Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas
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Madonna
A true musical and performance icon, Madonna is in a class of her own. From the time she first
burst onto the pop music scene, quite simply there was no one else like her. At its core, Madonna's
music comes from her own impetus to dance. As an artist, she is known for her ceaseless ability to
adapt her career as she sees fit and reinvent her image.
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan. She is
named for her mother, Madonna Louise Firkin, a French-Canadian, and added "Veronica" to her
name for her confirmation. Her father, Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, is a first-generation American of
Italian descent. Madonna's background was strongly Catholic. Her father is described in interviews
as an unwavering moral force and a strict disciplinarian. The family lived in Pontiac, Michigan, in a
small house that could barely contain its six children, until Madonna was about 10 years old. But the singular defining
moment of her life is arguably the death of her mother. On December 1, 1963, when Madonna was just five years old, her
31-year-old mother died of breast cancer. Suddenly, Madonna had to assume a lot of adult responsibilities by helping to
care for her younger siblings. Her mother's death also spawned a love-hate dynamic between Madonna and her father.
The event sparked in her the need for control when so much was out of control, and by rebelling she tried to get her way
to gain control over her life. When her father met and married Joan Gustafson in 1966, Madonna had a lot of trouble
accepting it, and that, too, helped contribute to the modus operandi that came to define her career. At this point, she
officially became a difficult child. Gustafson eventually adopted the children in 1969, but before that, she and Tony
Ciccone had two of their own children. In 1968, the family moved to Rochester Hills, Michigan, a middle-class suburb.
Madonna started to take dance lessons from the Rochester School of Ballet while attending Rochester Adams High
School. Madonna developed her artistic skills and acted in school plays in high school.
In 1976, Madonna received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Early in her college career, she
auditioned for a workshop at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York and was accepted. The experience
changed her life: She decided to drop out of school and move to New York to pursue her career in dance. In July 1978,
Madonna moved to New York, where she lived in squalor on the Lower East Side, working odd jobs and eventually
earning a spot in the Pearl Lang Dance Company as Lang's assistant. One day, she and Lang argued about a routine,
and Madonna declared that she would be a rock star, despite the fact that she had never even sung at that point in her
life.
Madonna periodically took dance classes and auditioned for television shows, and sometime in 1979 landed a gig as a
backup dancer and singer with Patrick Hernandez Revue, a disco group responsible for the hit "Born To Be Alive." While
on tour with the revue in Paris she received voice lessons, thanks to the revue's managers, and they toured Europe for a
bit. When she returned to New York, Madonna moved in with musician and on-again/off-again boyfriend Dan Gilroy. He
taught her how to play drums and guitar and they formed a group called the Breakfast Club at the end of summer 1980.
At this point, Madonna was starting to move away from the idea of a career in dance and look to a career in music. Later
in 1980 she left the Breakfast Club and persuaded former boyfriend Stephen Bray, a drummer from Ann Arbor, to come to
New York to join another emerging band. It was fortuitous for both of them: Bray and Madonna worked together on her
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Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas
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early material, writing "Express Yourself," "Into the Groove," and "Papa Don't Preach" several years later. Her first demo
tape was recorded with him in August 1981, and it contained "Everybody" and "Burning Up," which Madonna wrote. All of
the songs would become big hits for her.
Madonna was starting to develop a reputation, and soon, based on the strength of her live performance at the club Max's
Kansas City with backup band Emmy, Gotham Records agent Camille Barbone signed her to a contract and became her
agent. Barbone took Madonna under her wing and the two were inseparable. She also tried to set Madonna up with
acting lessons, but the teacher found her unworthy of instruction. Barbone was convinced otherwise, so she took action,
fired the backup band, and set to work to promote Madonna. Despite booking Madonna some gigs and taking her demo
tape to labels, Barbone did not make progress quickly enough for Madonna, who left the arrangement just as Barbone
was reportedly on the verge of inking a deal with Columbia Records.
A demo tape ended in the hands of Mark Kamins, a producer and deejay at Danceteria in New York, who eventually got it
to Sire Records, which reportedly offered her $15,000 for a two-single deal. Sire signed Madonna in early 1982. Kamins is
responsible for producing her first single, "Everybody," which hit the club and dance charts when it was released in
October 1982. She performed it at Danceteria, and the Sire executives in attendance who signed her realized they were
onto something, so they created a video of the performance. "Everybody" hit No. 3 on the dance charts and slipped into
the Billboard Hot 100. It was time to start planning for her debut record.
