Yot

And some straight guys (myself included) love how strong, "ferocious and domineering and in control" she is. And I love the song Vogue, even though I don't understand the feeling it is about, I love its melody and rhythm. It is amazing that she could write a song capturing such a feeling, in spite of not being a gay man.
Her most sexual era strongly resonates with my sexuality. But I can imagine that for a pig part of straight men it made her less "fuckable".
Regarding if there is sexism or misogyny in this: I guess there is, even though it is mostly about sexual preference. But there is also this sad fact that many straight men who sexually prefer strong and domineering women are also sexist and misogynist...

yes we had a thread about it somewhere here, I really wanna see it.

You can find it here, and please discuss in the already existing thread:
It's out on March 12!
Can't wait!

Have you seen this? I think it sounds very interesting and am looking forward to it. I had read some time ago that she used to play drums in a band before her success, apparently this is what it is about.
 
 

Have you seen this? I think it sounds very interesting and am looking forward to it. I had read some time ago that she used to play drums in a band before her success, apparently this is what it is about.
 
 

Welcome!!! I <3 Poland: best food, best video games!

An amazing quality about Madonna is that whatever is handed to her she perserveres.  She never gives up.  
Most would have run away or live quietly out of the spotlight which is fine if that is what makes them happy. That should be one's on own choice and not decided for them in regards to conservative minded Pop fans who give people a hard time. 
I don't believe the younger generation hates Madonna. In more ways than one, I believe culturally right now, the most obnoxious personalities are leading the way. Others possibly out of pressure are easily led or are fearful of having an opinion that doesn't compute with the loudest. So I believe this "younger generation," they speak of just happen to be most vocal and assertive.  A lot of these people have been raised on the train wrecks that are reality shows and thier constant competition and attacking each other. Art has been kicked to the curb. 
That's just an observation that I could write a whole piece on.
Getting back to "the younger generation," I do believe their are some traits that generations share because of common experiences but all people have thier individual minds so I do not believe in the broad statement that "the younger generation hates Madonna." I think a lot just don't know her music because Madonna doesn't rely on "playing the hits," so she has always been a "current artist."
 "A lot" of her current music is self related meaning her very own experiences that few of us have. This I believe is especially in MDNA and her strength was always taking personal experiences and making them relatable to the listener. (I can actually relate to a few songs on MDNA but I'm not sure most can?)
The younger generation will always be "new listeners" and if the first thing or all that they are hearing from an artist is "release songs" from what is getting to that artist about thier current life then it's not attractive and it's definitely not relatable. I think she has always had those "release" type songs on albums like Over and Over, Where's the Party, Words, Don't Tell Me....Great, great songs but it seems that overall feeling was becoming more bitter and starting to saturate her work. 
With the possible exception of Erotica, (although Rain is optimistic and soothing) she has always had a bit of joy on her albums as well as sad, funny, empowering... I just think she is allowing too much negativity in her music but I think she is fighting her way out of that. Rebel Heart definitely showed that. 
I think if younger people knew her music and her from the beginning they would "get" some of those new songs. So in thier defense, it's difficult I think for them to relate. I think a more universal tone to her music will appeal to a younger generation. "Everybody" ....I mean you can't get anymore universal than that. 
Madonna's no quitting attitude will also win over critics. She doesn't give up and and is passionate about her art and "the younger generation will start to see that." 
 

I am 21 and literally in love with Madonna. I mean, have you listened to the second half of Erotica and the second half of Ray of Light albums? Have you seen her eyes in the Live To Tell video? Her voice and presence in early performances of Express Yourself? The fact that she wrote her music and managed her image? Her old interviews where she was destroying conservative stuck up interviewers and showing so much depth? And these are just some small examples of her amazing art over the years? She is 60 now, so what, she still looking gorgeous, and with so much charisma and intelligence.
People who are now in high school probably only know her latest stuff... which is arguably not as amazing as it used to be. Maybe give them some old CDs, send them some links to old performances and interviews? Maybe we should compile a Madonna Starter Pack For Young Fools with her greatest stuff?

