Favorite Madonna Video

Bedtime Story: mind blowin' visuals/ideas many of which still look good even now (and which you wouldn't get today for several reasons...tho maybe Gaga will do something on this level one day). as with the track it's "easily dismissed" as Madonna Being Bjork and could be a case of the director's vision eclipsing the performer but I never had a problem with this.

iirc Fever video is god-awful. JML is of course great, and I am such a fucking sucker for Rain (probably mostly coz it's so lol90s), Vogue is iconic, but nothing (and I mean nothing) does it for me like Human Nature, which got my vote with little thought.

yea i was thinking Human Nature at first too. she just looks so fucking good in it

felt very indecisive then voted for "Cherish" because she's crazy hot in it

truth

one of these:

Lucky Star
Material Girl
Open Your Heart
Like A Prayer
Vogue
Justify My Love
Human Nature
Bedtime Stories
Frozen
What It Feels Like For A Girl

lol I had forgotten exactly how bonkers WIFLFAG is

Open Your Heart made quite an impression on me as a youngster.

like a prayer, no question

"Human Nature" usually comes to mind first. At the time, I remember a lot of people absolutely loving the "Express Yourself" video and saying that she never looked better than she did in that video. I never understood that because it came out after "Like A Prayer", which was a much stronger video (and song) IMO.

eh i think it's on the same level as LAP. Express Yourself is pretty epic

definitely one of my favorite madonna SONGS, too

my big problem with "Express Yourself" is that I always hated Shep Pettibone's remixes and that one was no exception

one time i made my best friend go to the top of her stairs and scream "come on girls! do you believe in love? cuz i got somethin to say about it!" while her mom and sister were home

i just thought it would be funny. we were weird.

lmao awesome

There are many missing form the list. Off the top of my head:

"Who's That Girl"
"This Used To Be My Playground"
"Bad Girl"
"I'll Remember"
"You'll See"
"Love Don't Live Here Anymore"
"Get Together"
"Jump"
"Give It 2 Me"
"Celebration"

Though I guess other than "Bad Girl" none of these would be considered as part of her best.

I vaguely remember there being a video for "Sky Fits Heaven" as well

I just watched those videos back-to-back, it's been a while since I've seen either one. Now I remember all the silly nonsensical things about "Like a Prayer" -- the burning crosses (which didn't serve any purpose other than to shock people), the stigmata she gets after grabbing the knife (ditto, since I can't figure out how that fits into the story), and her Elaine Benes-esque dancing at the end. "Express Yourself" is probably a better video, but "Like a Prayer" is more memorable (perhaps not for the right reasons though).

As for the songs, LAP >>> EY. Never one of my favourite Madonna singles. Dan OTM about Shep Pettibone's remixes being kinda crappy with the exception of "Bizarre Love Triangle".

What It Feels Like For A Girl NOW AND FOREVER

shit,can't believe I forgot "Bad Girl". Definitely her best cinematography + it totally nails what the song manages to lay bear about its singer: Madonna as the smart, powerful, promiscuous, self-liberated woman who is in fact just a lonely unhappy bitch dying inside (except here she's killed by some guardian angel). Totally tragic & sophisticated.

The video for "Open Your Heart" is so amazing that I understand why people thought Madonna would make an excellent film actress: the awkward, clumsy strip tease dance, the absolutely fantastic look of big sisterly affection she gives the little boy after she kisses him, their dance -- she's charismatic as all hell, and totally approachable. The video is a nice statement on the ways in which artifice and "naturalness" interact in Madonna's public personae.

I know I've said that I grew up with Madonna as a radio instead of a video presence, but watching this clip I've always left thinking she could do anything.

The video for "Open Your Heart" is so amazing that I understand why people thought Madonna would make an excellent film actress: the awkward, clumsy strip tease dance, the absolutely fantastic look of big sisterly affection she gives the little boy after she kisses him, their dance -- she's charismatic as all hell, and totally approachable. The video is a nice statement on the ways in which artifice and "naturalness" interact in Madonna's public personae.

plus, gold pasties on a bustier

This video is one of my favorites.

Yeah, it's "Open Your Heart" or "Express Yourself" for me too.

Oh god I want to be a Chris Cunningham stan and vote for Frozen but it's far from his best work.

Express Yourself is utterly iconic and was probably the video that changed my mind about Madonna so I might have to apologise to my future ex husband and vote for that.

man MTV played that "open your heart" vid like 212 times a day

Okay, I've narrowed it down a little more:

Lucky Star
Material Girl
Open Your Heart
Human Nature
Bedtime Stories
What It Feels Like For A Girl

Can we all agree that "Frozen" and "The Power of Goodbye" suck?