Madonna and MTV have been nearly synonymous—she was one of the first artists to significantly capitalize on the new
medium, exploring its capabilities and pushing its boundaries. Her self-titled 1983 debut rose to the top of the charts not
too long after the network's August 1981 premiere. Early videos followed a few formulas, especially lip-synching and
extensive choreography, which Madonna pioneered. It was the song "Holiday," released in June 1983, and its
accompanying video featuring Madonna in eye-catching fashions, that enabled her to break through to the mainstream
pop world. The New York-based deejay John "Jellybean" Benitez took the song he discovered, which was written by
Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens, and turned it into something suitable for Madonna as its producer. In July 1983, her selftitled debut came out featuring a remarkable string of catchy songs, from "Burning Up" to "Everybody" to "Holiday," which
became her first Top 40 hit in October of that year, followed shortly by "Borderline" in March 1984, which peaked at No. 4
on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Other noteworthy songs include "Lucky Star," another song she wrote, which
peaked at No. 4 in the Hot 100. The achievement marked the beginning of a streak of 17 consecutive Top 10 hits. Her
strong initial success took everyone by surprise. The album itself peaked at No. 5, and despite their differences, she
dedicated it to her father. 1985 was a big year for Madonna. She starred in Desperately Seeking Susan and Vision Quest
and married actor Sean Penn (they remained married until 1989).
In the early part of her career, Madonna was the trend setter, but in the past decade or so, she has anticipated the trends
and used them to suit her liking. But regardless of what one might think of Madonna, there is no denying her power and
her commercial appeal. Through the years, Madonna has released scores of chart-topping upbeat dance hits such as
"Holiday," "Vogue," and "Ray of Light" along with some memorable ballads such as "Crazy for You" and "This Used to Be
My Playground." Nearly all of Madonna's albums have appeared on the Billboard charts, many of them respectably
positioned. Even her 1983 debut Madonna peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 20 on the R&B/hip-hop album
chart. She followed that up with Like a Virgin, True Blue, and Like A Prayer, which all hit the No. 1 slot on the Billboard
200 chart; subsequent releases such as 1990's The Immaculate Collection and 1998's Ray of Light hit No. 2. Music,
released in 2000, hit No. 1 on Billboard and became a top Internet and Canadian album, too. Madonna's 2003 release
American Life fared similarly well. Many of her songs immediately appeared on several different charts simultaneously,
confirming her immense appeal in multiple genres such as popular music, dance music, R&B, and Adult Contemporary.
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These songs include "Holiday/Lucky Star," which became a No. 1 hit on the club play singles chart; 1985's dance hit
"Angel," which appeared on five separate charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary chart; and the
ballad "Crazy for You," which went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 and peaked at No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The
controversial but nonetheless commercial smash "Like a Virgin" gave her early presence on the R&B/hip-hop singles
chart, peaking at No. 9. Madonna has had 11 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in less than 20
years, starting with "Like a Virgin" in 1984 and ending with "Music" in 2000.
Like a Virgin was the first of her albums to hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and go platinum, with 1 million copies
sold; to date, it has sold 10 million copies. Madonna has won six Grammy Awards: in 1991 for the Blond Ambition Live
video, which won Best Music Video, Long Form; in 1998 the album Ray of Light nabbed Best Pop Vocal Album, its single
"Ray of Light" won Best Dance Recording, and the single's video won Best Music Video Short Form; in 1999, the song
"Beautiful Stranger" won Best Song Written Specifically for Motion Picture or Television—it appeared in the film Austin
Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; and finally, in 2006, Confessions on a Dance Floor won Best Electronic/Dance
Album. Madonna has sold tens of millions of records, and her fans are legendarily devoted.
In 1996, Madonna starred as Eva Peron in the film based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita. She was awarded a
Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical, and the film won an
Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for "You Must Love Me," which she performed In that pivotal year, she also
gave birth to her first child, Lourdes Maria (Lola) Ciccone Leon (Madonna's boyfriend at the time, Carlos Leon, is the
father).
