FEATURE:
Madonna at Forty
No Borderlines: The Introduction of a Maverick Pop Queen
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ON 27th July…
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
a lot of stations in the U.K. might be distracted by the announcement of this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist. It is one of those unfortunate clashes. I joked that this shortlist announcement falling on the same day we celebrate Madonna turning forty is a clash that rivals the cinematic battle between Barbie and Oppenheimer! Of course, those films are not in competition. It is the case that two blockbusters are opening on the same day. Similarly, there is not a lot of people putting the Mercury shortlist against a classic album’s fortieth anniversary. I do hope that Madonna’s exceptional debut album gets played across radio on 27th July. That Thursday will be an exciting one! In a year where the Queen of Pop has been preparing for a worldwide tour, only to have to delay it because she almost died because of a severe bacterial infection, I hope that she also gets a moment to post to her fans what it means to look back at Madonna forty years down the line. I have been thinking about that summer day in 1983 when Madonna arrived. To many, especially outside the U.S., the debut album might have been the first time many people heard of her. Of course, she had released singles prior to this, but it was not until the album came out that she was cemented into the minds of the world. That was confirmed when Holiday came out in September 1983. I just think about the albums that were released around that time. Arriving a few months after terrific albums by, among others, R.E.M., The Police, Eurythmics, and David Bowie, there was nothing quite like Madonna’s debut.
Pop was a big force in 1983, but I think that most of the more popular albums of the year were from other genres. Maybe Culture Club’s Colour By Numbers (which came out in October 1983) added to the pile. Madonna was a breath of fresh air. At a time when the weather was fine and there was this real gap in the market, the Michigan-born icon delivered a sensational debut that mixed Pop with Post-Disco to mesmeric effect! Thinking about similar albums that were out in 1983, a few months after Madonna arrived, Cyndi Lauper released her debut, She’s So Unusual. I often think that Madonna inspired that album in some way when you compare the two. I am going to come to a review and feature for Madonna. In 1983, I don’t think you could have called the album ordinary or beyond her best. It is one of the most confident and original debut albums ever. I know some have placed Madonna low when ranking her albums. Maybe not as epic or ambitious as Like a Prayer (1989) or Ray of Light (1998), Madonna was both of its time and ahead of its time - though it also looked to the past. She would not have thought of an album such as Like a Prayer in 1989, as her influences changed and she worked with different people then compared to her debut. What I have pointed out and remains extraordinary as this twenty-four-year-old artist wrote most of the songs on her debut. Perhaps the most notable exception of a song which Madonna did not write is Borderline. That was written by Madonna’s producer, Reggie Lucas. Holiday was also written by other people (Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens), but listen to Lucky Star, Burning Up, Think of Me, and Everybody. Also, the underrated I Know It is a Madonna solo write. These incredibly fresh songs that heralded this new Disco diva. At a time when Disco was considered dead, Madonna arrived and freshened and revitalised it. Dipping back to the 1970s but adding in modern touches, Madonna instantly made her a household name.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
If there was a lot of celebration around her debut, there was also a lot of undue criticism. Many dismissing her voice as helium-enhanced or squeaky. It is the same sort of thing Kate Bush had to deal with five years earlier. Both these artists, born within a few weeks or one another, created wonderful debut albums that should have got nothing but love. Madonna was also labelled as chubby by some! That she was a one-hit wonder and would not last. Not only is that insulting and devastating for an ambitious and bright young artist to read and hear. In years since, she actually posed in photos with Mickey Mouse. She was not someone who took criticism lying down. Bold and strong, this truly incredible Pop artist was instantly iconic. I am going to write a lot more about Madonna in the coming weeks, as she celebrates her sixty-fifth birthday on 16th August. I had a few thoughts about her stunning 1983 debut. There has not been a fortieth anniversary reissue. It would have been great to have new vinyl issues. Maybe different-coloured sets with photos from 1983 and some introductory notes from Madonna herself. I don’t think there has been a book written about her debut album and the time before it. I am fascinated in that period between 1980 and 1983. The rise of Madonna and the immediate period after the debut was released. Learning more about the earliest days of this Pop icon would be fascinating. I have previously asked whether photos from 1983 could come to an exhibition. Fans would love to see a gallery of photos from an amazing time!
