Just for fun! "The moment" , our stories.

[Jj Enrique 126]

What was the time, the song, the "moment" you knew you loved Madonna as an artist unconditionally!?

Mine was when I saw the premiere of Frozen on the telly, I was entranced. I knew I liked Madonna before, but being a kid, I didn't pay much attention to her as an artist other than knowing my mom liked her. 

My mom has this wonderful pic of her holding me when I was a baby in 1986, and you can see on the telly that Madonna's Papa Don't Preach is playing??? it was a forecast of my admiration for her.

She also helped me deal with growing up gay in the backwoods of Idaho. She again was my mascot for freedom and positivity while being in the Air Force from 2004-2013, a time when "Don't ask don't tell" was in high effect. 

Madonna, thank you. Love you always.

[MrCommotion 563]

So my story is interesting, maybe.

I was 12, this is in 2011 and someone in my class really really loved Lady Gaga and I wasn't into that. I thought he was kind of annoying. So somehow, someway, that was in the middle of the Express Yourself/Born This Way controversy. I started looking up Madonna's stuff just to kinda spite him. Which looking back now it's very dated and kinda cringy 

I knew Hung Up, I knew Material Girl and I knew some other songs, but I didn't know they were sung by the same woman. I remember the first thing I saw was Madonna's Express Yourself video and I loved it, I went to a video of the Blond Ambition Tour and I fell in love 

I bought a copy of Confessions which is my first album I ever bought with my allowance money. Going back to her first album (probably in 2012, but before MDNA), it felt surreal, like I shouldn't be listening to it as a teen in the 2010s. All of the music felt kind of shocking but I loved it, it was so different from what I was used to listening to. I didn't even speak English at the time, so I had to translate stuff through Google, which wasn't very helpful. Into the Groove was a song I didn't understand for a while 

[kesiak 3,034]

Seeing her perform "Vogue" at the VMAs in 1990. I was aware of her prior to that, had the True Blue cassette but that MTV performance just completely mesmerised me - there was so much of it that I didn't understand as a kid but I knew on some subconscious level that it was subversive and also brilliant and funny. I'm actually going to YouTube it just now - never get sick of it! 

[Joan of Marc 123]

When I was 12 years old, in the summer of 1989, for the first time I consciously heard the song like a prayer on the radio and I was immediately enthusiastic. From that hour I collected all the newspapers from Madonna snippets, poster, reports. My mother has a few weeks later gave me the LP like a prayer for the birthday and I was totally thrilled. Then I bought Ciao Italia as a videocassette and got to know her older songs. Then followed the album True Tlue, casette like a virgin, etc. My room was placarded with Madonna poster. In the village i growing up soon they knew that I was THE Madonna fan. When I first saw the Blonde Ambition tour with all the gay dancers I was aware that I am gay too :-) Madonna helped me with my coming out, she showed me that it is normal to love who you are would like to love.

There was still a funny situation when I did with my parents holiday in Barcelona - coincidentally in the week as Madonna with the BATwas also there . My father has forbidden me to spend my pocket money for madonna things - and still have invested everything in M. When we met in the evening in the restaurant (where the BAT was shown on a big screen) he asked me if I have invested all my money back in madonna, "no dad I do not have" and in this moment 15 Madonna postcards are out my shorts dropped out - my parents just laughed 

[Scottyx 8,757]

I was 7 when I heard Material Girl on a compilation cassette. My and my best friend were sitting in my dads car. smoking cigarette butts from the ashtray! - yes at 7 and we kept singing "Ba-tinkin a material world...ba-tinkin a material world" . no idea the words. But that was the start of my Madonna journey. By the way my mom caught us and I got in trouble and stopped smoking. lol ,... soon there was a talent contest in my school. a bunch of girls did a recreation of the True Blue video, lip syncing .. that furthered my desire for Madonna .. but it was truely Like a Prayer when I was 14 that changed my life. Secretly gay, I escaped to Madonna for my passtime.  All through school I was made fun of because I was into Madonna. People didn't take her serious, and it was essentially bubblegum music to the people of the area where I was from. Madonna was seen as a joke.  But that didn't stop me. AndI loved her more and more from then on.  I used to Vogue all the time at the local arcade when I would put it on Repeat on the Jukebox  - does anyone know what a jukebox is? 2 songs for 25 cents lol ..(everyone would get pissed off because they were all into the 80s hairbands and thats all you would hear .. Bon Jovi etc)

 

I noticed in a post above you were referred to as the Madonna fan.. funny that reminds me that people still to this day say "remember how much you were into Madonna?" .. and I respond, Were?  Have you seen my Madonna shrine?

