I'm burning up, burning up for your VOTES! — ILM Artist Poll #31 is Madonna

True Blue probably counts as a key album for me as a listener. Just circumstances--that was the one that was out when I started working at a record store in 1986. Rediscovered Top 40 pop music after a long time away from it. "Open Your Heart" in particular was key (as was Janet's "When I Think of You").

Madonna way ahead of the curve on the sampling Aaliyah trend -- the same year "Back & Forth" dropped, it was sampled on "Inside Of Me" from Bedtime Stories

HOW did i never know this before?!

1986 was a fantastic year in pop music

"Gambler," people!

YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS CUZ YOU CAN'T BE ME

After that she started trying to hard and therefore failing harder. I'm sure "Hard Candy" and "MDNA" have their defenders, though.

not trying hard enough imo

"Gang Bang" is a terrible song but weirdly compelling, I feel like campaigning for it just to be perverse

The tour finally sold me on a couple of MDNA's tracks, but Hard Candy was ... um, not a tough act to follow.

xp "Gang Bang" was one of the ones I came around to!

I didn't particularly love Erotica at the time (and still don't) and, for some reason, my mind has never identified Bedtime Stories as a proper Madonna album since it seemed to come so quickly after Erotica (though now I see it was a full two-year gap). She was just so omnipresent during those years that it all seems like a blur. In hindsight, I appreciate her attempts at spreading her wings into unfamiliar styles, but neither of those records means a lot to me.

"Hung Up" and maaaaaybe "Sorry" will make my ballot. More than half of Confessions is amazing and has aged well.

Strange overlapping of tastemakers: MBV samples the "Security of the First World" beat two years pre-Madonna/Leny Kravitz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZueurvWak0

I still maintain that "4 Minutes" is unfairly maligned

"Give It To Me" is not maligned nearly enough, though (and yes, I know that everyone hates it)

also looking at how her singles charted on the Wikipedia list is kind of lol

like for example, the US was completely OTM re: "American Pie"

Really think the results are going to have to be larger than 40 to allow some of the non-greatest hits fodder to sneak in.

Already, I'm mulling arbitrarily limiting selection of #1s to no more than 5 on my ballot, but that's dumb.

the beat for "4 minutes" remains so banging

erotica and bedtime stories were the albums that made me fall in love with madonna - i discovered her '80s stuff in retrospect

the U.S. not otm re "Bedtime Stories."

erotica & bedtime stories def her artistic & creative pinnacle

That may be true, but I've got little use for either of them.

I do like "Rain". And "Bad Girl". And the track "Bedtime Stories". Dunno if I'll vote for any of them with only 20 votes to spend, though.

I think the singles from Bedtime Stories are amazing but the album itself doesn't support them.

Erotica is just okay really, but I do love "Rain".

Madonna released at least one single every year between 1982 and 2003; in that time period, only one of them did not make the top ten of a chart somewhere (and, as far as I can tell, it's the only single of her career that didn't hit the top 10 somewhere)

That means 75 out of 76 singles hit the top ten on the pop and/or dance charts

― Ima R.A.E.D. (DJP), Tuesday, 19 February 2013 15:45 (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

what was the fuck up?

JF, I'm not gonna hurt you. Just close your eyes.

http://www.magia2000.com/images/madonnadolls/erotica/madonna-erotica-fever.jpg

xp: "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"

I much prefer "I'll Remember" to all of Ray of Light.

Open Your Heart definitely one of my all time favorites.

In Grade 6, I put together my own choreographed dance to it. Oddly I don't remember performing it though? I can't exactly remember what I happened but I definitely remember many many nights in front of my bedroom mirror working out my steps :D (Also I recall a lot of time writing out the lyrics.) I remember when I told my teacher that I had chosen Open Your Heart to dance to, he said jokingly, "A song about open heart surgery! Wonderful! Very uplifting."

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8bl6e_wayne-s-world-sketch-1990-featuring_fun

also I am the world's biggest stan for 'True Blue' (single) -- another grade-school dance in front of the mirror favorite, to the point where I recorded the music video off the tv and my friends and I learned the dance she did in the video. I'm right back at 10 years old every time I hear it.

This is a pretty good remix, imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ma3pqYDxO4

Madonna way ahead of the curve on the sampling Aaliyah trend -- the same year "Back & Forth" dropped, it was sampled on "Inside Of Me" from Bedtime Stories

― some dude, Tuesday, 19 February 2013 14:35 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

haha this is a most un-shipsy fanciful stretch re "the curve"

isnt the sample just of kells on the intro, and isnt dave jam hall continuing the jackin 4 beats bad boy steez he invented of no great surprise anyway

soz for the pedantry but yunno

maybe there should be a little thread of difficult albums that inspired popular artists

joi 'pendulum vibe' for madonna, aaliyah loving lewis taylor, that sort of thing

"Vogue" was the life-changer for me. It'll be hard not to give it the #1 slot.

I like "True Blue," too. Sort of whitewashed from her greatest hits.

Agree this has to be a high number vote, because otherwise it will not only just be her hits, but several hits will get the shaft, too.