I am 21 and literally in love with Madonna. I mean, have you listened to the second half of Erotica and the second half of Ray of Light albums? Have you seen her eyes in the Live To Tell video? Her voice and presence in early performances of Express Yourself? The fact that she wrote her music and managed her image? Her old interviews where she was destroying conservative stuck up interviewers and showing so much depth? And these are just some small examples of her amazing art over the years? She is 60 now, so what, she still looking gorgeous, and with so much charisma and intelligence.
People who are now in high school probably only know her latest stuff... which is arguably not as amazing as it used to be. Maybe give them some old CDs, send them some links to old performances and interviews? Maybe we should compile a Madonna Starter Pack For Young Fools with her greatest stuff?

I am 21 and literally in love with Madonna. I mean, have you listened to the second half of Erotica and the second half of Ray of Light albums? Have you seen her eyes in the Live To Tell video? Her voice and presence in early performances of Express Yourself? The fact that she wrote her music and managed her image? Her old interviews where she was destroying conservative stuck up interviewers and showing so much depth? And these are just some small examples of her amazing art over the years? She is 60 now, so what, she still looking gorgeous, and with so much charisma and intelligence.
People who are now in high school probably only know her latest stuff... which is arguably not as amazing as it used to be. Maybe give them some old CDs, send them some links to old performances and interviews? Maybe we should compile a Madonna Starter Pack For Young Fools with her greatest stuff?

Im 21 and my obsession started when my mother bought the Immaculate Collection for her car when I was like 10 or something. It was Vogue on repeat whenever I was in the car usually. I remember Music when it came out because Ma still kept up with M. Then there’s this huge gap and bam, 4 Minutes and the Sticky Andy sweet tour that’s still on youtube. I missed Celebration and picked up again during the Super Bowl. I bought GMAYL, Love Spent, and GGW, the songs I liked best since I had little money to spend then. Then I read a news article about Madonna at the 2015 Grammys and once I heard Living for Love, I was hooked again and hard (no pun intended). By December of 2015, I had bought all the main albums, and over the last couple I’ve bought compilations and soundtracks and downloaded a hundred too many remixes! Haha. M is a powerhouse but she’s ironic. Sometimes she makes a fool of herself to us but it’s part of her expressing herself. My generation and the next are very much interested in older music and artists, but it’s not in waves. Individuals latch on to peculiar and obscure artists and all usually long expired in the public. M isn’t so there’s no rush to listen now. When she does, many will realize all the songs she sang when m gets that hour long Grammy Tribute lol