[Frank 42,397]

When i saw the Barcelona BAT broadcast in spanish tv channel TVE in 1990. It was magical. I fell in love with her as an artist, as a woman, as a human. I was 9 y.o. then. I knew who she was before that, of course, because my older sister, as almost every girl out there, liked her and wore lots of rubber bracelets like her and had posters and postcards... but a 5-6 y.o. kid is not really aware of what she really represents. But BAT really introduced me to HER.

[madgefan 10,137]

We have told these stories a thousand times but they never get old

I have ancient memories of listening Live to Tell on the radio in the early 90s when I was 3 or 4 years old. Strangely, I associated it with songs like The Power of Love by Jennifer Rush, Take My Breath Away by Berlin, and of course What a Feeling by Irene Cara. They're not the same songs but they are signature 80s hits sung by females. I didn't get the word Madonna til I was 8 when I read it in one my schooltexts in some interview where a little girl mentioned her as her favourite singer. Yas bitch!

I started listening to music "seriously" in 1999 when the A*Teens, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera came out  but I still didn't recognize Madonna's singles from the Ray of Light era. Early one day I was watching MTV and American Pie appeared on the screen...

I immediately wondered who that sexy woman was and then I saw her name written at the end of the video. It was Madonna! Didn't know American Pie was a cover or that it was part of a movie soundtrack but didn't care anyway. I loved the song so much and I still do. Her particular low-key tone, the nostalgia that gives, THE FACE she gives on the video and she looks at the camera... It was a magical moment. I didn't know I was gay then but sure I knew there was something special about me like everyone here. Usually, my classmates would bully me because I was, you know, "different". And I grew up probably being the only guy in my area so obssessed with someone like Madonna 

Every time I turned on the radio I crossed my fingers to record the song! It was such a smash over these lands. They would play the Richard 'Humpty' Vission Radio Mix along with other remixes from the era. Then Christmas came early and I only knew I wanted an original copy of one of her albums. My mother took me to one of the music stores in my city and the woman there told us Music was her latest album and also the most expensive one I didn't know anything about tracklists, or the difference between cassettes and CDs so we went with the cassette format as we only used to have cassette player at home. When we arrived home we played the cassette from the start and Music started playing. It was a whole new sound, different from anything I had heard from Britney, Christina, and those damn A*Teens (I still love them though). My mama said "it sounds good". When we got to hear the last song which was American Pie I realized it wasn't the same version I used to hear on the radio. I was shocked but in a good way! Didn't know I had been listening to remixes all that time lol Same happened to me when I purchased my second cassette, Ray of Light, and noticed the album version of Nothing Really Matters was quite different from the Club 69 Radio Mix

What a time to be a fan! Sometimes I wish I could turn back time and be easily impressed by anything I was discovering until then. In my case, I fell in love with Madonna's work in a regresive way: Music, Ray of Light, Something to Remember, and the Immaculate Collection. And that couldn't be better!

[louis.exe 1,992]

my first exposer to her music I was 8 and 4 minuets was in charts and I wasn't a fan wasn't till I was seventeen I started to get into her music manly hung up and holiday at that point then I was flicking though the music channels and ray of light came on and I was like this is the best thing ever then I got a record player and bought you can dance from a local record shop and now I'm a fan  

[Sultrysully 2,865]

1987..... Who's that Girl Tour in Pontiac, Michigan.  M was such a force of nature.  When she began posing behind the light screen for Open Your Heart, I was caught forever.  To me... Open Your Heart Madonna was pure freedom and thus began my love affair with the Queen.  Her live version was everything to me and made me realize that I would survive adolescence.  

[Joseebus 2,549]

At approximately 4pm on the afternoon of February 16th 1998, my life changed dramatically. I had stayed home sick that day from school and I had been watching a few hours of Kurt Loder-led Madonna programming on MTV as the network was counting down to the world premiere of her new music video for "Frozen." I remember Kurt standing in front of several panels of concept art and storyboards for the video and in spite of the fact that I only had minimal knowledge of this woman's work, I could tell that this was going to be something incredibly special. And oh, was it ever! When the video finally aired I was completely bewitched by the dark, undulating Mojave Desert Witch I saw before me. I had never seen or heard anything like it before and to say that my 14-year-old mind was blown is the understatement for the ages. I became a hardcore, true blue, forever-fan in approximately 5 minutes and 23 seconds and I've never looked back. It's been 21 years and I'm still in awe of director Chris Cunningham's desolate vision. Every frame is a piece of art and it still manages to reveal something new to me every time I see it.