All of Freaky Trigger's Madonna blurbs are worth reading and boast good comments: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/search/?cx=001133180466749097833%3A3chbiorvjmy&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=madonna

Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember Madonna's pre-"Virgin" breakthrough (raises hand). Have such love for the first album, oddly ambivalent about "Like a Virgin" (the album). "True Blue" is closest to my heart, love that it was preceded by "Into the Groove" and "Crazy For You," both of which are all-time and would have fit on the album.

Best use of Madonna might be the diffusion of "Live to Tell" throughout "At Close Range." Patrick Leonard ftw.

ah Johnny has sent me down the rabbit hole of demos and unreleased tracks, because "Take Me (I Want You)" was an AWESOME find. pleasantly surprised at how long and detailed this list is, good job Madonna stans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unreleased_Madonna_songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmFe83QiEaI

"Ain't No Big Deal" was apparently at one point supposed to be her first single before "Everybody," and was demoed and recorded several times before finally ending up a True Blue era b-side. one of the demos was produced by Mark Kamins, the boyfriend who produced "Everybody" and got Madonna signed who passed away last week, not sure if this 1981 one is his but it's pretty fun to hear.

I think the singles from Bedtime Stories are amazing but the album itself doesn't support them.

nah the suite from "forbidden love" to the end is so immaculate, and seriously sad as fuck - love how it slowly builds from she singing about rejection ("forbidden love") to absolute loneliness ("love tried to welcome me") to desiring death ("sanctuary") to oblivion itself ("bedtime stories") to then bringing the curtain down completely on "take a bow". and i love how she pillows all the tragedy under such luscious sonics to hide it away.

Patrick Leonard definitely helped her refine her melodic gifts.

haha rtc thanks for illuminating -- i was just following wikipedia's lead, only did a pretty half-assed comparison between the 2 tracks to confirm there was a sample, but obviously i was kinda joking about THE CURVE, still interesting imo

http://open.spotify.com/user/djperry1973/playlist/4b5pRHtluXpNzZWeQgxNbr

A playlist of the 74 Madonna singles available on Spotify; missing are "Gambler" from the "Vision Quest" soundtrack (#3 in Italy, #4 in the UK) and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" from "Evita" (#4 in Italy, #7 in the UK)

re: "True Blue", I think it's a sweet, underrated song that Madonna loved so much she went back and turned it into "Cherish"

I have been waiting for this!! (duh)

I remember "Bedtime Stories" as landing right in the middle of her, er, overexposure, post "Erotica," "Truth or Dare," "Body of Evidence," etc. It was as if, in that brief window, no one really knew what they wanted from Madonna, so the album sort of floats in this weird purgatory. To my mind, at least. Obviously "Ray of Light" restored her balance, but I agree that "Bedtime Stories" is due some exploration. I do remember the title track's video being one of the first CGI extravaganzas to blow my mind.

"I'll Remember" was the Let's Clean Up My Image single.

also the "soundtrack song with bearded Joe Pesci clips galore in the video" single

an important staple in every megastar's career

"I'll Remember (Theme from With Honors)"

well MJ had his "Joe Pesci in sunglasses" videos from Moonwalker, Pesh was a hot pop accessory

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/With_honors_poster.jpg/220px-With_honors_poster.jpg

many xposts to Josh In Chicago: I definitely remember Madge pre-Virgin - the first cassette I ever bought with my own money was 'H'Its Huge 84', which included 'Holiday' that I could.not.stop.dancing.to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H'its_Huge_'84

Pesci should have been in Rihanna's "S&M" video

"This Used To Be My Playground" probably wouldn't make the results even if stretched out to 100, but I love that song a lot for some reason (probably because I like the film it's from so much).

i'm almost certain sure she's a billionaire - that forbes estimate fails to account for her private investments, assets, royalties and her art collection that's worth hundreds of millions alone.

not that they're "hating" per se but i think there's been bad blood in the past with madonna refusing to release her private financial details to them (you can imagine what she's like) + other sources going out and calling her a billionaire first when forbes like to consider themselves the sole authority on this sort of thing mustn't have sat well with them.

we probably won't find out everything till she dies

i def think if she hadn't have managed to become a singer she would have ended up being a ceo of a huge corporation

she'd have been a dancer

nothing pains me more than bono being the world's richest musician, just cause he bought up shares of facebook ten years ago

he also did the 1st and 5th highest grossing tours of all time, so not JUST because of that obviously

Nah, Bono's earned it. According to Flanagan's book U2 tours were barely profitable until the mid-90s - they sunk so much money into the visuals, or whatever the hell they did pre-Achtung Baby, that they had to sell every ticket to pretty much break even.

On a related note, was it Madonna who raised the bar on ticket prices? I dimly recall top-act prices virtually trebling overnight at some point, and have a feeling she was the first to realise the Market could take it.

It was the fucking Eagles who were first with $100 tickets.

Actually looked into seeing Waters last year, but tickets were $400. Interestingly, according to Mojo, Pink Floyd barely broke even on their 1994 tours because they didn't want to charge more than $40/ticket, but they had insane expenses.

sorry, just bumping so I can relive the magic :)

I can keep up with you