I also have suggested whether a few of the music videos from her debut album – including Holiday and Lucky Star – could be given a 4K HD remaster. Burning Up, Everybody, and Borderline look great, but those other videos could do with some shine and touching up. I am going to finish with a review of the incredible Madonna. First, the New York Post wrote about Madonna’s earlier this month. They noted how this album changed the face of Pop music:
“Months before Madonna took off into the stratosphere with “Lucky Star” and other hits from her self-titled debut album — released 40 years ago on July 27, 1983 — the then-24-year-old hopeful had received some clairvoyant reinforcement regarding her future as the Queen of Pop.
“She had actually gone to a psychic, and she told me, ‘Just watch what’s gonna happen,’ ” Paul Pesco — who played guitar on both “Lucky Star” and “Burning Up” — told The Post.
“She told me this in rehearsals one day, and it was like the equivalent of Bette Davis saying, ‘Fasten your seatbelts …’ I mean, she kind of knew it.”
That would give prophetic meaning to “I Know It” — one of five songs that a young Madonna Louise Ciccone of Michigan wrote by herself for an eight-track classic that would get generations of future dance-pop divas into the groove.
Possessing neither the gospel grandeur of an Aretha Franklin or the folky feels of a Joni Mitchell, Madonna — who was set to commemorate the 40th anniversary of her debut with her “Celebration” tour launching on July 15 until the Material Girl, 64, was sidelined by a serious bacterial infection two weeks ago — made her own path, as the mother of a pop reinvention.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna posing for a photo in New York in late-1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Noble/Redferns/Getty Images
After the so-called death of disco as the ’70s twirled to an end, Madonna reclaimed the dance floor in a whole new way.
“We really felt that if we were to combine disco and R&B and new wave, we would have something really cool,” said Michael Rosenblatt, Madonna’s original A&R man at Sire Records. “We invented a format.”
“Madonna had a dance background. Dancing was her baby,” added her longtime publicist Liz Rosenberg, who repped Madge from the beginning of her career, all the way until 2015.
“She wanted to be a dancer. She went to Martha Graham [School] and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. And so, in looking back, you can understand how the dance [music] world embraced her first.”
After moving from Detroit to New York in 1978 — “with her tap shoes and $30,” as Rosenberg describes — Madonna got her big break at the influential club Danceteria, where she met DJ Mark Kamins in 1982.
“I used to go to Danceteria all the time … as a young A&R guy trolling the clubs looking for artists,” said Rosenblatt. “At the time, one of my best friends in life was Mark Kamins. And Mark told me about this girl who kept coming by trying to get him to play her demo.”
After picking a magnetic Madonna out of the crowd on the floor at Danceteria one Saturday night, Rosenblatt had her come by his office two days later to play her demo, which included her self-penned tunes “Everybody” and “Burning Up” as well as the Stephen Bray-written “Ain’t No Big Deal.”
“It wasn’t, like, magic, but what was magic was I had a star sitting in my office just radiating,” he said. “She was a f – – king star … And I always ask any artists I work with, ‘What do you want? What are you looking for?’ The best answer I ever got was from Madonna when she said, ‘I want to rule the world.’ ”
And that global takeover began when Rosenblatt took Madonna to meet Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein, who was in Lenox Hill Hospital for open-heart surgery at the time. But he made sure that she came prepared with more than her demo.
“I told her, ‘You gotta come by with some ID because I don’t believe your name is Madonna,’ ” recalled Rosenblatt. “And she said, ‘It is! Why don’t you believe me?’ I said, ‘Because it’s just too good to be true. It’s perfect.’ ”
Madonna seized her moment — even if it had to happen by a hospital bed. “She was, like, all in. She was like, ‘This is my chance to get a record deal,’ ” said Rosenblatt. “And Seymour got it.”
The video for "Everybody," Madonna's first single, had a $1,000 budget, according to director Ed Steinberg, who ended up spending his own money to finish the project.
A couple weeks later, Madonna signed a deal for three singles — including a $15,000 advance for each — with an option for an album.
IN THIS PHOTO: An outtake from photographer Gary Heery, who shot the cover for Madonna at his SoHo studio just weeks before its release
Sight unseen, Rosenberg, Madonna’s soon-to-be publicist — who had been working with the likes of Fleetwood Mac at Sire parent company Warner Bros. Records — had a totally different impression of her new artist upon first hearing her demo.
“What I remember very specifically is Michael coming into my office and playing this singer from Detroit who I thought was black,” she said. “And I liked her sound.”
But Rosenberg knew that Madonna was something special when she actually met her budding star for the first time.
“I remember her coming into my office and falling in love with her,” she said. “You know, she was fantastic. She was a lot of fun, and she was very ambitious and knew what she wanted … And I think some of the company was very hard on her — they were much more of a rock ’n’ roll company.”
