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'80s Icon: Madonna

© Michele Morabito

One of the first artist everyone thinks of if they had that question posed to them would be Madonna. Her '80s persona will define her forever as the pop music icon. She is still called the Material Girl.

Madonna has always kept herself in the news whether it be by musical or personal promotion. From the very beginning circa 1982/83 and into the mid-80s, her boy toy belt and layered under-as-outer-wear look started a craze for Madonna "wannabe" little girls.

According to her unofficial fan biography page, Madonna got her big break with DJ Mark Kamins when he created a club remix of "Everybody." As the story goes, the Warner Brothers Record People heard it and signed her. And there she still is today, only now under her own WB label, Maverick Records.

Her first 3 singles, "Holiday," "Lucky Star" and "Borderline" hit the charts, but the biggest boost was her videos. Her videos introduced her to the world outside of nightclubbers and put a face to the name. The best was yet to come.

In 1984, her next album quickly came out, the ever rememberable, Like A Virgin. It catapulted her into superstardom with her wedding dress setup at the MTV Awards and her tiger motif video. Closely followed was her "Material Girl" single and video parodying Marilyn Monroe. The title track of album also brought her her first no. 1 single.

No one can forget her shameless disregard for the world leaders when she proclaimed she wanted to "rule the world" to Dick Clark (wonder what Tears For Fears thought of that?) and repeated it to MTV. She went on to finish The Virgin Tour with all those great paisley outfits, necklaces and, most importantly, her dancers. The ever incredible Nile Rodgers produced this CD.

By 1986, True Blue had arrived in stores and again started a controversy with "Papa Don't Preach" with its adult-ish message marketed at pre-teenagers.  Whatever her good intentions may have been, it did not turn out too well for her. This album is her "I-fell-in-love-and-got-married" album; she also dedicated it to him. The husband in question was bad-boy actor Sean Penn.

By the end of the decade they were divorced, but they have the single "Live To Tell" (also from Penn's movie At Close Range) to remember their four years. She also starred in movies, but only two survived the onslaught: Vision Quest and Desperately Seeking Susan. The others went to movie heaven (Who's That Girl?, Shangai Surprise).