[Sultrysully 2,865]

Fallen head over heels..... so many times.  

[PWCCA 2,498]

I cannot recall the exact moment as it was in the 80s, and I was rather young at that time. But one thing that I recall is that I was absolutely obsessed with La Isla Bonita after seeing the video on TV. This was sometime in early 87, and I had already had the cassette of True Blue for a while already, but I hadn't paid much attention to La Isla Bonita until the video was released. I used to sing it constantly, and tried to mimic all the Spanish dance moves with my friends. I loved it. The funny thing is that I really cannot bear the song much these days, and often cringe and skip the song when seeing it performed live

[Drum Dub 1,883]

I began paying attention to Madonna around 93 when I was starting clubbing. But I became a fan since 96 after she came to Buenos Aires for Evita. A friend of mine borrowed me all of her albums and a lot singles, and i just loved the amount of good mixes they had :D

[survivalartist 6,454]

Cassette single of "I'll Remember" with "Secret Garden" as a b-side. Blew my mind.

[Madonna_Luv 346]

I was 3 years old and don't remember that moment unfortunately :( My family tells me stories and we have home videos but just as far back as my memory goes Ive always been obsessed with Madonna and only Madonna ♥

[Bobo 1,218]

There was never a single moment. Yes, I was aware of her from the early days with Holiday, Like A Virgin and Material Girl, but those songs and videos didn’t really stand out for me.

From an early age I already knew I liked guitars and edgier bands; Siouxsie, The Cure, The Smiths, Kiss, Queen, Alice Cooper. So give me Burning Up and the rawness of the Virgin Tour and Who’s That Girl Tour!

With the Like A Prayer album, I liked that it sounded “real”. True Blue was way too pop and sweet for me, even as a kid, but hearing Like A Prayer with the bass parts by Guy Pratt was mind blowing. I used to crank up that part on my dad’s stereo. Similarly, I loved the intro guitars on Act of Contrition and was really happy when I heard Supernatural for the first time. The orchestration on Oh Father was also very pleasing to the ears. And I liked the sparseness of Promise To Try.

The Beast Within Mix of Justify My Love was a great addition to the single release. I thought it beefed up the song quite well. The original version lacks direction and crescendo. The remix delivers that in biblical proportions and revisits some of those elements on Erotica, however the rest of the tracks on the album returned to the pop/dance genre. Erotica is perhaps the only Shep Pettibone produced track I like. Thank goodness for Andre Betts with Waiting and Secret Garden and those bassy, bluesy rhythms.

I enjoyed the melancholy of Bedtime Stories, but like Erotica, it’s not one I usually go back to. Same with Something To Remember and Evita.

Just to give some context. I think Express Yourself was on the radio around the same time as Poison by Alice Cooper and The Last of the International Playboys by Morrissey and I was more interested in those. There was Guns N Roses, Van Halen, Def Leopard and Aerosmith as well.

Express Yourself, Vogue, Truth or Dare and Sex, I know they’re important hallmarks in people’s lives, but it just didn’t mean anything to me and I couldn’t relate to them, but I could relate to Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and The Damned, and then later on, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Hole, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, Manics, Suede and shoegaze bands that emerged in the 90s.

I was the weird kid at Catholic school who wore eyeliner and crosses, DM boots, bleached my hair in white streaks, carried around horror magazines, refused to do team sports or work in groups, would truant frequently, smoke behind the bike sheds and draw pentagrams and upside down crosses in my school Holy Bible. The inner rage, despair and frustration I felt was represented in the music I was listening to and there were times I wished Madonna wasn’t always so “safe” and “mainstream” because hearing the early stuff before she got signed was way more interesting than the majority of what she released as a “pop artist”.

Being a fan of guitars, when Ray of Light came out I was happy. William Orbit was a good choice to produce as he knows how to work with vocals and real instruments. The title track is stunning in how incorporates electric guitars into a dance track that was just right for the time. I also liked how Frozen took classical elements and fused it with the sound of the new age scene.

Music was somewhat disappointing in how short it was and disjointed. Orbit is overshadowed by Mirwais and it seemed like Madonna didn’t really know what kind of an album to make. American Life continued with the guitars, but they’re far too processed sometimes. I don’t really have any interest in the albums that came after.

In short, I tend to take notice of Madonna when she has good musicians around her. Everything else is just salad dressing and I’m not keen on salad dressing.