Don't go for second best, baby. Put your ILM ARTIST POLL #31: MADONNA to the test.

"Music" is only 32?! What the fuck, people, have you even heard this song??

yup, that's how it got to #32

"Music" is the rare dumb song that succeeds as more than kitsch. It's weirdly cool despite all its not-cool stuff.

It's not heresy to suggest she might have 31 better songs, she's Madonna.

I mean I guess but idk "Music" to me is her most well-executed OTT mega dance floor banger and manages to transcend tacky kitsch

when I was little I used to think that "music made the boys run free and the rebel"

i'm sure its not rebel btw, isnt it "rabble," that makes way more sense right. i mean like "sense"

I think "Music" is fine but if I was just ranking Madonna singles, ignoring album tracks, I don't know if I'd put it much higher that #32

wtf why can't I type today

It certainly made fans of Madonna the club goddess relieved in 2000, and rode a wave of ROL good will.

tiarnan wouldn't it be such a clever and delightful use of syllepsis if it was actually "music makes the boys run free and rebel"?

It's actually "music makes the bass referee in the treble"

http://i.imgur.com/Iwm9Ibz.jpg

31. "LIKE A VIRGIN" from Like a Virgin (1984) [17 votes, 334 points, 1 first place vote]

damn her signature song outside the top 30

it's okay, she has like 14 other signature songs

!!!

Maybe "Where LIfe Begins" will be top 5 after all.

It's one of those songs that's canonical and impactful bcz of its context and "classic" but I mean come on she has made many more better songs than this.

I mean I guess but idk "Music" to me is her most well-executed OTT mega dance floor banger and manages to transcend tacky kitsch

Third most, after "Hung Up" and "Ray of Light"...

Like is this song really *that good* when you isolate it?

Okay, now I'm shocked. LAV was something shiny & new, it deserved higher than that.

It isn't. xp

xp I ranked "Ray of Light" higher than "Music" but I still think the latter is more ott/explosive/big and loud and etc

You missed a trick not starting the countdown at no.30; imagine getting to the top five and we're all trying to cram eight or nine songs in there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BLDrh-5HZU

Haha, that would've been fun. xp

aw i should probably have thrown a vote to LAV, sad to see it miss the 30. the lion in the video always cracks me up.

didn't vote for it but i'm still glad to see "music"! acid rock

"Music" sadly her last American #1.

The US being just about the only country in the world where "Hung Up" didn't go #1

I didn't realize the hook from "Hung Up" was an ABBA sample until two weeks ago :-(

The drums on Like A Virgin are amazing. It's not just the production, he's hitting them so hard. It's almost comical in effect.

http://i.imgur.com/VXhO6Od.jpg

30. "TILL DEATH DO US PART" from Like a Prayer (1989) [16 votes, 337 points]

hey here's something i voted for

I'm on a train facing backwards, looking out the window, with Sorry on my headphones, and all the overhead lines, signals, passing trains and buildings were synching past like in the Chemical Brothers' Star Guitar video. They've dropped out of synch now, but that was a strangely thrilling twenty seconds.

great song, dunno if it'll be her highest album cut but it's her best imo xp

hoping and praying probs futilely that "love tried to welcome me" will still place

http://i.imgur.com/ha1ksje.jpg

29. "EVERYBODY" from Everybody 12"/Madonna (1982,83) [15 votes, 344 points]

agh all of this has been going full steam ahead while i've been offline

hurrah to many, many tracks so far - bit worried that all the erotica tracks showing up in the 30-50 section will mean less of the right at the top, where they belong...

"everybody" is amazing

It is. How come I had it at no.25? Idiot.

bit worried that all the erotica tracks showing up in the 30-50 section will mean less of the right at the top, where they belong...

It's had 5 of the last 22, better than any other album she's released. Did you want to see the whole thing place?

yes

(apart from a couple)

wow #30

In trying to figure out why I always align Everybody with Genius of Love, I decided it's like Tina Weymouth and Madonna had the exact same dream and each of them channeled it into the songs we currently know.

wow things happening! great rollout so far, is making the upcomers v interesting

DANCE AND SING GET UP AND DO YOUR THING

*dances*

yeah I can see the link -- kinda spare but uber-groovy

I'd be OK with "Did You Do It?" missing the top 50.

http://i.imgur.com/b30MXtC.jpg

28. "SECRET" from Bedtime Stories (1994) [16 votes, 349 points]

given the voting block, the overrepresentation of Erotica was pretty much a given but I'm glad that it's playing itself out in the lower end of the rollout

wow i like "secret" but this seems way high for it

idk, placing seems kinda right to me. I'm humming it in my head right now.

for some reason I always combine this and Deeper and Deeper in my head and start thinking about udo kier and get confused