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

I guess I was one of the late votes for "Die Another Day". I'd never really given it a try until lex went on about it on some thread a while back, & I fell for it right way. great vid too.

I keep relistening to "I'll Remember" today. That sequenced synth and the bottom end are so deliciously warm.

her being a girl never occurred to me as a reason not to be a fan, but girls dressing like her circa Like a Virgin definitely solidified my fandom

my madonna story is i downloaded a bunch of madonna albums this must be the "cheapening" i've heard so much about

first time i was conscious of "oh this is madonna i'm listening to" was definitely "take a bow"

http://i.imgur.com/Xs5cZaa.jpg

43. "WAITING" from Erotica (1992) [8 votes, 189 points]

her being a girl never occurred to me as a reason not to be a fan, but girls dressing like her circa Like a Virgin definitely solidified my fandom

― Euler, Thursday, March 7, 2013 1:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I started a thread once about my early-life issues surrounding female musicians.

:D

William Orbit connection (because I've confused him with Orbital) to Ray of Light prompts me to check out that album

love this

oh i also hated "die another day" when it came out, and a few years ago when i read lex and tom going on about it i was like "how the hell do they get this much out of the hookless glitchy madonna bond theme"

then i listened again and i was like "ohhhh." like hearing it with new ears. could be a personal development but i mostly blame it on lex and tom, good critwork there. relistening to american life for this poll it jumped out at me as the liveliest thing on there.

the only erotica album cut i voted for was "words" but i'm super glad all these other tracks are showing up

her being a girl never occurred to me as a reason not to be a fan, but girls dressing like her circa Like a Virgin definitely solidified my fandom

― Euler, Thursday, March 7, 2013 1:39 PM

I was already scared of being outed, I realized later.

i don't remember exactly when i first heard madonna but i do have a memory of being...i guess 8?...and 'erotica' was all over the radio and one day i kept singing "erotic, erotic, put your hands all over my body" until my mom begged me to stop

i didn't vote in this poll because the idea of ranking madonna songs in order of preference gave me low-level anxiety btw

i hated "die another day" when it came out too and then loved it when i came back to it for this poll, but in between i listened to bands that were not weezer so that might have helped

i still haaaaaate "american life"

First Madonna song I heard - Crazy For You, sometime in 1991. I was already vaguely aware that she was both hugely controversial, not a family subject - not even a playground subject, 9-yr-olds at school tended to talk about Kylie instead - and in some realm of fame beyond my ken. I don't remember what I thought about the song.

This Used To Be My Playground was the first M single I consciously heard, I thought it was boring. I loved the Erotica singles but also knew more than ever that Madonna was *bad*, someone who would incur parental disapproval. Bedtime Stories was my first M album thx to a friend at school...

I'm really happy that I turned people on to Die Another Day!

I loved the Erotica singles but also knew more than ever that Madonna was *bad*, someone who would incur parental disapproval

consciously remember around when ray of light came out me telling my mom, as "frozen" eased out of restaurant speakers while we waited for a table, "oh mom, that's from the new madonna record! she's not gross and sexy anymore! i think you'll like it!"

bahaha

"secret" was an early "this might be my favorite song of all time" for me. i think it was preceded by the gloria estefan version of "turn the beat around"

I think I related some of my intro to Madonna on the voting thread but for posterity:

My first cassette purchased with my own money was a compilation called H'Its Huge 84 - second to last song on Side A. I don't remember if this was where I first heard Madonna or if I'd maybe heard her on the radio before then but 8 year old me LOVED Holiday. It was a fun song to dance to.
So the next year in 1985, at the ripe age of 9 the first single-artist cassette I ever purchased with my own money was Like a Virgin. It was a race between wearing out the cassette and wearing out the carpet in front of my dressing table mirror from dancing to it. I would go over to my friend's house and we would come up with dances to Stay and Pretender and pretend to slow dance to Shoo Be Do...even being so young I don't remember there was a song on that cassette that I didn't love.
I didn't own True Blue but a couple of girls in my class did, and they would bring a portable stereo to school and at lunchtimes and recess they would set it up in the alcove between two classrooms - it was just a like a big concrete dancefloor and we would dance to True Blue and Jimmy Jimmy and Where's The Party and White Heat (as well as the Bangles and Cyndi Lauper). But always, always paying special attention to coming up with 'actions' for all the songs, because we worshipped the dance-sign language Madge used in the True Blue video.