I can try to start from the beginning...her music grabbed me and I thought she was everything I wasn't but I didn't feel belittled by her. I didn't feel she was putting herself above me. She was me.. saying what I wanted to say, acting the way I wanted to act, showing confidence, talking about what was important to me, dressing the way I wanted to dress....it wasn't about doing all those things "like her." It was about doing and being all those things authentic to who I was. I am getting teary eyed now. Lol. 
Imagine my bewilderment at some not being able to see what I saw in her and what a positive force she was for me. I was just turning 15. It took me years to come to the possible conclusion that most people didn't care about me as a female being authentic and being proud of it. When you're young you are naive and think everyone is valued equally and I simply didn't get the memo.  They had a measuring stick of what they thought of women and you had to strive for what they thought was acceptable and if you didn't measure up you were irrelevant. 
I couldn't overcome the pressure of the criteria that was set for girls or women completely so far in my own life and I most certainly was not in an empowering scenario in 1983 but Madonna did it no matter what stumbling block was put before her. She found a way out of feeling alone, depressed, angry if she was rejected.  I know it sounds corny but she is my hero. She's not perfect, she makes mistakes, uses poor judgement sometimes but she always wants to be better. I do believe she wants everyone to feel empowered.  She always wants to say what is on her mind but as someone who has been profoundly hurt in life I do understand her being guarded sometimes and coming off as aloof and difficult. 
Madonna celebrated life for me. She also spoke about what was important to me as well as having fun. She was a mixture of mysterious, beautiful, strange, different, cool, tough, vulnerable, hurt, strong, awkward, angry, happy...she was us. No woman is just one thing and she put it all out there with no fear. 
She's my comedienne with a heart, my hurt angry voice, my voice in love, she calls out what I find unjust, she marvels at the universe and life and wants to learn more and more. 
She was fearless sharing her thoughts during the Erotica period and she was punished in a big way for it. The ones who criticised her were not the ones buying her music. I was proud of her for showing a side of herself that few would have the courage to do. When she was mercilessly ridiculed during that time period I thought Bedtime Stories was her last album and she had enough and was going to retire and I understood if she did because that is what I had done when I was very young. 
She proved me wrong and came back stronger than ever in her artistry. She had gone from being cool, my hero, my inspiration, my mother, my sister, to someone really just beyond me. She was my equal but she had powers that could rise above any adversity that I was completely in awe of. If I had received the onslaught of criticism she got in the early to mid 90's I don't know how I would have reacted but hiding and protecting myself would have probaly been a part of it. 
I knew she would be a good mother because I believe she values it above everything. I heard someone say at the time that they couldn't believe she was a mom and again my bewilderment...I thought she would be a wonderful mother. How can you not see that? 
Her career is simply not number one anymore. 
I love her interests in the spiritual because I love an open mind to life, thoughts, possibilities, learning. I admire Madonna's love of education and learning because they are important to me. We are not here to be perfect. I believe we are here to learn and to learn you have to be open to ideas other than your own. 
She still knows how to dance and have fun but I think her biggest obstacle is still not falling victum to people who want to bring her down. Move away from the negativity and love again. Be happy again. Be confident again. 
I could go on but if I had to say it in a sentence.. Madonna means never giving up on yourself, never giving up on your dreams, keep trying, get up, brush youself off and keep going. 
I went on a little bit but I think I will keep it as is as I tried to get to the heart of how I feel about Madonna. 
 

I didn't exist when Madonna's greatest hits came out – I am twenty years old. But the first time I heard The Rain, I think I was 14 then, I just had to know who was singing it. This is when I discovered Power Of Goodbye, Frozen, and so many more amazing songs.
I learned that unlike so many other pop singers, Madonna actually wrote these songs. Her grace and beauty in the song videos was amazing. I was very surprised to read in Wikipedia that "She later attended Rochester Adams High School where she became a straight-A student". I actually know a person who studied in that high school, it is one of the most competitive in the US, where students are prepared to apply to Ivy League colleges. Straight-A in a high school like that is NOT COMMON.
This is when I started thinking that Madonna is definitely not a pop star like the others. She has very high IQ, is a powerhouse of willpower, writes amazing personal songs that touch me deeply. I find it amazing how she stands for what she believes in and actually puts effort in it: women rights, education in Africa, fighting stupid prejudice every step of the way. At 60 she is still the most beautiful woman, and still full of amazing strength.
I know she can hear the loud trolls and haters who have issues with her age (!!!!), her openness and just the fact that she has opinions. I wonder if she knows how loved she is by people of all genders, ages and races. I know many people my age who adore her. She has been called by an ex-husband "domineering and castrating" but honestly so many young men would love nothing more than to be her servants in male chastity :) A woman should be allowed to be strong and expressing her opinions. And a woman that combines strength with artistic talent, great voice, inner and outer beauty, very high intelligence and so much desire to give and help... deserves our admiration.

