How Madonna Became Pop Music’s Blueprint (Discogs)

[EgoRod 5,477]

https://www.discogs.com/digs/music/madonna-40th-anniversary-debut?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=Discogs&utm_campaign=Madonna_Music

"After a performance on American Bandstand in January 1984, television host Dick Clark asked Madonna what her dreams were. Her answer: “To rule the world.”

The singer-songwriter was there to promote her self-titled debut album, which had taken over airwaves and dance floors the summer prior. This week marks the 40th anniversary of Madonna’s release — the eight track record that introduced Madonna to the mainstream and began her journey to pop superstardom.

Before she was the Queen of Pop, Madonna was a budding creative looking for her big break. In 1978, she left the University of Michigan and moved to New York with just $35 to pursue a career as a dancer. She found work as a backup dancer, and even performed with the Alvin Ailey and Pearl Lang dance companies, before touring Europe with singer Patrick Hernandez.

When Madonna returned to New York in the summer of 1979, she joined the new wave band Breakfast Club as their drummer. By the following year, she’d left Breakfast Club to form Emmy & The Emmys with musician Stephen Bray. However, after writing and recording a demo together, Madonna decided to promote herself as a solo artist.

She regularly visited nightclubs to persuade DJs to play her solo demo tape. Her persistence paid off — Danceteria’s resident DJ Mark Kamins took a liking to Madonna’s music and arranged for her to meet Seymour Stein, the president and co-founder of Sire Records, who offered her a recording contract.

Recording for Madonna began in the summer of 1982. The singer wrote the majority of the album’s songs and chose musician Reggie Lucas to produce the project. Unfortunately, Madonna clashed with Lucas when the tracks’ final versions didn’t live up to her expectations. She called in DJ John “Jellybean” Benitez to remix the songs — he also contributed the hit “Holiday” to the tracklist — before turning the record in to the label.

Madonna was released in 1983 and straddled the line between dance and pop during the post-disco era. The use of digital instruments, like the Linn drum machine, Moog bass, and OB-X synthesizer gave the album its danceable, synth-pop sound. The polished production complemented Madonna’s bright soprano vocals as she sang tight, catchy refrains about romance, desire, power, and partying. The record peaked at No. 8 on the US Billboard 200, scoring Madonna her first top 10 album.

The album spawned five singles and three of them — “Holiday,” “Borderline,” and “Lucky Star” — charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at Nos. 16, 10, and 4, respectively. Their accompanying music videos, supported by the rise of MTV, introduced Madonna’s star power to homes across the country and inspired young women to adopt her style.

Madonna was a quintessentially ’80s album that pushed dance-pop to the forefront and set the standard for pop music in the decades that followed. As the world’s best-selling female recording artist and the most successful solo artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, her influence and impact cannot be overstated. Madonna’s subversiveness, attention to detail, willingness to break the rules, and penchant for reinventing herself turned her into a cultural icon and made her the blueprint for the modern pop star."

[A. A. Aardvark 4,847]

"All killer = no filler."
the next one was her first album

[MaDöner Kebab 6,881]

16 hours ago, A. A. Aardvark said:

"All killer = no filler."
the next one was her first album

In my opinion, LAV had way more fillers than self-titled. 

[BuggedOut 4,123]

1 hour ago, MPowered said:

In my opinion, LAV had way more fillers than self-titled. 

IMO, they had the same amount of filler, except LAV has more tracks so…

Madonna had I Know It

LAV had Shoo-Bee-Doo

[Donna 16,572]

1 hour ago, MPowered said:

In my opinion, LAV had way more fillers than self-titled. 

Some have no concept of what IMO means while insisting their opinion is fact.

[Honey Little 4,009]

6 hours ago, BuggedOut said:

IMO, they had the same amount of filler, except LAV has more tracks so…

Madonna had I Know It

LAV had Shoo-Bee-Doo

I love both songs. I don’t consider them filler.

[Honey Little 4,009]

7 hours ago, BuggedOut said:

IMO, they had the same amount of filler, except LAV has more tracks so…

Madonna had I Know It

LAV had Shoo-Bee-Doo

Ban 

[MaDöner Kebab 6,881]

Madonna's first three album had very obvious fillers, because those were the songs that were placed at the end of the album and commonly used as b-sides to other singles (because they were never considered as singles).

Madonna: I Know It & Think of Me

Like a Virgin: Stay, Pretender & Shoo-Bee-Doo (Over and Over & LDLHA were both single choices but ITG, CFY & Gambler kept that from happening. I like them more than some of the singles but a lot of people also say they are "fillers", so I guess that adds two more to the list. 💀)

True Blue: Love Makes the World Go Round, White Heat & Jimmy, Jimmy (White Heat & Where's the Party are very strong non-singles though, so I wouldn’t count them as fillers.)

[JustinTimes 761]

I always wondered who was the female artist who had the most number ones and was the best selling female artist before Madonna. 

[MikeyK 690]

15 hours ago, JustinTimes said:

I always wondered who was the female artist who had the most number ones and was the best selling female artist before Madonna. 

Probably either Barbra Streisand or Olivia Newton John or Diana Ross. In Europe it was prob Nana Mouskori or whatever.