But Madonna quickly found her tribe in the New York club scene after her debut single “Everybody” — an electro-pop bop produced by Kamins — was released in October 1982.
The singer’s image was not featured on the cover of the single — a shrewd move, made in the nascent days of MTV, so that her race would not be a factor in her getting played on black radio stations.
“A lot of it had to do with Freddy DeMann,” said Rosenblatt of Madonna’s former manager. “Once we got Freddy involved, he was really crucial to that mix at the time [because he] was managing Michael Jackson. So Freddy had a lot of juice in the R&B world.”
But Madonna’s identity wouldn’t remain a mystery for long: Bobby Shaw, then national dance promoter at Warner Bros., took the diva-in-training around to perform at some of the hottest NYC nightspots — most of them attracting predominantly black, Latin and gay crowds.
And, in an early display of her business savvy, Madonna even asked Shaw to attend his weekly meetings with key DJs.
“Let’s face it — she was trying to be a star,” Shaw told The Post. “She worked it. She worked her personality to a T — and sex. It helped … I said, ‘She’s a smart cookie.’ But she did listen to me. And I don’t think she listened to too many people.”
Indeed, it was Shaw who helped Madonna feel right at home at Paradise Garage, the legendary underground club where she shot the low-budget “Everybody” video.
“They said you have $1,000, which is basically for me to go shoot at Danceteria with two shitty cameras,” said director Ed Steinberg, who spent about $3,800 of his own money to upgrade the performance video at Paradise Garage.
Once her full album deal was sealed, Madonna wanted a more experienced producer than Kamins, hand-picking Reggie Lucas, who had worked with female R&B singers such as Stephanie Mills and Phyllis Hyman. And Lucas’ songs “Physical Attraction,” which was the B-side to second single “Burning Up,” and “Borderline,” which would become Madge’s first Top 10 hit, were included on her debut LP.
But the album was still missing something.
Rosenblatt put out the call for a killer track to complete the LP and found “Holiday” through the Fun House DJ John “Jellybean” Benitez, who, after meeting Madonna through Shaw, had begun dating the singer. The tune was written by ex-spouses Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens-Crowder for their own group, Pure Energy, but their label had passed on it.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
Now, after having been hired to do some remixes for the album, Benitez was about to produce the defining dance anthem from Madonna’s debut.
“I remember calling Quincy Jones just saying, ‘Hey, I’m doing this record. Any advice you can give?’ ” Benitez recalled. “And he said basically, ‘Trust your instincts. Go make something that you’re gonna play.’”
And after “Everybody” and “Burning Up” failed to make the Billboard Hot 100, “Holiday” would become Madonna’s breakthrough hit on that chart, reaching No. 16 in January 1984.
Forty years later, photographer Gary Heery — who shot the “Madonna” album cover just a few weeks before the LP’s release at his SoHo studio — told The Post he’s proud to have been part of the birth of a pop legend.
“It does get called the iconic image of her,” Heery said of his famous black-and-white portrait. “She had a great street look. And the album was great, wasn’t it?”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
I think there will be new articles written about Madonna closer to 27th July. There have been a few framed around the fortieth anniversary, but I thought there would be more attention already! I am going to end with a review. Pitchfork revealed their thoughts about Madonna’s debut album back in 2017. I think that this is an album that the world will be discussing and adoring decades from now:
“Sire Records founder Seymour Stein was lying in a hospital bed the first time he heard Madonna. It was 1982, and the man who’d signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders had one of his usual heart infections. Listening to his Walkman, Stein perked up when he heard a bass-heavy demo of Madonna’s first single, “Everybody.” He called the DJ who’d given him the tape, Mark Kamins of New York’s anti-Studio 54 utopia Danceteria, and asked to meet Madonna, a Danceteria regular and waitress. Hours later, the 24-year-old dancer-turned-musician from Bay City, Mich. was in that hospital room, hoping Stein was well enough to draw up a contract.
Stein did sign her, and the following year put out Madonna, a cool and cohesive debut that helped resituate electronic dance-pop at Top 40’s apex with hits like “Holiday,” “Lucky Star,” and “Borderline.” But the suits at Warner Bros., which had acquired Sire a few years earlier, didn’t quite know what to do with the former punk who was writing and performing muscular R&B for the club. Their early inclination was to work her at black radio stations, favoring a cartoonish urban collage for the “Everybody” cover instead of Madonna’s already perfected thousand-yard stare. Listeners weren’t sure what to make of the singer cooing those pleading vocals on the rising dance hit, but it wouldn’t be long before Madonna did something about that too.
