First And Last: Madonna

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I had this idea for a thread genre (hubristic eh?) - tell us about the first time you heard and artist/record/song and the most recent time you heard it. When and where? What did you think?

So let's start with Madonna, because EVERYBODY's heard Madonna.

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

last time as in last single? or just last physical time you heard one of their records?

strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I first heard Madonna in 1984, when "Like A Virgin" got big over here. I was 11. I think I was a bit grossed out by it, I didn't want to think about virgins and touching. It was a bit too sexy for me and the tune was too slow.

I last heard Madonna this lunchtime in Woolworths, "True Blue" on my CD walkman. My MP3 of it suddenly sped up halfway through and I couldn't work out if it was meant to be the slow or the fast one. The fast one sounded a ton better, the slow one sounded ponderous and forced.

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Last time you heard any of their records (that you can remember).

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

first time i heard madonna: the video for "material girl" is what sticks out in my mind. i was probably six or seven. i think i probably heard "about" her on tv before i saw or heard any of her music. then, of course, for the next nine years she was inescapable.

last time i heard madonna was watching the second austin powers movie a few weeks ago on tv, when "beautiful stranger" came on. it sounded better than i remembered it being (i.e. "awful") but maybe that's because it was around 20 seconds worth.

strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

"Burning Up" on the Tube. I thought "That's a lousy stage name" until I found it was her real name.

Last time? There's some pics that Dawn took of Amber and Alice dancing to "Music" with cowgirl outfits, and I heared the track in my head. That count?

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The first time I heard Madonna was on a family vacation to Florida. Before I had a Walkman, I had a big Panasonic boombox which rested on my lap with headphones plugged into the jack. I remember "Lucky Star" playing just after I'd seen the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.

The last time I heard Madonna was when I listened to the GHP "Ray of Gob" mash-up on the way in to work this morning.

Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

1st time - on the yoof tv prog the Tube when she danced at the Factory club or sommat like that, many years ago. didn't appeal. last time was a few weeks ago the IDC mashup that places Music to glitterati/bowie/klf glam stomp. i dont actively listen to her stuff anymore (was tempted for a few days when i first heard william orbits sonic bubbles on Ray of Life etc)

mark e (mark e), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

First time was the year her first album came out and the song was "Burning Up" and i heard it on WHCN the college radio station in Danbury, CT. They played mostly new wave. They played that song a lot though! Madonna wasn't a smash hit yet. That would take a while. My friend Maggie and I loved it so much that we went to Caldor to buy the 45 and we saw the album and bought that instead. We stared at her picture forever. We had no idea what she looked like!

The last time was a couple weeks ago when I played her Take A Bow 12 inch. I like the Steve Hurley mixes on that one okay.

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 5 April 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

First: "Holiday" on New Jersey college radio circa 1983.

Last: can't remember. Not within the past few weeks.

mike a, Monday, 5 April 2004 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I belong to the post Madonna generation. There is no first time. Madonna simply is.

Last week we played "Everybody" at a dance party.

Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 5 April 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

First: must have been the video for "Holiday" around 1983. My dad used to tape the video shows in those days (we didn't get MTV and this was before Much Music existed), they'd show an hour of the most recent vids on CITYTV or something at midnight on Fridays.
Last: probably the vid for "Ray of Light" a few weeks ago.

Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 5 April 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

First time I saw Madonna was on some children's program. She was on a big ole pillow hunched up legs (?) proclaiming she'd be the BIGGEST STAR EVAH! My parents also saw this and immediately proclaimed she was a mean TART.

Last time: Hmm, it was her last videoclip. Can't remember what the title of the song was. Love Profusion? Could be.

jesus nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 5 April 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

1st time- "Burning Up". Saw the video on MTV at my grandparents' house.

Last time- Probably about a week ago, "Music" popped up on random on my iPod as I was walking home from work.

Randy Reiss (undeadsinatra), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm. First time I'd heard Madge was seeing the LAV vid on late night terrestrial TV was I was 9. Didn't get it then, though. Had to wonder why she was humping the floor.

Last time: hearing "Frozen" being substituted as muzak in Victoria's Secret today.

Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the "Open Your Heart" video was my introduction to her music. I felt a lot like that little boy in the video watching it.

Last time I heard her was when driving with "Don't Tell Me" on the radio a week or two ago. I really love the dancing in that video.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Madonna pretty much introduced the concept of sex to me via MTV as a child. Especially the "Express Yourself" video. She was NAKED!

