Critical Reception
"Vogue" has received generally positive reviews from critics. Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine claimed that the song was "Madonna's finest single moment" and that it had an "instantly memorable melody". In a review of The Immaculate Collection, Stephen Thomas Erlewine also claimed that the song was "sleek" and "stylish". Jose F. Promis, in another Allmusic review, claimed that "Vogue" was a "crowning artistic achievement". In a 1990 review of I'm Breathless, Mark Coleman from Rolling Stone wrote that, whilst the song initially sounded "lackluster", within the album's context, it "gains a startling resonance". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine, in his review of the album as a whole, claimed that whilst the "hugely influential" song initially sounded "grossly out of place", it turns out to be "a fitting finale" for I'm Breathless. Jim Farber from Entertainment Weekly, in a relatively negative review of I'm Breathless, asserted that the "finale of Vogue" is "the sole bright spot". J. Randy Taraborrelli, in his book, Madonna: An Intimate Biography, wrote that the song was a "funky, uptown anthem celebrating the art of 'voguing'", as well as that the rap section "is still one of Madonna's greatest camp musical moments".
Bill Lamb from About.com commented that the song is "ossibly the most perfect dance song Madonna, the most successful dance artist of all time, has ever recorded." He placed "Vogue" at number 10 in his list "Top 10 Pop Songs of 1990" and 17th in "Top 100 Pop Songs of the 1990s." In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna singles of all-time by Q-Magazine. "Vogue" was allocated the #14 spot. In 2007, VH1 ranked fifth the song on its list of "Greatest Songs of the 90s". Slant Magazine listed "Vogue" as tenth "Best Singles of the '90s" as well as third in their list of the "100 Greatest Dance Songs".
"Vogue", on addition, has received numerous accolades. It won the 1991 Juno Award for Best Selling International Single, as well as winning the American Music Award for Favourite Dance Single. The song, based on the 1990 Rolling Stone Reader's Poll Awards, was voted Best single. The song was also ranked as the fourth best song of 1990 on that year's Pazz & Jop poll by The Village Voice.
Read more about this topic: Vogue (Madonna Song)
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reception:
“It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)