At Madonna’s convincing, the label let her shoot a chintzy performance video for “Everybody,” followed by a more polished video for her striking second single “Burning Up.” In it, she tugs at a thick chain looped around her neck and rolls around in the street while singing lines like, “I’m not the others, I’d do anything/I’m not the same, I have no shame,” her panting underscored by Hi-NRG beats and raunchy rock guitar solos. A man drives towards Madonna, but at the end, it’s her behind the wheel—the first great wink to her signature subversion of power through sex. Though her 1984 MTV Music Video Awards performance is now considered erotic lore on the level of Elvis’ censored hips, that writhing set to “Like a Virgin” would have had little context without the slow, sensual burn of Madonna throughout ’83 and ’84. It was a record that seemed quirky but innocuous enough based on the feel-good wiggle of its initial crossover hit, “Holiday,” but the driving force of Madonna remains its palpable physicality—a mandate to move your body, in ways both public and private.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
Part of what gives Madonna such affecting rhythm is its use of electronic instruments that sounded like the future then and typify the ’80s sound now—instruments like the LinnDrum and the Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. Disco had brought dance music to pop’s forefront, where producers like Giorgio Moroder traded its saccharine strings for robotic instrumentation, but by the early ’80s, the genre had cooled off. People still danced to synthesizers, but their positioning was crucial—both within culture and musical compositions. The Human League and Soft Cell scored two of 1982’s biggest and most synthetic smashes, but back then the gulf between punk-derived new wave and bygone disco seemed wider than it ever really was. Disco and disco-adjacent stars like Donna Summer and Michael Jackson still were programming their hits, but the overall focus was back on a full-band sound. There’s no shortage of organic instruments on Madonna’s debut—“Borderline” wouldn’t be the same without the piano’s melodic underscoring, standout album cut “Physical Attraction” without its funky little guitar line—but the slinky digital grooves often take center stage. Through this, Madonna is able to achieve an almost aggressive twinkling that still feels fresh: the effervescent fizz at the start of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut to the Feeling” seems cribbed straight from “Lucky Star.”
Madonna vaguely criticized her debut’s sonic palette while promoting its follow-up, 1984’s Like a Virgin, but its focus is part of what makes the album so memorable, so of a time and place. She would soon become known for ritual pop star metamorphosis, but with a clearly defined musical backdrop, Madonna was able to let shine her biggest asset: herself. The way Madonna’s early collaborators talk about her—even the ones who take issue with her, like Reggie Lucas, who wrote “Borderline” and “Physical Attraction” and produced the bulk of the album—often revolves around her decisiveness, her style, the undeniability of her star quality. Some of these songs, like the self-penned workout “Think of Me,” aren’t all that special, but Madonna telling a lover to appreciate before she vacates is so self-assured, the message carries over to the listener. And when the material’s even better, like on “Borderline,” the passionate performance takes it over the top.
Maybe the New York cool kids rolled their eyes at the Midwest transplant after she blew up, but she had effectively bottled their attitude and open-mindedness and sold it to the MTV generation (sleeve of bangles and crucifix earrings not included). Innocent as it may look now, compared to the banned bondage videos and butt-naked books that followed, Madonna was a sexy, forward-thinking record that took pop in a new direction. Its success showed that, with the right diva at the helm, music similar to disco could find a place in the white mainstream—a call to the dance floor answered by everyone from Kylie to Robyn to Gaga to Madonna herself. After venturing out into various genre experiments and film projects, when Madonna needs a hit, the longtime queen of the Dance Songs chart often returns to the club. This approach doesn’t always work, as her last three records have shown, but you can’t fault her for trying to get back to that place where heavenly bodies shine for a night”.
Ahead of its fortieth anniversary on 27th July, I wanted to celebrate the brilliance and impact of Madonna. Without boundaries or borders in 1983, this legend exploded onto the scene. Reaching the top ten in the U.K. and U.S., Madonna was an instant success. Since 1983, she has evolved as an artist. Changing her sound and growing in confidence, Madonna has appeared in films and mounted some of the most groundbreaking tours in Pop history. Even though her Celebration Tour has been delayed due to illness, she will be on the stage soon to mark forty years of her debut album and the impact of Holiday. Some critics took shots at her voice and looks, but there were plenty who were prostrate with admiration for this infectious and brilliant music. The mighty Madonna deserves…
ALL the love it has received.