Madonna married British director, Guy Ritchie, in 2000. That same year, she gave birth to their son, Rocco John Ritchie.
In 2006, she adopted a young boy named David Banda from Malawi. She had to go through many court proceedings to
finalize the international adoption. That same year, she cofounded the charity organization Raising Malawi to aid the
country's 2 million orphans. In October of 2008, she announced that she was officially splitting from Guy Ritchie. In 2009,
after another series of court proceedings, Madonna won the right to adopt a second child, Mercy James, from Malawi.
Madonna's career is unique for a number of reasons, the first of which is perhaps the fact that she was met with nearly
instant success once she released music on a major label. She is not a trained singer or actress, yet she has made a
career out of "acting" throughout her career—she's taken on various roles as her image has changed somewhat from
album to album. Her ability to create a compelling image trumps any technical or musical shortcomings: Her voice is not
remarkable; it is thinner in the higher ranges and finds a more natural home in lower registers. In the music videos of the
early part of her career, she is featured in several different outfits and is telling a story through her music and costumed
characters. But her constantly evolving sense of style and her ambition set her apart. Indeed, it is evident that Madonna
stopped at nothing to accomplish her goals, even if it meant alienating friends, mentors, bosses, and lovers, in the move
to the next big thing. When she appeared on the long-running American Bandstand with Dick Clark in 1984 and he asked
her what she wanted to do when she grew up, she said, "Rule the world."
Madonna's background of studying dance accounts for her danceable music, and dancing is at the center of her live
performances. Her ambition continues to set her apart from other performers, but it also makes her the subject of much
criticism. Madonna's career has been as much about making music as it has been an exercise in image creation and
control, making her a subject of study among feminists and other academics. She has set the agenda for the discussion
of her through her videos, music, publicity, and sexuality. Often, tabloid-esque stories about her personal life have
superseded discussions about her music, but Madonna would not still be as immensely popular as she is if her music had
not been able to adapt, change, and innovate. Unafraid of change, Madonna has been a blonde, redhead, and brunette
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and alters her fashion approach with nearly every new album, but she has always seemed to walk the line between
projecting the image of sinner and saint, and she has always courted controversy thanks to, in part, her sexual honesty
and her foul mouth. From the controversial book Sex and film Truth or Dare to her sexually explicit antics onstage, no
attention is negative attention for this entertainer. Her image is alienating to some, but those who can look past the
attention-grabbing antics see an uncannily smart woman who does not compromise herself or her vision, one that
involves constantly pushing against social norms and expectations. Despite Madonna's appearance in or involvement
with more than a dozen films, her authorship of six children's books, her clothing line for the H&M department store chain
and another for children called English Roses, Madonna has proven she is still most successful as a performer. Because
she is interested in innovation and because she has a history of being provocative, she is a regular in the pages of
newspaper tabloids and celebrity weekly magazines both in her native United States and in her adopted home of
England. In short, Madonna has been a reliably surprising contributor to the larger conversation of American culture since
the early 1980s.
Carrie Havranek
Further Reading
Cross, Mary. Madonna: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007; Dullea, Georgia. "Madonna's New Beat is a
Hit, But Song's Message Rankles." The New York Times. September 18, 1986; Fouz-Hernandez, Santiago, and Freya
Jarman-Ivens (eds.). Madonna's Drowned World: New Approaches to Her Cultural Transformations, 1983–2003. 2004;
George-Warren, Holly, ed. Madonna: The Rolling Stone Files. New York: Hyperion, 1997; Harrington, Richard.
"Madonna." The Washington Post. May 26, 1985; Holden, Stephen. "Madonna Goes Heavy on Heart." New York Times.
June 29, 1986; James, Caryn. "The Empress Has No Clothes." The New York Times, October 22, 1992; Morton, Andrew.
Madonna. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001; Raitliff, Ben. American Life, Review. Rolling Stone 922, May 15, 2003;
Worrell, Denise. "Now: Madonna on Madonna." Time, May 27, 1985; www.madonna.com.
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Havranek, Carrie. "Madonna." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 3 June 2014.
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Entry ID: 1347637
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