(photo by Francesco Scavullo)
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We are nearing the end of our journey through Madonna's 80's catalog but we still need to celebrate her iconic music videos.
Here are my ten favorite 80's videos by our Diva.
Let's get into this article!
10. "Live to Tell"
Madonna was coming off of the "Like a Virgin" era. Her iconic street-punk look was the one people identified her with, along with her girlie voice and the big dance tunes.
She came back in 1986 not only with one of the best ballads (and songs in general) of her career but with a new image as well.
Susan was gone. Instead, a young woman with beautiful, wavy, golden hair, a simple floral dress and a subtle make-up took over.
This video, in all its simplicity, was the first major reinvention of Madonna's career.
9. "Papa Don't Preach"
A reinvention after the reinvention. That's what this video was.
After taking everyone by surprise with Live to Tell, Madonna changed her appearence once again.
She is seen with short hair and people were at the time surprised at how athletic and toned her body looked (remember that some called her "chubby" during the Like a Virgin era).
The video shows a tomboyish teenage girl finding out that she is pregnant and the subsequent struggle to tell her father about it. The shot of Madonna wearing a t-shirt with the caption "Italians do it better" became iconic.
The clip caused controversy at the time and was both praised for its pro-life message and criticized for supposedly encouraging teenage pregnancy.
Madonna and scandals....tale as old as time.
8. "Like a Virgin"
The video that turned Madonna into a global star, Like a Virgin was shot in Venice (Italy) and instantly caused controversy, along with its parent song.
The clip alternates between scenes depicting a sexy Madonna singing and dancing on a gondola and scenes of a more innocent Madonna wearing a wedding dress and dealing with her secret sexual appetites, symbolized by a lion.
Italy, Venice, Piazza San Marco and Saint Mark are all obvious catholic symbols with Saint Mark in particular symbolizing a time when sexual crimes were brutally punished....and here we have a virgin being tempted by a lion, the emblem of power, desire and wildness.
The last sequence of the video, which sees the virgin turning her groom into a lion-faced man and going with him to Piazza San Marco on a gondola, is the epitome of provocation. She in fact becomes the Goddess of sexual liberation in the city of Venice, one of the homelands of catholicism, a religion that sees sex as a sin.
A legendary moment in pop culture.
7. "Burning Up"
Madonna's second video, Burning Up has lost none of its charm over 36 years after its release.
It shows the burning desire our Diva has for a guy and how it almost "kills" her (literally) at the end of the video, before she takes control of herself again.
In fact, everything happens inside her mind. Nothing is really happening in this video, it's all metaphorical.
There are many symbols, such as the guy (the object of her desire) who drives the car (the desire itself), the locked door (the guy's indifference towards her) and the car almost running her over (the self-destructive power of her desire). The final shot of Madonna driving the car means that she is "in control" again and thus gives an empowering message.
The video also introduced Madonna's natural beauty and iconic street/punk image to the world.
An underrated gem still to this day.
6. "La Isla Bonita"
This video was Madonna's first take on spirituality and just like in Burning Up, everything happens inside her mind.
We see the inner conflict of a catholic girl, torn between the limiting purity her faith requires (symbolized by the girl dressed in white) and her desire to fall in love and live a free life (symbolized by the girl wearing the iconic red flamenco dress).
The alternating scenes of these two girls/personalities are at times interrupted by some shots of the protagonist praying in front of a little altar, holding a rosary.
In this video, Madonna represented her own conflictual relationship with catholicism.
5. "Open Your Heart"
I feel like the word "iconic" has lost its meaning as it's used for literally every little stupid thing nowadays.
Yet, videos like this one can't be described in any other way. In Open Your Heart dance music, art, sex and cabaret merge and create what could be described as one big painting in motion.
Madonna takes both Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich and turns them into sensual strippers performing for different types of people. We can see a business man, two (presumably gay) marines, a young guy, an old man taking an aspirin, a lesbian woman and finally a simple voyeur. Outside of the strip club, a boy wants to enjoy the "show" as well but the owner doesn't let him in as he's too young.
After Madonna's performance ends, she briefly kisses the boy on the lips and runs away with him, trying to protect him from the owner who wants her to come back and perform again.
Many interpretations have been given to this video. Madonna could be reuniting with her purity at the end (symbolized by the young boy) but some fans have also thought about a single mother performing at this strip club to earn money and this would turn the young boy into her son.
Whatever this video means, it is one of Madonna's greatest works and yes, it caused controversy at the time, with MTV being reluctant to play it at first.
This clip shows what inspiration is all about: The capability to take already existing icons and reinvent them in a new context.
4. "Material Girl"
One of Madonna's most popular videos, Material Girl increased our Diva's reputation as a popstar and visual artist.