Can we all agree that "Frozen" and "The Power of Goodbye" suck?

NO. No we can not.

I agree it's not up to the usual standard of both Madonna and Chris Cunningham, but that hardly qualifies as "suck".

Shooting granny through a blue filter on the beach dressed like the goth girls you avoided in college = yick.

Actually, sod it. My secret goth heart LOVES this video. You could not be more wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evxEOXkxRIA

I like "Erotic" the video.

It sends me right back to...

LOL at "granny".

"Material Girl" gets my vote.

"Frozen" is good, but not great, which is why I took it off my list.

Yeah - ageism, especially WRT women is SO freaking hilarious.

Ah, ILX, now I remember where I don't hang out around you any more.

she looks hot in that video

She looks stiff, pompous, and twenty years older in those videos, AND alludes to an equally stiff, pompous, and dowdy Joan Crawford movie, if this will assuage your sense of pique, MB.

Where's the love for the "Rain" video? Can we talk about this for a minute? Allegedly they used NO FILTERS and "hand-painted" each fucking frame. I call complete bullshit.

Oh I'm wrong, it was shot in black and white and then colored digitally, apparently. Nevermind.

Sorry MB. Hasn't she had plastic surgery though? Going out of your way to hide your age kind of sets you up for getting teased about it. But yeah, that doesn't make it right.

a woman over 40 who has had plastic surgery shouldn't have to be dubbed a granny just because she makes music videos, though. if anything i would pull out the "granny" critique in reference to videos off of Confessions. also, keep in mind that later-years madonna has a habit of looking slightly stiff and pompous, no matter what the song is. it's not like she was even trying to look young in Frozen!

also, alfred, you're saying she looks 20 yrs older than what? than her last video? i think she looks genuinely pretty in the face in Frozen -- and the "stiff" visual effect might be a play on the song, itself, actually.

if anything i would pull out the "granny" critique in reference to videos off of Confessions

the one time i said it was wrt the Hollywood video which was the first time in ages she'd done a vid not wearing much.

i just feel like i don't need to see her in pink leotards. like, really.

Hung Up video is pretty great tho

eh. i inevitably think "wow, she's really ... trying"

i just like the parkour and the pimped up van

i thought she looked really gorgeous in the ray of light era - surm otm that the really granny-mockable stuff came later, when she got her crotch out and refused to put it away (and even then i tried not to actually do it, b/c it was so often riven with actual ageism/sexism - still a huge failure on her part that she of all people couldn't find a way to be middle-aged AND sexual AND actually interesting)

i've actually seen v few madonna videos (grew up in a house without music videos innit) - obv will have to rectify later

even the bad ones are pretty good

^ not Love Profusion

i really like her look in "secret"

I'm voting Material Girl, the first of her videos to demonstrate how thoroughly she could transform herself. Unless I'm misremembering an earlier one or getting the chronology wrong...

Danny Aiello's anguish in "Papa Don't Preach" has stayed with me all these years

"Nothing Really Matters" is my pick for best song with worst video.

still a huge failure on her part that she of all people couldn't find a way to be middle-aged AND sexual AND actually interesting)

Don't blame her. Besides, Kate Bush, Sinead, Dusty Springfield, Rosanne Cash, Dolly Parton have all done it.

Also, I resent how "isms" get dusted off every time someone makes a valid remark to which you might take offense. Madonna's a "granny" because of instead of acting her age she thinks she has something to say to youth, and thus reminds me of how crotchety old people get.

To be fair, the problem isn't that she's not "acting her age"; the problem is that she's gone to a place that's unappealing regardless of how old she is (not talking about the "Frozen" video here, which I think it stately and nice, but more things like her Iggy Pop arms). The visual imagery she picks and the art direction of her live shows still strikes me as very popular and more relevant to current trends than anything she's done musically since Music.

Yeah, there's a valid argument to make regarding the sanity of intensive regular exercise and equally intense onstage routines.

well, some of the art direction of her live shows, not including the flamenco interlude on her last tour, wherein she and her dancers dressed up as gypsies and did spanish guitar versions of eg "la isla bonita" and "spanish lesson"

:((((

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwgG2oyUbA

Seriously, THIS DAMN VIDEO!