I wrote "my Madonna story" a couple of years ago, I was 22 then:

 
I’m actually thinking of how to begin talking about M right now, because even if it’s just ten years, it’s been long and intense and there are so many memories that I have about her that it is hard not to leave something behind. I will start by talking about how it all started: I began listening to Madonna when I was 12. The Confessions era was almost ending when this happened: I remember being on a trip with my classmates and feeling really really really sick when, suddenly, Sorry was being played on the radio. I focused on the song and it, somehow, took part of that sickness away. I had listened to some of her singles on the radio before but none of them had captured my attention such as this one. That night, I told my father that I wanted to listen to some Madonna music, specifically I wanted her last album and an old one called Like a Prayer. I remember the first time that I listened to COADF: it sounded amazingly fresh (and it still does) and very different from anything I was listening to at that time. Then, I remember watching some TV ad about the Confessions Tour and wanting to watch it in full: it felt like a revelation, because my concept of a concert before watching that one consisted of a singer or group with the band playing on the background and that was all. When I saw M getting out of that mirrorball, she blew up my schemes. The Confessions Tour was actually my first official item (as a gift from my uncle) and the beginning of one of my huge obsessions (and the most expensive one): I began collecting, and that’s one of the things that Madonna has given me that I like the most. I didn’t begin collecting seriously until later that year (2007), when one of my uncles gave me an old copy of the I’m Breathless LP, which included one of my all-time favourite songs (a.k.a. Vogue, that I had first listened to when I saw The Devil Wears Prada and wondered who was behind that amazing track). The first vinyl record that I bought was COADF: I still get goosebumps when I remember opening it and playing it for the very first time. The items that I like the most that I have are the limited edition of Ray of Light and the Reinvention Tour programme.
As you can see, Madonna got into my life on kind of difficult times: the beginning of my high school years. Somehow, however, she gave me the strength to get throughout it. I am gay and that, ten years ago, was something difficult for a 12-year-old boy (today is still difficult, but less than how it was 10 years ago). She gave me the pride and the strength to be who I am, to be myself and not be restrained by anybody else’s opinion. She was kind of a saviour in some way for me, because sometimes the situation was really unbearable but, anytime that I felt alone, she was there, her music was there to comfort me. I’m really thankful for this last part, but I’m even more thankful for what I’m about to tell you.
Back in 2007, or 2008, some forums were really popular on the Internet and I finally got in contact with some people with the same obsessions and the same passion for her. Madonna has given me some good friends and many moments of joy, but none of them compares to the first time that I saw her. It was in Madrid, back in 2009 with the Sticky and Sweet Tour (another gift from my uncle because I didn’t have enough money for the ticket). I still remember that first glimpse of her blond hair passing behind the screens right before the beginning of Candy Shop. It was one of the best nights of my life. The next time that I saw her was in Barcelona, in 2012 with the MDNA Tour. That was the first trip that I made by myself (I was already 18), and it was one of the best experiences of my life, not only because I got to see her from the second row, but because I met my boyfriend there. Yes, Madonna also brought love to my life (we’ve been dating for almost three years and it’s simply the best thing that has happened to me). The last time that I saw her was in Paris with the Rebel Heart Tour, again from the second row with my boyfriend (I didn’t have enough money to buy the VIP package so I’ll have to hunt for the book or save it for the next time) but I think that this is my favourite one of the three that I’ve attended (my favourite tour is the Reinvention tour). I hope to be on the front row the next time, I really want to.
Last, but not least, Madonna has inspired me. I like to draw and the first drawing that I made by myself without any help was the cover of the ROL album, around 2009, and two years later I made an exhibition of my drawings, being the central piece an improved version of that one. Madonna also gave me the courage to sing (I’m very shy when it comes to doing it in front of people). I joined some friends and we created a chorus at the university. The first time that I sung a solo was Borderline at a bar with some friends. A year later, we made a huge concert and I got part of the solo for Like a Prayer and it felt amazing.
So, to sum up, Madonna saved me in many of the ways that a person can be saved: friends, courage, inspiration and love.
Thanks for reading me!

Madonna to me is... time consuming (lol) ! I have spent (and still do) like a quarter of my whole life listening, watching, talking about that woman. Sometimes i think it's a real addiction !  

Madonna to me is the strength that I needed and need to deal with some parts of my life. She had huge influence on accepting myself and making me proud of who I am and trying to be one day.  