Also seeing my friend's 18 yo cousin dressed up in full Madonna Like a Virgin dancing-on-the-gondola outfit in my tiny small town blew my 10 year old mind. That was as close as I ever come to meeting Madonna, lol

*Holiday was the second to last song on Side A, oops

i don't remember exactly when i first heard madonna but i do have a memory of being...i guess 8?...and 'erotica' was all over the radio and one day i kept singing "erotic, erotic, put your hands all over my body" until my mom begged me to stop

When my son was 4 or 5, his favorite song was "3" by Britney Spears.

wait i just realized i totally do have a pre-soulseek madonna story because when i was nine a friend's parents dragged both of us to evita

idk what the general opinion of evita is amongst the wider population but i bet i can predict it amongst nine-year-old boys

Didn't vote, never even heard a whole Madonna record, but dig all the singles, and love a few of them. Lurking and learning (and listening).

http://i.imgur.com/Xet06M1.jpg

42. "WHO'S THAT GIRL" from the motion picture soundtrack Who's That Girl (1987) [11 votes, 194 points]

consciously remember around when ray of light came out me telling my mom, as "frozen" eased out of restaurant speakers while we waited for a table, "oh mom, that's from the new madonna record! she's not gross and sexy anymore! i think you'll like it!"

she watched her Oprah appearance, no doubt

señorita más fina

Have never seen Who's That Girl. Worth watching?

I can't imagine that it is

I liked it but I watched it a bajillion times as a kid so my nostalgia maybe clouding my judgement :D

WHO'S THAT GIIIIIRL

Who's That Girl dovetails p nicely with La Isla Bonita on a mixtape fyi

man talk about a time-machine

am so glad it placed, I had to kick it off my ballot kicking and screaming

LIGHT UP MY LIIIIIIIIIFE

A few comments on the Freaky Trigger blurb on "Who's That Girl" suggests that it and its album were Madonna's treading-water period between imperial phases. Here's one:

Thinking about it, one of the key reasons I warmed so strongly to 1989-90 Imperial Phase/Critical Consensus Madonna (of which more in due course) is that it felt like such a self-improving step up from 1986-87 Crap/Boring/One-Dimensional Madonna, i.e. it was her determination to transcend her limitations (artistically and technically) which endeared her to me. So in a way, the lameness of “Who’s That Girl” is actually a critical stage in Madonna’s story. Perhaps she couldn’t have got to where she was going without it.

"crap one-dimensional Madonna" to this guy = "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita," both #1 UK hits.

I still maintain that True Blue is Madonna's best album

absolutely

I don't consider it her best but her songwriting and singing took real leaps. She could have made LAV Part II and didn't.

listening to "Secret Garden" right now, which is striking me as a poppier version of "I Am Stretched On Your Grave"

True Blue album-wise is all killer, no filler for me. I can't remember if I put it #1 but it was high.

I love the deceptive simplicity; all the hooks have a huge punch and her voice is starting to get that HEY YOU power that hints at stuff like Express Yourself that's yet to come

I mean, even on something like Where's The Party, which is kind of a low-level Holiday, she has that surprising raggedness in her voice on the chorus, like GODDAMMIT WHERE'S THE FUCKING PARTY, she's not asking she's demanding

Someday I'll think Jimmy Jimmy isn't gormless.

I think I've heard all of Erotica maybe twice in my life so the sheer number of "mutter the verse, sing the chorus" songs on it is cracking me up

actually when I said no filler, Jimmy Jimmy almost qualifies. The writing on that is kinda terrible - 'maybe because you come from bad *places*?" is just uggggh why

oops, you're just a boy who comes from bad places, sry

http://i.imgur.com/XQq96kX.jpg

41. "PHYSICAL ATTRACTION" from Madonna (1983) [10 votes, 195 points]

YAY

my only qualm is that all of this pre-1987 stuff* should be at the top of the poll but I'm glad it's placing

* except of course for the LAV non-singles, which I've always hated