Madonna

1983年麦当娜出版了首张以她名字命名的专辑----《麦当娜》，当时并没有引起人们的注意。然而不久这张唱片的歌曲成了美国夜总会的必放歌曲，流行程度令人吃惊。单曲“Holiday”又经过市内广播电台疯狂传播，令人难以置信的是进入了全美最佳20首歌曲的排行榜。不久，专辑中的“Lucky Star”和“Borderline”也走上了她的第一首单曲同样的成功之路，打上排行榜首。经过录影带的广泛传播，世界知道了麦当娜，她那令人好奇的外貌：蜂刺状头发、裸露的腹部、超短裙和带着宗教色彩的装饰品，尤其是那些故意染上的色彩。当麦当娜的这张专辑作品还没登上排行榜的时候，1984年，华纳唱片公司发行了她的唱片集《像个处女》，两张专辑同时出击，使麦当娜短时间内就如日中天。1985年，麦当娜单曲和专辑的销售量超过了任何一位艺术家。虾米收录的是2001年的复刻版本，比原版多出一首12" Version的Burning Up 和MIX版本的Lucky Star。

Although she never left it behind, it's been easy to overlook that Madonna began her career as a disco diva in an era that didn't have disco divas. It was an era where disco was anathema to the mainstream pop, and she had a huge role in popularizing dance music as a popular music again, crashing through the door Michael Jackson opened with Thriller. Certainly, her undeniable charisma, chutzpah, and sex appeal had a lot to do with that -- it always did, throughout her career -- but she wouldn't have broken through if the music wasn't so good. And her eponymous debut isn't simply good, it set the standard for dance-pop for the next 20 years. Why did it do so? Because it cleverly incorporated great pop songs with stylish, state-of-the-art beats, and it shrewdly walked a line between being a rush of sound and a showcase for a dynamic lead singer. This is music where all of the elements may not particularly impressive on their own -- the arrangement, synth, and drum programming are fairly rudimentary; Madonna's singing isn't particularly strong; the songs, while hooky and memorable, couldn't necessarily hold up on their own without the production -- but taken together, it's utterly irresistible. And that's the hallmark of dance-pop: every element blends together into an intoxicating sound, where the hooks and rhythms are so hooky, the shallowness is something to celebrate. And there are some great songs here, whether it's the effervescent "Lucky Star," "Borderline," and "Holiday" or the darker, carnal urgency of "Burning Up" and "Physical Attraction." And if Madonna would later sing better, she illustrates here that a good voice is secondary to dance-pop. What's really necessary is personality, since that sells a song where there are no instruments that sound real. Here, Madonna is on fire, and that's the reason why it launched her career, launched dance-pop, and remains a terrific, nearly timeless, listen.