I would like to take this opportunity to say how strongly Piers Morgan disgusts me. Just thinking of him makes me vomit in my mouth a little bit. As a fat, sly and selfish 52yo liar and manipulator, he decided to lengthily elaborate and visually affirm how nauseas he is because of the sexy dancing of a 59yo fit, flexible, charismatic, fearless woman who can bend herself in crazy ways in a car while singing with a great voice all along.
Don't we all love the image of the old perv chasing young girls and being disgusted with women around his age, even though he is a disgusting unkempt loser. Don't we all love the idea that women are only worth something when they are young, and once a young woman gets older there is nothing left in her to admire or love - she can be thrown in the trash. Well, these beautiful and noble concepts now have a champion, a man determined to promote all that is disgusting and unfair in this world.
Madonna's sexy dancing in the carpool karaoke, and her "just do it" pubes picture - I found both of them very sexy, and I reacted accordingly via the expected biophysical response, and not because I prefer older women or anything like that, simply because Madonna really is sexy as f.... Some wrinkles and "imperfections" here and there, but an amazing character and incredible charisma.

I would like to take this opportunity to say how strongly Piers Morgan disgusts me. Just thinking of him makes me vomit in my mouth a little bit. As a fat, sly and selfish 52yo liar and manipulator, he decided to lengthily elaborate and visually affirm how nauseas he is because of the sexy dancing of a 59yo fit, flexible, charismatic, fearless woman who can bend herself in crazy ways in a car while singing with a great voice all along.
Don't we all love the image of the old perv chasing young girls and being disgusted with women around his age, even though he is a disgusting unkempt loser. Don't we all love the idea that women are only worth something when they are young, and once a young woman gets older there is nothing left in her to admire or love - she can be thrown in the trash. Well, these beautiful and noble concepts now have a champion, a man determined to promote all that is disgusting and unfair in this world.
Madonna's sexy dancing in the carpool karaoke, and her "just do it" pubes picture - I found both of them very sexy, and I reacted accordingly via the expected biophysical response, and not because I prefer older women or anything like that, simply because Madonna really is sexy as f.... Some wrinkles and "imperfections" here and there, but an amazing character and incredible charisma.

I didn't exist when Madonna's greatest hits came out – I am twenty years old. But the first time I heard The Rain, I think I was 14 then, I just had to know who was singing it. This is when I discovered Power Of Goodbye, Frozen, and so many more amazing songs.
I learned that unlike so many other pop singers, Madonna actually wrote these songs. Her grace and beauty in the song videos was amazing. I was very surprised to read in Wikipedia that "She later attended Rochester Adams High School where she became a straight-A student". I actually know a person who studied in that high school, it is one of the most competitive in the US, where students are prepared to apply to Ivy League colleges. Straight-A in a high school like that is NOT COMMON.
This is when I started thinking that Madonna is definitely not a pop star like the others. She has very high IQ, is a powerhouse of willpower, writes amazing personal songs that touch me deeply. I find it amazing how she stands for what she believes in and actually puts effort in it: women rights, education in Africa, fighting stupid prejudice every step of the way. At 60 she is still the most beautiful woman, and still full of amazing strength.
I know she can hear the loud trolls and haters who have issues with her age (!!!!), her openness and just the fact that she has opinions. I wonder if she knows how loved she is by people of all genders, ages and races. I know many people my age who adore her. She has been called by an ex-husband "domineering and castrating" but honestly so many young men would love nothing more than to be her servants in male chastity :) A woman should be allowed to be strong and expressing her opinions. And a woman that combines strength with artistic talent, great voice, inner and outer beauty, very high intelligence and so much desire to give and help... deserves our admiration.