Inspired by the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, this clip became an anti-capitalist manifesto, as the girl Madonna impersonates ignores the jewelry her rich admirers try to impress her with and instead falls in love with a poor guy who offers her flowers.
All of this turns Material Girl (the song) into a parody of, indeed, materialism.
Once again, Madonna took an established icon like Marilyn Monroe and reinvented her in a brand new way.
The pink dress Madonna wears in the video became one of her most iconic outfits and reinforced not only the comparison with Monroe but also the title of "Marilyn of Pop" some music critics were describing her with at the time.
3. "Like a Prayer"
This video marks a turning point in Madonna's career. It was the video that created the provocative and controversial Madonna we know today.
It depicts a dark story, mixing catholicism, sex, violence and racism.
Madonna witnesses the murder of a young woman by a group of men. Suddenly they hear the police coming and run away. A black guy tries to help the woman but he gets mistaken for the murderer and thus arrested.
Madonna, terrified, escapes to a church and reflects on what just happened. She had the chance to tell the truth but she didn't have the courage to stand up for the black man, as she was paralyzed with fear.
At this point, the dream sequence starts.
Madonna falls into an undefined space and gets caught by a woman, symbol of her inner power and strength.
Our Diva prays to a statue that looks like the black man who got arrested. Suddenly, the statue starts crying and comes alive, kissing her on the forehead before leaving the church. Madonna takes a knife that causes her stigmata on her hands.
A gospel choir appears in the church and she starts to sing and dance with it. This alternates with controversial scenes of Madonna dancing in front of some burning crosses and scenes where she is kissing the black saint.
Now she wakes up and, feeling brave and strong to stand up for the truth, she goes to the police station and tells the agents that the black man is innocent.
The clip ends in a very theatrical way, as everybody involved in the story takes a bow, before the curtains come down on the stage.
The video has a very powerful message, as Madonna has to reunite with her inner Jesus to find the courage to reveal the truth to the police. Jesus sacrificed himself to save humanity and she is going to to do that as well, in her own way of course. That is why she has stigmata at one point and that is why the crosses are burning. Her strength, courage and faith all mix together and intensify.
The character Madonna impersonates obviously lives in a very dangerous and scary environment where women and black people are always the victims of white men. By being a woman who decides to defend a black man, Madonna becomes the Jesus of her neighborhood. She goes against everything that resides there such as racism, violence, misogyny and fights against it with love, truth and justice.
Needless to say, this video caused a massive scandal, as Christian symbols were used in a blasphemous way, according to the Vatican. The Pope excommunicated Madonna and she responded with: "Art should be controversial and that is all there is to it".
30 years after its release, no one has released a video as impactful as Like a Prayer.
2. "Oh Father"
Possibly the most underrated video of Madonna's career, Oh Father is an absolute gem.
It depicts the death of a young woman and the subsequent difficult relationship between her husband and daughter.
The man's desperation eventually leads him to start drinking and having continuous and violent arguments with his daughter, who can't accept her mother's death either.
We see the little girl wearing her mother's dresses and jewelry, revealing the presence of the Electra Complex.
The most unsettling scene sees the girl at the funeral of her mother. She walks up to her wake and notices her lips are sewn together. This scene, like the entire clip, is autobiographical. Her mother's lips sewn shut is an image that has haunted Madonna for years.
Our Diva's difficult relationship with her father is well depicted in the video but the ending scene symbolizes that now she no longer sees him as an insurmountable figure. She understands his pain and devastation and how they had two different ways of dealing with such a tragic loss.
1. "Express Yourself"
The number one spot goes to Express Yourself, arguably Madonna's most timeless 80's video.Inspired by the silent movie Metropolis, this iconic clip perfectly conveys Madonna's own conception of feminism and sexuality.
She plays the part of a glamorous, chic lady who lives in one of the skyscrapers of Metropolis and has many muscular men as her workers.
Femininity, sexual desire, gender roles and girl power are the key elements of this video, all re-interpreted according to Madonna's own vision.
She has called herself a "bad feminist" because to her, feminism is wrongly considered by many as a movement against men, sex and any kind of feminine trait. Basically, most feminists think they have to look and behave like men and use that behaviour against men themselves, in order to overpower them.
Madonna shows us that being a feminist means being proud to be a woman and that is why femininity is highlighted in the video, along with natural sexual desire (something often ignored and even shamed by feminists).
The iconic scene that sees Madonna wearing a suit at the top of a big staircase is the central part of the whole thing. The scene represents gender-bending as Madonna looks like a woman and a man at the same time. That is an important message, as women can be powerful like men but still preserve their feminine traits.
In 1989, its $5 million budget made Express Yourself the most expensive music video of all time.
This video was our Diva's first collaboration with David Fincher (who also directed Oh Father, Vogue and Bad Girl) and to me, it was the pinnacle of Madonna's 80's career.
Let your body move to the music
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