Madame X-ed: A second listen to Madonna’s debut
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In what looked like a slightly derailed publicity stunt, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon appears to have been a little uncomfortable and downright “shaken” during a Madonna shoot on Thursday night. Madge was on the show to promote her Madame X concert film currently airing on Paramount +. Was it the diamond grillz? Her lying on her desk in a very seductive way – or the flashing of her hindquarters on a nationwide TV show – that made Fallon panicked and nervous?
Look, I’m not Madonna’s biggest fan. But understand this. My first presentation with her was not a late night little piece of television. It was a boom box that played “Physical Attraction”.
The keyboard folds up high at the top, prompting us to enter. The Linn drum machine, Moog bass, and Oberheim OB-X synthesizer work telepathically, forging that slamming cathode ray of eternal groove. A slick, slick bassline, Nile Rodgers type guitar picking and those synth washes, all heralding something, heavily borrowed, but still very clever, is the order of the day.
It was âcityâ music, as Fab Five Freddy put it. This era of his music “attracted those who were more street, more knowledgeable, more tasty”. And there she was, Madonna Louise Ciccone, presenting this version, a bohemian street fashion engineer character, who would make the whole world dance.
There were other incarnations that were missed. She was part of several No Wave groups that no one had paid attention to at the time, and a hard rock band called The Breakfast Club. There was also a time when Def Jam Records and Madonna were going around in circles, thinking about what could easily have been mutual exploitation. See the first Beastie Boys Licensed to sick for reference. (Or those grillz, four decades later.)
But it is the presentation of the dance-pop diva that has remained. On several occasions during a career spanning more than 40 years, she pissed off everyone with tax choices. Yet she would fight for good causes, even when they were not popular, while culturally scamming marginalized communities repeatedly throughout his career.
Phew. Presentation of the people of Madonnaâ¦
On her birthday last August, she took advantage of the date to announce a re-release campaign for several of her flagship albums in luxury editions, due to a new publishing contract with Warner Music Group. The series will partially commemorate the 40th anniversary of Madonna’s first singles, “Everybody” and “Burning Up” from 1982. On their 63rd birthday, the Italians Do It Better label released a thoughtful compilation of Madonna covers, produced by Johnny Jewel. Italians Do It Better is the t-shirt she wore in the “Papa Don’t Preach” video.
Madonna, problematic like all hell, is still a big deal.
But what is overlooked and slept in are these first singles that will eventually become her self-titled debut album. “Physical Attraction”, my introduction, was not his first single to hit the charts. It was a B side of “Burning Up”, his second 12 inch.
“Everybody,” her first single, was released on October 6, 1982. Song Could Chart. In New York, the song was played on 92 KTU, a Latin freestyle follower, which had a large black audience, similar to its competitors 98.7 Kiss FM and 107.5 WBLS.
During those early years in the 1980s, black radio in New York City made national successes. Period. The records played, sank for a year non-stop, all over town, then made their way across the country. New York was always at least three to six months ahead. It is not the elitism of the East Coast. The power of the dancefloor from legendary Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan.
How did you assess a pre-internet success in the early 1980s? “The physical attraction” would spring from boomboxes on subway platforms, appearing on these house break tapes which included Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer”, “C · 30 C · 60 C · 90 Go! “By Bow Wow Wow,” This Beat Is Mine! “By Vicky D” and “You’re The One for Me” by D-Train.
The city, the streets, would play on endlessly. It was the retweet.
For the cover of his first single, Sire Records hired illustrator Lou Beach who organized a Romare Bearden-style hip-hop collage from a very âurbanâ downtown New York. The label decided not to paint a portrait of Madonna. Ultimately, a video was made, and we saw that it was white. She even started her career a little cute.
âPhysical Attractionâ features production credit from John âJellybeanâ Benitez, a DJ at the famous Funhouse club at the time. He contributed to his credibility and his street sound. Perfect a model and prototype for each synthetic disco diva, female pop phenomenon, to follow.
With electro accents, precocious boogie – this post-punk feeling meets a dancefloor attack, passing by Arthur Baker – he is inspired by Lisa Lisa, Janet Jackson, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, the synth-pop edition from the ’80s of Pointer Sisters, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera to the explosion of slinky bedroom writers Nite Jewel, Geneva Jacuzzi, and more. Leading us to Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish too.
But in retrospect, “Physical Attraction” is just exquisite and divine pop. Madonna always knew her strength was dancing, reflecting that innate sense of rhythm. He’s a million-selling pop icon, despite his light voice. With “Physical Attraction”, she programs the natural movements of her body to give indications on how to access production. Her voice moves. He does not gain the upper hand and does not dominate. It just floats with the bounce, like a dancer working a specific part, but not the entire dancefloor.
Some have called this “billion dollar hunch” for emphasizing physical dexterity rather than vocal acrobatics, the biggest case of “passing” of all time. But running it for 40 years is genius by definition …
A natural rhythm, which she has had from day one, is something that cannot be culturally appropriate. Whitney and Mariah can sing for weeks. But Madonna, underneath all that thrift store chic, never came out of it stiff. In fact, she seemed just the opposite. Savage. See Desperately looking for Susan for research.
Everything that happened after 1985 for Madge was aimed squarely at MTV. These are the first singles that were made for classic New York dance floors. Danceteria, Mudd Club, Paradise Garage â cultural centers that decided which tracks became national earworms for breakdancers, graffiti artists, pop lockers and street kids. Not the ones in the mall.
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