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

that "Like A Virgin" cover made my tummy feel funny.

noodle vague (noodle vague), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

that little boy in the open your heart video used to present the word or something didn't he (felix something..cutest kid ever)?

I have clear memories of hearing Like A Virgin on a school skiing trip bus ride to Glenshee. I realise I must have heard her before to have recognised it as being Madonna, but that's the first thing that comes to mind.

Last time? No idea. Must have been on MTV/VH1 or something, I guess. She's so omnipresent, you kind of forget you've heard stuff sometimes.

ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

First time: when I was eight or so, "Burnin' Up" was getting some radio play. "Borderline" got semi-huge the next year and was the first video I ever saw where I was sexually attracted to the woman in it. I was a shy little geek* and his naturally scared the living hell out of me; it got worse when all the girls in my class started dressing like her.

Last time: "Live to Tell," which I'd ripped from The Immaculate Collection for a project I'm working on.

*haha "was"

Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

First time I heard Madonna: late January, 1984. My mom, my oldest brother and I are vacationing in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida and the car radio is always playing, usually the same couple songs over and over again -- John Lennon's "Nobody Told Me," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger." "Borderline" comes on the radio. I think of her as a girl singer with a really squeaky voice. For some reason I assume she's black. I think I may have even thought it was Jennifer Holliday, of all people (man, history left *her* at the curbside, right?). But I don't think enough of the song to say anything about it. We pass by one of these large, possibly gentrified resort buildings with a weirdly-built chimney where the bricks are stacked neatly in columns rather than staggered out in rows. After my brother makes fun of the chimney -- he makes fun of it every time we pass it by in the car, which is a lot -- he casually mentions the girl who's singing this song is called "Madonna," just "Madonna," and that she's actually white, of all things. I have a hard time believing him until I see her video, which must be a few weeks later.

Last time I heard Madonna: can't honestly remember. Though I think I saw one of her tour posters recently and thought, CRIMONY, she's STILL jacking the Kabbalah tree-of-life imagery.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I also remember sitting in my chemistry class at school singing Borderline. But I think that was later, once I'd established some degree of identification with these songs being songs by Madonna, rather than just being songs.

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:06 (twenty-one years ago)

No, wait...the last time I heard Madonna was last week or so, when I was playing one of my MST3K tapes from eight or nine years ago. There was a commercial for VH1, which at the time was in a constant state of trying to rebrand itself as hepper and hepper. I don't exactly remember the set-up, but the punchline involved Madonna in a car, dressed EXACTLY as she did in the "Take a Bow" video (song plays throughout the ad) and saying "VH1. It'll SUCK YOU IN." She clearly relished that line.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

First: Madonna was omnipresent even in my earliest memories so it's kind of hard to say, but I do have some memories of the "La Isla Bonita" video clip which at six or so I found really exotic both musically and visually. But it wasn't until "Like A Prayer" came out that I started to have a coherent understanding of who she was. Then in late '89 I watched a special on Rage (an Oz music video show) where they showed all of her video clips up to that point in chronological order, so I went from being only very vaguely aware of her to being something of a buff in a very short period of time, and this makes it hard to remember early impressions.

Last: Either listening to her first album (I love "Lucky Star" and "Burning Up" first and foremost) or hearing mixes of "Love Profusion" in a club somewhere. "Love Profusion" is perhaps unusual in that I bet a lot of people are aware of it without realising that it's actually Madonna; it sounds pleasant but catchy but kind of anonymous and un-statement-like. Hearing it out for the first time, it wouldn't have surprised me to learn that it was actually Dannii or someone guesting on a dance track.

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i can now update the last time i heard madonna. "you'll see" was just one on of the many cable channels I am flicking through.

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

First: the "Material Girl" video back in 1986.
Last: When it came out, I sat through the entirety of American Life, and therefore I have absolutely no desire to ever hear another Madonna song ever.

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

the Borderline video.

This is an interesting way to age people, or gauge how early they were paying attention to music.

But MTV played Borderline over and over again and it's totally imprinted on my memory.

The last time would have to be whenever the last time I DJ'd Everybody at a party, sometime within the last few months, but it's all a blur. It's always in the bag.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

"Like a Virgin" on the radio, I believe (first time I can remember a video though is "Open Your Heart")
I'm sure I listened to "Into the Groove" recently.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

First memory: "Borderline", my sister had a tape of it. This was probably 2-3 years after it came out.

Last: I listened to "American Life" the album the other day. It's not bad. "Easy Ride" is still utterly magnificent.

edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 04:16 (twenty-one years ago)


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