Madonna (album) - Legacy

Legacy

Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that with the album, Madonna began her career as a disco diva, in an era that did not have any such divas to speak of. In the beginning of the 80s, disco was an anathema to the mainstream pop, and according to Erlewine, Madonna had a huge role in popularizing dance music as mainstream music, utilizing her charisma, chutzpah and sex appeal. He also credits the music of the album as "cleverly incorporated great pop songs with stylish, state-of-the-art beats, and it shrewdly walked a line between being a rush of sound and a showcase for a dynamic lead singer. This is music where all of the elements may not particularly impressive on their own — the arrangement, synth, and drum programming are fairly rudimentary — but taken together, it's utterly irresistible. Here, Madonna is on fire, and that's the reason why it launched her career, launched dance-pop, and remains a terrific, nearly timeless, listen." Martin Charles Strong, author of The great rock discography felt that the album's unprecedented dance-pop and naive appeal served Madonna in establishing her base as an artist. According to biographer Andrew Morton, the album made Madonna a household name, and was instrumental in introducing her star power. Rolling Stone wrote: "Indeed, initial response to Madonna gave no indication of the mania to follow. It took a year and a half for the album to go gold. But its assured style and sound, as well as Madonna's savvy approach to videos, helped the singer make the leap from dance diva to pop phenom, and it pointed the direction for a host of female vocalists from Janet Jackson to Debbie Gibson. In an interview with Time, Madonna reflected that her relationship with her father had not been good, before she released her debut album. "My father had never believed that what I was doing here was worthwhile, nor did he believe that I was up to any good. It wasn't until my first album came out and my father started hearing my songs on the radio that he stopped asking the questions."

Music critics Bob Batchelor and Scott Stoddart, commented in their book The 1980s that "the music videos for the singles off the album, was more effective in introducing Madonna to the rest of the world." Author Carol Clerk said that the music videos of "Burning Up", "Borderline" and "Lucky Star" established Madonna, not as the girl-next-door, but as a sassy and smart, tough funny woman. Her clothes worn in the videos were later used by designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Lacroix, in Paris Fashion week of the same year. Professor Douglas Kellner, in his book Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern, commented that the videos depicted motifs and strategies which helped Madonna in her journey to become a star. With the "Borderline" music video, Madonna was credited for breaking the taboo of interracial relationships and was considered one of her career-making moments. MTV played the video in heavy rotation, increasing Madonna's popularity further.

The release of the album, heralded Madonna's arrival in the music scene, but her vocal abilities were not fully formed artistically. Her vocal styles and lyrics appeared similar to those of other pop stars of that period, namely Paula Abdul, Debbie Gibson and Taylor Dayne. The songs on Madonna reveal several key trends that have continued to define her success, including a strong dance-based idiom, catchy hooks, highly polished arrangement and Madonna's own vocal style. In songs such as "Lucky Star" and Borderline", Madonna introduced a style of upbeat dance music that would prove particularly appealing to future gay audiences. The bright, girlish vocal timbre of the early years became passé in Madonna's later works, the change being deliberate, to cater the latest trends in the music world.

Following the release of the album, Madonna was dismissed by some critics. They called her voice sounding as "Minnie Mouse on helium", while the other detractors suggested that she was "almost entirely helium, a gas-filled, lighter-than-air creation of MTV and other sinister media packagers." Madonna said: "From the very beginning of my career, people have been writing shit about me and saying, 'She's a one-hit wonder, she'll disappear after a year'." She responded the comment "Minnie Mouse on helium" by doing a photoshoot with Alberto Tolot, where she flirted with a giant Mickey Mouse toy, putting its hand inside her dress and looking at it with an admonishing glare. Author Debbi Voller noted that "such provocative imagery at a young age of her career, could have hurt her too much. But it went on to shut those twerps who dared to take a swag at her voice again." Twenty-five years later, in her acceptance speech of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Madonna thanked the critics who snubbed her in the early years, "The ones that said I was talentless, that I was chubby, that I couldn't sing, that I was a one-hit wonder. They pushed me to be better, and I am grateful for their resistance."