with this song? Did they not get past the title? It's about KEEPING MY BABY.

1. Teen pregnancy
2. see 1

Thank goodness Madonna came along, or people might not have realized they could have sex before getting married.

I was never taken with PDP but I got mad respect for it.

I can't believe y'all managed to place like every Erotica track except "Bye Bye Baby"

Why again was it religious groups had issues with this song?

maybe they took it as a call for men to resign from the cloth.

12. "BYE BYE BABY" from Erotica, because why not

That's better.

http://i.imgur.com/3bvx0Vs.jpg

12. "RAY OF LIGHT" from Ray of Light (1998) [26 votes, 615 points, 1 first place vote]

"Thief of Hearts" (which is pretty much the album's best track) also didn't place.

last post-erotica track to place? what am i forgetting?

Humph

lol at our speculation in nods thread that 'express yrself' or 'ray of light' might place surprisingly low btw

Dancing Oprah gif

had very little love for this song in 2013 until i saw that oprah performance

just want to take my last opportunity to jinx it by saying 'yay my #1 made the top ten!'

but it's seriously not an 8th as good as frozen or power of goodbye

This is an almost perfectly formed track that I just can't bring myself to listen all the way through any more...once it gets to the "oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh" breakdown section I've had enough.

I loved every second of this, both the sublime and the ridiculous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZRnuxJggqc

fucking love ray of light. its the first madonna song that i remember being out and being a thing. like i remember human nature weirdly, and i knew who madonna was, people dressed up as her with the pointy boobs at costume parties in tv programs and i didn't really recognise her in that black leather cat suit, but ray of light was when i first understood her as something that was in the charts and someone who made music and it didn't vibe with what i knew of her, flailing around in strobe lights, the idea that there was parties people went to as well. weirdly exciting. it still gets me in that way.

i think the term i was looking for earlier re PDP was 'outro'. it's one of my favourite outros ever.

to be honest, the thing I have always loved about "Ray of Light" is the phrasing, particularly leading into that last "oh-oh-oh" section

it's totally Voice Lessons 101 ("let's use this vocalization to work on breath support, okay now apply that to this section of your song, oh look you just sang an eight-bar phrase in one breath") but it's so great

I'm surprised you'd love "Ray of Light" and feel such revulsion for "Beautiful Stranger." I know they're not exactly the same song, but they seem to be in the same neighborhood to my ears.

listen to the drums and you will find they are absolutely nothing alike

One is a driving, propulsive aural expression of euphoria and the other is a limp fart in wet underwear

One man, one vote: that's how this country works.

otm xp

Well..."driving, propulsive aural expression of euphoria" describes both quite well for me.

http://i.imgur.com/Ewc5xNP.jpg

11. "CRAZY FOR YOU" from the motion picture soundtrack Vision Quest (1985) [31 votes, 670 points, 1 first place vote]

this is such a fucking gorgeous song

one of my top five most performed at karaoke madonna tracks

The only early Madonna song I choose to code as gay.

looks like eight eighties tracks in the top ten

as it should be

pretty much

That 'Ray of Light' clip is brilliant. I remember watching her on Live Earth, or whatever it was called, slack jawed in amazement. I wish she'd done a 'rock' album instead of her half assed attempt at r&b, think it could have been something quite extraordinary.

interesting that ray of light placed high. for me it was more a moment than a song to remember