When I first noticed Madonna, she was purely entertaining to me (in 1985; Lucky Star/Into The Groove). I was captured by her persona on posters and in her videos.
Then she became a role-model in outspokenness (Papa Don't Preach) and self-confidence, and has remained in this role for me ever since, reinforcing it time and time again (Like A Prayer/Express Yourself/Why's It So Hard/Human Nature/American Life etc.). She became a role-model as somebody who questions society, expands personal horizons, not afraid of experimenting in terms of sexuality and spirituality. She stood up for herself, co-wrote her music and lyrics, everything had a deeper layer/meaning.
Her live performances captured me the most. Her fiery energy and talent, her fearlessness to provoke and shock has impressed  me for life. As was said before, her interviews showed how intelligent she is, I did learn a lot from her just paying attention to what she had to say. 
She has had such a vital influence on personal lives and society's standards. A sheer force of nature. So inspiring, time and time again.
(Thanks for posting this thread @Yot .)

It will have been exactly 18 years next Christmas since I first started to admire Madonna and follow her footsteps almost unconsciously. Therefore, I've experienced the world releases of the Music album, the difficult American Life period, seen her going back in form during Confessions, her divorce during Hard Candy and its follow up MDNA after 4 loooong years, and lived through the damaging leaks of Rebel Heart. Also, I've been able to see her live during her last 3 world tours and will never regret any cent or minute invested in them. Madonna's worth it and it saddens me a little bit that someday everything will just be part of history. Our history. We're fortunate to share an era with one of the most talented and hard-working women ever and that's enough to appreciate her. I can't really think of a number when I try to remember how many times she's made me happy, very happy but I'm very grateful for it.

I didn't exist when Madonna's greatest hits came out – I am twenty years old. But the first time I heard The Rain, I think I was 14 then, I just had to know who was singing it. This is when I discovered Power Of Goodbye, Frozen, and so many more amazing songs.
I learned that unlike so many other pop singers, Madonna actually wrote these songs. Her grace and beauty in the song videos was amazing. I was very surprised to read in Wikipedia that "She later attended Rochester Adams High School where she became a straight-A student". I actually know a person who studied in that high school, it is one of the most competitive in the US, where students are prepared to apply to Ivy League colleges. Straight-A in a high school like that is NOT COMMON.
This is when I started thinking that Madonna is definitely not a pop star like the others. She has very high IQ, is a powerhouse of willpower, writes amazing personal songs that touch me deeply. I find it amazing how she stands for what she believes in and actually puts effort in it: women rights, education in Africa, fighting stupid prejudice every step of the way. At 60 she is still the most beautiful woman, and still full of amazing strength.
I know she can hear the loud trolls and haters who have issues with her age (!!!!), her openness and just the fact that she has opinions. I wonder if she knows how loved she is by people of all genders, ages and races. I know many people my age who adore her. She has been called by an ex-husband "domineering and castrating" but honestly so many young men would love nothing more than to be her servants in male chastity :) A woman should be allowed to be strong and expressing her opinions. And a woman that combines strength with artistic talent, great voice, inner and outer beauty, very high intelligence and so much desire to give and help... deserves our admiration.

