Madonna “Express Yourself”
A: Madonna was never better than when she recorded “Holiday,” “Borderline” and “Lucky Star.” Go ahead. Tell me I'm wrong.
K: For boys, I think that was the best Madonna. For girls who were toddlers or tweens during the era the produced Madonna’s self-titled debut album, there's a different best-Madonna for each respectively.
A: I agree about everyone having their favourite best Madonna. For me it’s a nostalgia thing. Nostalgia is extremely powerful. And for as much as I am not a great Madonna fan and for as much as I appreciate the many ways she has been able to reinvent herself, I can still recall sitting in the cafeteria at Samuel de Champlain High School (go Vikings) at lunch listening to the radio pumping through the tiny tinny speakers and thinking that there was something completely fresh about her sound. I didn't care about the red lipstick, the fishnet and the rubber bracelets. The music stood out. The music.
K: For me, the “Express Yourself” Madonna was the best. There have been so many reinventions, with diverse appeals, and each one is worthy of its own fan base.
A: Billboard magazine is in agreement with both of us. The ranked “Like a Virgin” as Madonna’s best album followed by “Ray of Light” and “Madonna” from 1983. And they picked “Like a Prayer” as Madonna’s best song followed by “Vogue” and “Into the Groove.” Ah, “Desperately Seeking Susan.” Now that’s a conversation for another day! So, why is the “Express Yourself” era the Kerry era?
K: It was an okay time. It was one of my most social eras. And the “Express Yourself” Madonna was grown up and sophisticated — self-assured. To me, the ideal Madonna. The “Borderline” Madonna was tarty and sassy. I appreciated the spunky appeal that that Madonna had but it wasn't an image I would aspire to.
A: Too tarty?
K: I always thought the early Madonna was a little on the wild trampy side. Last year for 80s theme day, I had no qualms outfitting our then-7-year-old in Madonna gear — fishnet arm bands, flouncy skirt over leggings, super teased hair over a scarf tied in a bow around her head, big tacky earrings. Her look is so iconic… so 80s, it took the tramp out of it for me.
A: How did you feel when that Madonna confidence from “Express Yourself” morphed into the more blatantly sexual and questionably immoral Madonna decade?
K: I sort of quit Madonna. I wasn't into a Madonna song again until “Ray of Light” in 1998 — The Ethereal Madonna. The Super-Sex Madonna wasn't that appealing to me.
A: What are your thoughts on her other various 'styles' over the years. The cone-bras et al.
K: I’ve mostly been an observer of the metamorphoses. I kind of bought into the beginning-Madonna. Like you said, it was fresh and new and different. But beyond that, I liked some of her music more than others and observed her more as a master manipulate of media. I think she was authentic in the sense that she was authentically ambitious and ruthless enough to get where she wanted to go regardless.
A: Was Madonna a success only because she was a clever and innovative marketer?
K: Her ambition made her a clever and innovative marketer.
A: Would her music have been appreciated without that marketing ambition?
K: I think her music would have been appreciated in all its incarnations with or without the push. The push just made her an icon.