When Madonna landed in New York in 1978, she was just a midwest girl from Michigan who was looking to make it in the dance world. Whether it was a motive to escape her troubled childhood (her mother died when she was very young) or it was to pursue a dream… she planted herself into something unknown.

"It was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I'd ever gotten a taxi cab. I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done."

Hitting the ground running, she started studying and dancing under notable choreographers at the time (like Martha Graham and Pearl Lang). The goal was to further her dance career of course… because naturally, she would take any opportunity she could. Then she met Dan Gilroy in 1979 which set things off.

Dan Gilroy was putting together a Ska-inspired band called the Breakfast Club and he was looking for some background talent to support the band. At the same time, France was seeing a boom in vaudeville-style entertainment (think comedians, dancers, sketches). She decided to head to France and spent time there working as a showgirl. That’s when things clicked.

When she came back to the US in 1980, she knew she wanted to sing and perform. She joined Gilroy’s band as the drummer and then moved on to become the lead singer. But her decision to go solo was the best decision she could have ever made.

In 1981, after Madonna made that decision, she made some incredible business moves. First, she hired manager Camille Barbone of Gotham Records to be her backbone. What this did was help her navigate a male-dominated industry. She tapped her friend Stephen Bray to help her write the song “Everybody.” She then connected herself with Mark Kamins who was a prominent music producer that helped Madonna get a record deal with Sire Records. That next year, in 1982, “Everybody” hit No. 1 on the dance charts.

What really made Madonna different was her ability to break rules. She embodied sexual freedom, and her music videos challenge social norms about female sexuality. This was increasingly relevant with her controversial 1984 MTV VMA performance which sent her stock soaring. It’s how she became a cultural phenomenon.

Fashion more timeless then time

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People forget how much Madonna has impacted fashion. Even in clothes that you see today.

Her early looks became emblematic of women's style in the 80s. Nearly all young women were wearing lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnets… anything Madonna wore people rushed to it.

But when she wore her white wedding dress with a “Boy Toy” belt in her MTV VMAs performance in 1984, it turned heads. That’s because it was both controversial and iconic. But as you know, fashion starts this way. Even if it’s bad press, it gets the people talking. And it’s what led to her other partnerships.

One of the most famous outfits from Madonna came from Jean Paul Gaultier for her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. And you’ve seen it. It’s the cone bra and became a symbol that challenged fashion’s norms. But it didn’t stop there with JPG. They continued to work together pushing boundaries and creating memorable fashion moments.

Madonna also became the muse for several designers, like Dolce & Gabbana and Versace. What made Madonna such a fashion icon was the fact that she was fearless while also being strategic.

Musical phenom

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One of Madonna’s best skills was blending genres within her music. When she debuted her first album in 1983, it blended pop and dance which features hits like “Holiday” and “Borderline”. What’s unique about this is that it was much bolder music than the previous era, while taking influences from disco and creating her ballad-like pop anthems. It was catchy and bold.

It wasn’t just pop and dance that she took influences from. As her career began to mature, she started adapting rock into her shows and music, which shows up in albums like Like a Prayer, which still had those pop elements but took the popularity of rock head-on with her style.

She kept on moving. Trying to be different and express herself in new ways. The Ray of Light album was a great example of that. As the Techno scene began to take hold of the music industry, she embraced it but then also mixed in British Rock which was very experimental at the time. And people loved it. Some say it was some of her best work.

The "Madonna Economy"

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When you dive deep into feminist history, they say there are 3 waves. The first wave took place between 1830 - 1930, the second from the 60s - 80s, and the third wave in the 90s - 00s. Madonna has made an impact on 2 of the 3 waves. But what was interesting about her work was that it didn’t fit into the box of the typical wave. 

When we dug into Madonna’s impact on culture, the vastness of it surprised us. Yes, we’re familiar with her place in fashion and pop. But when we started to read up on comments that Billboard staffers made… saying things like:

“There’s 2 eras in music… pre-Madonna and post-Madonna”

Our mind was blown.

She was named by Time magazine as one of the most powerful women of the 20th century. And it didn’t stop there. The globalization puts her in a place where only past figures like Marylin Monroe, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, and Elvis Presley have ever been. It got to a point where she was so unavoidable and polarized so many nations, that there was a push against pop culture. Similar to how McDonald’s or Coca-Cola was hyper-globalized, the “Madonna-economy” became an actual thing.

She got so massive that she even broke through China and North Korea’s walls. Being one of the first 2 Westerners to be approved on Chinese radio (the other was Michael Jackson). Political analyst David Held even stated:

“The most public symbols of globalization consist of Coca-Cola, Madonna, and the news on CNN.”

This playbook that Madonna created, with her outer worldly impacts, is what paved the way for artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and the Spice Girls. They adopted her boldness so they could express their own identities and challenge gender norms. And now it’s set the standard for modern pop stars that you know, especially with their theatrical performances that Madonna pioneered (think Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus).

Today she’s still going at it, with her “The Celebration Tour,” which is designed to celebrate her four-decade-long career. Her last show which was in Copacabana in Brazil broke world records by being the largest audience for a stand-alone concert and the largest all-time crowd for a female audience (and she made the concert free, which we all know is very much on-brand).

Master of the unexpected

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It’s pretty normal these days to come across artists who try to reinvent themselves. Recently Post Malone released a country album. Would you have thought that was going to happen at some point? Probably. But the person who started this was Madonna.

Financial Times’ Ludovic Hunter Tilney once said about Madonna’s career that:

“it fuelled a boom in jargon-filled academic studies about her…”

And then later she was called master of the unexpected.

She constantly reinvented herself, which popularized the idea of reinvention in music. She changed so much that she was way ahead of her audience. And that’s what kept her fresh and relevant. Constantly making impacts in the music industry decade after decade.

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Parlour's Perspective

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When we think about Madonna’s impact, it’s the reason why we started Parlour. She caused a cultural revolution that pushed boundaries in music, fashion, and societal norms which made her extremely pivotal to how we view pop culture today. 

We may not have lived through her era, but it deeply represents what Parlour’s about. It's about challenging conventions and inspiring generations. And we celebrate that, thanks to Madonna.