For the early stages of Madonna’s career, I was a semi-casual fan. Strange truth be told, it was my brother who brought the ‘True Blue’ album into our home. I’d loved ‘Like A Virgin’ but was dubious about whether I’d liked anything new by Madonna. (Ahh, to be that innocent and naïve and foolish again…) A true Virgo by nature, it wasn’t yet in me to embrace or look for change, so he ended up getting ‘True Blue’ and I ended up loving it. The same strange lack of excitement greeted ‘Like A Prayer’ – I just couldn’t be bothered with trying something new. Came around in a big way to that album too, even if I almost smashed it to smithereens in a moment of Catholic guilt. One would have thought by the time ‘I’m Breathless’ rolled around I’d have learned that I loved Madonna and she could do no wrong. Possibly, but I took my time getting into the brilliance of that album as well.
It wasn’t until ‘Erotica’ arrived that I was a super-fan, and since then I’ve never slacked. For the ‘Erotica’ album and ‘Sex’ book, I wasn’t even driving yet, so my friend Ann and her Mom brought me to the mall to pick them up. By the time ‘Bedtime Stories’ was released I was in Boston and doing my own thing. (Which consisted mostly of sleazing around Tower Records until the next Madonna single came out.)
At that point a new Madonna album release was an Event in the best and most explosive ways. The date would be marked on my calendar, the school or work schedules shifted for before and after, and a holiday would be born. To this day, I remember dates and time-frames in relation to Madonna album releases. It went this way for a while – the ‘Something to Remember’ ballad compilation, the ‘Evita’ soundtrack, the majestic ‘Ray of Light’, and the magnificent ‘Music’ album were all procured in this same format – a midnight release and a line at Tower Records.
Shortly after the turn of the millennium, however, with all the online leaks and download options, the necessity of standing in line late at night became a thing of the past, and with its passing so too went a ritual. Virgos love our rituals and we find comfort and safety in tradition. Taking it away just because I could download something on my computer may have been easier and faster than a trip to Boston or New York, it also left less of an impact. But that’s how we change and grow. The releases for ‘American Life’ and ‘Confessions on a Dancefloor’ and ‘Hard Candy’ were exciting, but mostly non-events. I’d still thrill to a club or gay bar playing something off a new Madonna album, which probably happened last in New York sometime after ‘Confessions’, but for the most part the releases were muted. There was a slight surge in the excitement level when her 2012 Superbowl performance had me overly-anticipating ‘MDNA’ but when the disastrous leaks of ‘Rebel Heart’ forced an early-but-staggered release, the blush of the single release date was definitely off the rose.
Tomorrow’s release of ‘Madame X’ had, until a few days ago, been relatively leak-free, and the late leaks of the album are coming so close to the real release date that a bit of the old magic and excitement is back. To that end, this lengthy, link-filled post has been written for a bit of Madonna history. All hail Madame X.