The plates on the car.
The name of the retirement home.
The way she stops to push up the grandmother's glasses after she t-bones that car at the intersection.
The way she poses with the zapper before we walks toward the ATM.
The way she drops bills on the way back to the car.
The look she gives the cops as she scrapes along the side of their cruiser.
The way she drops the french fries in the garbage.
The way she drops the lit Zippo out the window and the only way you see the explosion behind her is with an orange glow on the dashboard.
The way the "9" unsticks on the hotel room door and turns into a third "6."
The final shot of the Trans Am hitting the pole in gorgeous slow mo.

It's one of my favorite videos ever by anyone.

isn't the exercise meant to facilitate the onstage routines? like, to build up stamina and so on. i suspect she pretty much thinks of herself as an athlete.

xps again

and yes "what it feels like for a girl" is a great, great video, one which sticks out even more because the song is sort of dull

huh I had a "calling her a granny seems to miss the mark of what's really going on" coda there but I appear to have edited it out

xp: Johnny OTM, pretty much that entire video is flat-out amazing to me and points out a direction for Guy Ritchie where I think he would have been super insanely successful

I'd never actually heard the original WIFLFAG before seeing the video so I was massively disappointed when I finally got around to it and discovered that the video version was an edit of a remix rather than an edit of the album track.

Shooting granny through a blue filter on the beach dressed like the goth girls you avoided in college = yick.

― Throwing Muses are reuniting for my next orgasm! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

what do u know about avoiding goth girls in college? ur a fag remember

anyway i voted bedtime stories

I avoided them cuz I was a fag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocO1rB2CGg&feature=related

Went for "Oh Father", but "Dear Jessie" (which isn't even represented in the poll) is IMO her best video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrBGh-DWjfY

Wonderfully twee. :)

Fuck twee. I'd prefer a night of criminal, automotive-assisted mischief.

Went for "Like a Prayer", I mean (although "Oh Father" might have been a good way to vote for "Dear Jessie")

Underrated:

Power of Good-bye- love the shots of the beach

Bad Girl- excellent use of Walken

Borderline- so much charm in those early videos.

I voted for Cherish because it's one of her best songs, and she is just mindblowingly gorgeous in it. Herb Ritts RIP.

Either Lucky Star or What It Feels Like For A Girl

"Borderline": slo-mo breakdancing, East Los Angeles setting, star-turn performance, iconography taking shape before our eyes, unstoppable song--for me, there aren't many better music videos period.

I remember watching the video for Music with my mother when I was young and not believing that she was pregnant.

I'm voting Like A Prayer because it's got everything I think of when I think of Madonna - sex, controversy, dodgy acting, religion and dancing. Also the fact it's revealed to all be a performance at the end (it is, right? That's how I always interpreted it) seems to symbolise the whole idea of Madonna as a performer, existing to entertain and challenge

It is, right.

She's never looked sexier than in the LAP video.

sure she has

Yeah, but in no other video is she making out with St. Martin de Porres as her straps fall around her shoulders.

Gondry was right. The videos do NOTHING to help the music. That said, Secret is great but voted for Burning Up cause bitch be writhing around in the middle of the street like that concrete is silk! She's nothing if not commited.

I've been going through these, and the videos Madonna did with David Fincher ("Bad Girl," "Express Yourself," "Vogue," "Oh Father") are uniformly great. "Oh Father"'s got that moment where Madonna's young analogue peers into her dead mother's mouth and sees the stitching--that's an image that'll never quit me.

"Express Yourself" is a bit like "Wild Boys" for me. Kind of a "Look how much money we are able to spend on a video"-video that doesn't make much sense otherwise. Surely a lot of really great big budget vids have been made, but those two I feel are more about showing off than actually being great vids.

voted "Material Girl" altho the plot bits misread the song completely.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Kind of a "Look how much money we are able to spend on a video"-video that doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Man whatever it is a music video, I only need it to be pretty. "Express Yourself" fulfills.

ALfred so OTM on "Open Your Heart":

the awkward, clumsy strip tease dance, the absolutely fantastic look of big sisterly affection she gives the little boy after she kisses him, their dance -- she's charismatic as all hell, and totally approachable

Bad Girl

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

A couple of actually good pieces by Armond White on Madonna's music video work. The "Take a Bow" piece especially:

http://www.out.com/music/2015/3/11/advertisements-herself-how-madonna-perfected-art-form

http://www.out.com/armond-white/2015/3/18/heartache-popular-demand-reclaiming-madonnas-most-mature-music-video-message