By  The New York Times News Service  - August 30, 2018     People say I’m controversial,” Madonna, who turned 60 on August 16, told an audience of music-industry peers in 2016. “But I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around.” Sexism was the demon that haunted Madonna’s early career, but for two decades—maybe longer—it’s had an equally unwelcome sibling: ageism.
Madonna was a pioneer of welding her voice to her image, and in a culture consumed with critiquing how women look, and controlling how they use their bodies, she’s been on the front lines—a seductress and a battering ram. But as she’s continued to be a force while she deigns to grow older, she’s faced a new frontier of abuse. There has never been a pop star writing and performing at her level, and demanding a seat at the table, at her age. Why wouldn’t Madonna demand it?
One of the great conundrums of the Internet era is pop culture’s short memory; the receipts are right there to be found, yet few bother to do the looking. But yes, in a career spanning four decades, Madonna made real cultural change, and caused a few cultural crises, over and over again. For all the criticism she’s weathered during four decades in the spotlight, she deserves a birthday celebration.
—Caryn Ganz
THE WEDDING DRESS IS SEXY
If Madonna has been perpetually unapologetic (see: “Human Nature,” “Unapologetic Bitch”), it is partly because she ignited so much controversy at the beginning of her career by barely striking a match. Basically, she wore a wedding dress, while singing about the joys of sex, on a song called “Like a Virgin.” Also: She rolled around in the wedding dress while performing that song live on MTV. And the wedding dress wasn’t really your typical wedding dress, but a lace corset cinched by a belt that said “Boy Toy” on the buckle. And underneath she wore a white garter belt that was seen by a hefty percentage of America.
— Jacob Bernstein
SEEING NUDITY DIFFERENTLY
When Madonna posed fully, frontally naked for Sex, her widely derided 1992 coffee-table book, the shocking part wasn’t the nudity. It was the point of view: She subverted the viewer’s leering gaze by putting the focus squarely on her defiant character. The purity of Madonna’s vision, evident in every inch of the photo, defied any pornographic projection. There she stood, in a pose worthy of the most flagrant John Waters character—with cigarette dangling from a sneering mouth, as she stuck out a finger to hitchhike on an open highway. Every possible danger sign was invoked and inverted, staring down all forces that could contain her freedom.
Other major female pop singers had done partial nudes before, including Joni Mitchell for the inside sleeve of her For the Roses album (shot from behind and at a significant distance) and Janis Joplin (with a tangle of necklaces covering much of her breasts, and her hands protecting what lies below). Yet both those images suggested degrees of innocence. Madonna’s closest precursor was Grace Slick, who mugged sardonically for several impromptu topless shots in the early-1970s. But those images established Slick’s power through her absurdist humor. In the Sex shot, Madonna used her body with as much animalistic force as her fellow Detroit rocker Iggy Pop. Her pose turned inside out the way sex is commonly used in pop culture nudes, expressing not a sexual lure but the power of personal confidence.             
—Jim Farber
RACE AND CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
“Art should be controversial, and that’s all there is to it,” Madonna declared to the New York Timesin 1989, discussing her “Like a Prayer” video. The song initially had its premiere as part of a Pepsi TV ad, and Madonna released the full music video the next day. Sharing only an African-American gospel group in common with commercial, the five-minute video showed Madonna running into a church after she witnessed a group of white men assaulting a white woman, having a spiritual and sexual orgasm in the church’s pulpit, and coming forward to testify on behalf of the African-American man who was wrongfully arrested and incarcerated for the crime.
The video ignited protests over its religious imagery, especially her stigmata scene, the statue of a black saint and the burning crosses. The director Mary Lambert later reflected, “I knew that we were pushing some big buttons, but I sort of underestimated the influence and bigotry of fundamentalist religion and racism in this country and the world.” Under the threat of boycott, Pepsi capitulated by dropping the $5-million ad campaign and its sponsorship of her world concert tour.
Madonna was applauded by some for breaking racial and religious taboos, but the video also initiated a critique that not only haunts much of her later work and life, but also heralded public debates about the abuse and misuse of African-American cultural identities by white artists. Remarking on the video in 1992, the feminist critic Bell Hooks wrote, “Fascinated yet envious of black style, Madonna appropriates black culture in ways that mock and undermine, making her presentation one that upstages.” Looking back, “Like a Prayer” did not simply announce Madonna as our cultural provocateur, but as an iconic cultural appropriator, as well.
— Salamishah Tillet
VOGUE, FROM BALLROOM TO LIVING ROOM
