Madonna - The Immaculate Collection

This compilation is from Madonna’s 80’s singles, so it might not really fit in this 1990 list. But whatever, I grew up with a weirdly high awareness of Madonna, and so she stays in the 1990 retrospective.

Madonna seems like the ultimate pop chameleon. I get the feeling she’d thrive in the current era of TikTok trends, where everybody makes a video in an identical format and changes it just a little to make it sort of their own. That’s how her songs feel to me, just a master capitalizing on every trend she comes across, and blurring the lines between “she copied it” and “she invented it.” Maybe an 80’s music expert could dissect that statement, but from my perspective looking back, I don’t really see the difference - Madonna took ownership of pop, and whether she invented it or just perfected it, that’s pretty damn impressive. She’s like a pop robot - whether she’s self aware or programmed by someone else, the end result is the same.

I think a lot of her appeal is in her pseudo-innocent voice mixed with very, ah, not innocent lyrics and imagery. This let her relate to kids and young folks who might idolize her and want to follow in her footsteps, and it let her appeal to adults who wanted… other things. But at the same time she feels utterly devoid of emotion to me, presumably because she’s focusing on sounding impish at the expense of all else. She’s at her best, to me, on the dance floor on tracks like “”Into The Groove” where depth of emotion isn’t the point.

Madonna may have invented or perfected all the things that have made me dislike pop in the past. Shallow lyrics, totally inoffensive beats and synths and backing tracks that could be the soundtrack to a Disney kids show, themes that slap you across the face in order in case the core concept of SEX SEX SEX is too subtle to grasp. And those traits have become features of pop at times, not bugs.

HOWEVER: I’m learning that nothing I complain about above makes the music bad - it makes it pop. And pop has a very important place in the music world. It’s not like Madonna is hiding what she’s doing - “Material World” is a braggy confessional of who she is, and if that’s not authenticity (the trait I love most in music) then I don’t know what is. This is pop distilled. It’s authentically and unapologetically plastic, like a toy for a 3-year-old, all primary colors and gloss, to be tossed out in a few weeks for a replacement.

Madonna’s music, and the millions of pop songs she inspired, are the simple sugars of our music diet. Yes, you need complex carbohydrates and proteins and vitamins to really have a healthy diet, but simple sugars are fun, too. 

Jams

• “Material World”

• “Into The Groove”

From the roundup Jamwise #36 - Best Albums of 1990.