Though she has put more records in the top ten than any other artist besides Elvis (whom she will surpass with one more hit), Madonna is perhaps more famous as a pop provocateur than as a musician. However, it is likely that she regards the two as inseparable.
Madonna left her native Detroit in 1977 to pursue a career in dance. She studied in New York with choreographer Alvin Ailey, and worked as a backup singer/dancer in the Patrick Hernandez Revue, a disco group known for the hit "Born to Be Alive." While singing (and drumming!) with several New York bands she worked on a demo tape of club-oriented tracks, which eventually yielded the modest hits "Everybody," and "Physical Attraction." The success of these tracks led to a partnership with Jellybean Benitez, one of the most popular DJs in New York; Benitez wrote and produced both Madonna's next hit, "Holiday," which broke the pop Top 40, and her self-titled debut album. "Borderline" became her first top ten hit in March 1984, the first of a string of seventeen consecutive top ten hits, a streak matched only by Michael Jackson and the Supremes. However, it wasn't until her second album, the Niles Rodgers-produced Like a Virgin, that Madonna became an omnipresent superstar.
Over the course of her career Madonna has created more than her share of controversies. The Vatican frequently expressed discomfort with her simultaneous expressions of Catholic faith and overt sexuality. In 1989 Pepsi pulled out of $5 million dollar sponsorship over the provocative video for "Like a Prayer," which included burning crosses and simulated sex in a church. Madonna also outraged the Veterans of Foreign Wars by wrapping herself in an American flag for an MTV Rock the Vote ad, and her video for "Justify My Love" was banned by MTV for its explicitly sexual content (though it was played in its entirety on the ABC news program Nightline). However, each instance of controversy also generated reams of free publicity and stimulated debates over free speech, sexuality, and religion.
Like David Bowie, Madonna has frequently re-invented herself, and her new personas often coincide with new albums, films, or tours. The raunchy but childlike "boy toy" image of her early career was followed a by a more virginal image (for the single "Like a Virgin"). She morphed into a 1940s Hollywood starlet for "Material Girl," and "Crazy for You," which was soon replaced by a more assertive, Marlene Dietrich vamp. She assumed an elegant, sophisticated image in 1995 to coincide with her film portrayal of Evita Perón, then transformed into an Indian hippie (for Ray of Light), and a proper English matron (after marrying British film director Guy Ritchie). She has just reinvented herself again, this time as a disco revisionist for Confessions on a Dance Floor.
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Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, The Pretenders, The Police, Donna Summer, Marilyn Monroe
Must Haves:
 "Ray of Light"
"Borderline"
"Crazy for You"
"Like a Prayer"
"Express Yourself"
Influenced: Paula Abdul, Jody Watley, Vanessa Paradis, RuPaul, Britney Spears
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