Madonna wasn’t the first pop star to plunder the grace and hauteur of vogue balls. The serial exploiter Malcolm McLaren beat her to it with his “Deep in Vogue” single in 1989. Yet, less than one year later, Madonna drew so creatively from that rich demimonde that she wound up providing the ideal conduit between it and Every Mall USA. In her “Vogue” clip, Madonna featured experienced vogue dancer/choreographers from the Harlem “House Ball” community, including Jose Xtravaganza and Luis Camacho, who had introduced her to the style at the New York club Sound Factory. She then hired them as virtual costars on her Blonde Ambition tour. The resulting smash appeared a year before Jennie Livingston’s documentary Paris Is Burning, which filled in the background of the balls. However much cultural appropriation went into “Vogue,” Madonna’s take on it had to strike anyone, from inside of that world or out, as fierce.
—Jim Farber
HER LIVE AID MOMENT
In 1985 not long after Playboy and Penthouse published years-old nudes of her, Madonna arrived in Philadelphia for “Live Aid” overdressed for 95-degree heat (she looked like a refugee from Prince’s Revolution) and exuberantly performed semi-polished versions of “Holiday,” “Into the Groove” and “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round.” When she told the ocean of people—some screaming “slut”—that she’d be keeping on her coat, the ocean booed. But Madonna turned spicy: “Nah. I ain’t taking [expletive] off today. They might hold it against me 10 years from now.” Queen is widely acknowledged to have been the most spectacular thing that happened that day (in the festival’s London block). But a lot of the world had never seen this brand-new pop star (and one of only a few women) sing live. In her way, she rocked us, too.
— Wesley Morris
HEADMISTRESS OF REINVENTION
Madonna’s ability to transform herself for albums, videos, photo shoots, tours and movies made her a master of perpetual transformation. As she rolled from one aesthetic to the next, switching up her hair, her choreography, her accent, it became shorthand to describe what was happening in one word: reinvention.
For a while, Madonna rolled her eyes at the description. It seemed crass and calculating in a way she didn’t like. She’d long admired Cindy Sherman, an artist whose chameleon-like quality seemed to her not to be a signal of cynicism, but curiosity. But after fans complained about the lack of hits performed on her 2001 Drowned World Tour—Madonna does not like to revisit the past—she decided to pay tribute to her many artistic periods by calling its follow-up tour Re-Invention. Later, she credited her understanding of the concept to the fashion photographer Steven Meisel and the shoot they did together for the album cover of Like a Virgin. “He treated each photo shoot like it was a small film and insisted that we create a character each time,” she told Vogue, “but then would make fun of the archetypes we created.”
—Jacob Bernstein
A PIONEERING ALLY
These days, there’s barely a female pop star alive who doesn’t loudly broadcast her unwavering, if sometimes exploitative, support for LGBT rights. But in 1991, when Madonna gave her no-holds-barred interview to The Advocate, then the largest voice of gay communities, she showed more understanding of queer issues and identity than any pop star before her, and most who came after. In the two-part sit-down, Madonna revealed the roots of her gay identification via her early mentors. It wasn’t just empathy she was expressing but identification, forged by her defining, early experiences in gay clubs. Important, too, was the interview’s timing, published during the peak era of HIV infections and deaths. It was a time when many celebrities spoke about gay people only in the most nervously chaste ways. Madonna, who had earlier released a public-service announcement about safe sex, went further. She endorsed the uncompromising activist group Act-Up, and spoke in sex-positive terms with a comfort and care that was decades ahead of its time.
—Jim Farber
DANCING QUEEN
For those of us who think we know the real Madonna, she will always be a modern dancer. Not a singer who dances, but a dancer who sings. She dropped out of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance, which she attended on scholarship, with a dream: to dance in New York. She hoped to join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and even earned a partial scholarship to its school, where she was told that she needed to study the Martha Graham technique.
Madonna always has been an exceptional dancer herself, blessed with a highly coordinated body and natural rhythm. There’s something about her career, with its rigor and free-spirited abandon, that feels like a dance—singing may be her main artistic channel, but her performance is a passionate and ever-growing piece of choreography. Her gift to us has a ring of the eternal: She gave us back our bodies.
—Gia Kourlas
 

She saved me (in many ways), it felt like somebody opened the window for me and I will always support her, no matter what!! There's only one Queen (for me) and that's MADONNA!

Without Madonna we would never had meet... he is from Poland and I am from Denmark... we meet online through a Madonna newsgroup... and on the 3rd of October this year we have been married for 20 years