Welcome back to a new appointment with Musical Disclosure. Today we talk about the quintessential pop star, the multifaceted artist who, throughout her long career, has launched and ridden trends, today being defined as the queen of pop music: Madonna.
Madonna (born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone) was born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1958, into a family of Italian origin. The third of six children, at the age of 5, she was devastated by the loss of her mother due to breast cancer. This tragic event deeply affected her and led her to take on the role of a maternal figure for her siblings. After graduating in 1976, she received a dance scholarship at the University of Michigan but decided to drop out two years later to move to New York, with the ambition of becoming a pop star. In the Big Apple, she started doing various jobs to make a living, including performing in the dance troupe of already established artists. Her first musical project was with her then-boyfriend Dan Gilroy, with whom Madonna formed the band "Breakfast Club," where she sang and played guitar and drums. However, she soon realized she wanted to promote herself as a solo artist and began frequenting discos and nightclubs, asking DJs to play her songs. In no time, she secured a contract to release three singles, including the famous “Everybody,” which reached the top of the American dance chart. With the production of her debut album titled "Madonna" (1983), the singer's popularity continued to grow: the tracks "Holiday," "Borderline," and "Lucky Star" all reached the American Top 10. But it was only with her second album, "Like a Virgin" (1984), that Madonna's fame reached a global dimension. The album topped the charts in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, becoming the first project by a female artist to sell over 5 million copies in America. The first single from the album is the title track "Like a Virgin," a dance-rock song in which the singer describes how her beloved makes her feel "new" and "shiny" like a virgin, ironically playing with her name and sparking criticism from American conservative associations. In the iconic sepia-toned album cover, Madonna appears in a wedding dress on a satin bed, choosing to portray herself not only as an object of desire but also as a subject who desires. "Material Girl," chosen as the second single, is a synth-pop track with disco and new wave influences that ironically comments on the superficiality and materialism of the '70s. In the music video, Madonna plays a new Marilyn Monroe, taking advantage of the comparison that the media makes between the actress and the pop star. Other singles from the album include "Dress You Up," with its nu-disco beat, "Into the Groove," driven by a bass-synth line that invites the listener to dance, and "Angel," following the dance-pop trend of the other tracks. At Madonna's request, the album's production was led by Nile Rodgers, who had already worked on David Bowie's "Let's Dance." The producer decided to opt for a less synthetic sound than the demos proposed by the singer and put together a live band with the Chic group members on bass and drums. The result was praised by critics, who were instead harsher towards Madonna, often undervaluing her voice.
Today we leave you with the historic "Material Girl," which still represents one of the most iconic tracks of Madonna's career.