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What are your fond memories or thoughts of this album era? I know that some of you were too young or may not even been born when this album was released, but I am curious to learn how you came across this album and your thoughts. Here's my story... this is the album which turned me into the huge fan I am today. Before this album, I was more of a closet fan (my sisters were fans). I did love "Into The Groove" and knew of her prior to this song, but it was the True Blue album which sucked me in. When I saw the "Live To Tell" video, my heart skipped a beat. She looked absolutely gorgerous. I loved that she took off all the jewelery and gave us a more mature look. At the time, I wasn't able to run out and buy everything she released up to this period. Instead, I started recording everything they played on the radio and went to the local library, checked out her albums, and recorded them. This was the time Madonna was hailed for bringing forth a "New Madonna". It was the first of many transformations throughout her career. A few months later when the album dropped and her "Papa Don't Preach" video was released, my jaw dropped again. She looked so Marilynesque. She was becoming a world-wide star at this point. I remember all the hoopla over the subject matter of the song. I didn't care, and obviously much of the world didn't either. The way some fans/people criticize and hate on other female artists reminds me of this time with Madonna and throughout the rest of the 80's. All the nasty comments spewed about the current girls in pop were very reminiscent of what was said of Madonna during this time. There was a lot of talk of how she was ripping off Marilyn Monroe's image. Some were saying she was a poor role model for the youth at the time. She was said she uses controversy to gain attention. She proved to be tough and rose above and ignore the criticisms and explained Marilyn comparisons with this: "I am not a victim of my success" as she claimed what happened to Marilyn Monroe. Despite the criticisms and some of the hate thrown at her, she was still on top of her game. I felt while she gained a lot of fans during this period, she did lose a lot of fans (especially girls) who loved her during the Virgin era. I also felt more males (particularly gay males) became fans of her during this time. She was a huge supporter of the gay community, and the cure for the AIDS epidemic. While she was said to be delivering a more mature album and look, she was hamming up the ditzy blonde attitude as well. (She started filming Who's That Girl?). I had notice the way she spoke, it was more gum smacking girly. I figured it was because she was exploring her character for 'Who's That Girl?' The film was initially called "Slammer", but since her husband at the time kept getting into legal trouble and was in jail at the time, they decided to rename it "Who's That Girl". There were other rumors of her taking on other films at the time. One in particular I recall, was a comedy with Demi Moore where both her and Madonna would be a duo cop team. Of course, that never panned out. Radio was her best friend at this point. She kept pumping out hit after hit. Radio was even playing her non-singles such as "Where's The Party" since it got a lot of air play at the time. The "True Blue: Make my video contest" spawned off Madonnathon's on MTV. This is when I started videotaping her videos and came across the rarely seen "Burning up" and "Everybody" videos. The media were all over Sean and Madonna during their tumultuos marriage. They were nicknamed "The Poison Penns". Sean would be known for lashing out at the paparazzi while Madonna at times would be seen hiding herself from the cameras. Their film "Shanghai Surprise" was panned by the critics and media. As '86 drew to a close, Madonna was back again with another controversial video for "Open Your Heart". I remember freaking out, because I thought she dyed her hair black. Though I liked it, I was releived it was just a wig at the time. Once again, the critics were all over her for using sex to sell her music. This is the time I discovered 12 inch remixes. I remember walking into the local music store and seeing this album size cover of "Open Your Heart". At first, I had no idea what it was. My obsession grew even more and this is when I started buying a lot of her past stuff and trying to catch up with all the 12 inches that were released on her. While '87 was another big year for her, she ended the True Blue era with the release of "La Isla Bonita". Another smash top 5 for her. Again, she slightly changed her image, only to go back to the blonde bombshell for the release of "Who's That Girl" and embarking on her first World Tour. This truly was one of the coolest times to be a Madonna fan. While she did get a lot of criticism thrown at her, this is when she became a global phenomenon. She was the girl everybody loved to hate. She was being compared to other legends/Megastars of the time; Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Tina Turner, U2 and George Michael. There were a number of girls that came out around this time namely Debbie Gibson and Kylie Minogue which seemed to immitate her early success. In Kylie's defense, she managed to break that mold and become her own person and highly successful herself.