The year was 1989. For fans, Madonna had taken a very long hiatus. Very long being a year and half but back then it felt like an eternity! Anyone that lived through it knows what I'm talking about. Although she had filmed a new movie, Howard Brookner's Bloodhounds of Broadway and was extremely busy doing her first Broadway run of David Mamet's Speed the Plow, there was very little media output from Our Lady from late '87 to early '89. Basically, all we got were paparazzi pictures of her coming and going from Speed the Plow, an Entertainment Tonight coverage piece of the play, rumors of divorce from Sean Penn and the relationship with Sandra Bernhard. After her Who's That Girl world tour in 1987, she told Spin Magazine that she was burnt out on music and the music video medium.
Spin magazine article early 1988 - Madonna not feeling the music landscape and about to come in and funk things up.
There was a written piece on her in the now defunct Fame magazine in late 1988 written by novelist Harry Crews, and it was in there that she dropped the name of her new album, Like a Prayer. I remember thinking, Is she kidding? Like a Virgin, Like a Prayer? After hearing her discontentment with music and video, I was kind of like, On no, its going to be horrible. She's over music and over videos and the last taste in our mouth was the Who's That Girl video. Although that is one of my favorite Madonna looks, it is, in my opinion, one of her worst videos. But then about 6 months later the Like a Prayer song and video were released and my initial thoughts were immediately eradicated. Obviously. She came back with a vengeance and with one of the greatest songs ever written and recorded in the history of popular music and with a video that put all others to shame. The greatest and most controversial video ever made. The Citizen Kane of music videos. Never doubt the woman.
Here is the program Videos that Rocked the World from 2007 - which discusses in length not only the brilliant video but also the Pepsi commercial and all the influence and controversy it caused. With commentaries from the video's director - the brilliant Mary Lambert, producer Sharon Oreck, co-star Leon Robinson, the awful, back stabbing horrible and hypocritical Niki Harris, cinematographer Steve Poster and a slew of others.
So without further ado here is the program, Videos That Rocked the World, analyzing the greatest video ever made, Like a Prayer.
Fighting for the National Endowment of the Arts
Spin magazine article early 1988 - Madonna not feeling the music landscape and about to come in and funk things up.There was a written piece on her in the now defunct Fame magazine in late 1988 written by novelist Harry Crews, and it was in there that she dropped the name of her new album, Like a Prayer. I remember thinking, Is she kidding? Like a Virgin, Like a Prayer? After hearing her discontentment with music and video, I was kind of like, On no, its going to be horrible. She's over music and over videos and the last taste in our mouth was the Who's That Girl video. Although that is one of my favorite Madonna looks, it is, in my opinion, one of her worst videos. But then about 6 months later the Like a Prayer song and video were released and my initial thoughts were immediately eradicated. Obviously. She came back with a vengeance and with one of the greatest songs ever written and recorded in the history of popular music and with a video that put all others to shame. The greatest and most controversial video ever made. The Citizen Kane of music videos. Never doubt the woman.
Here is the program Videos that Rocked the World from 2007 - which discusses in length not only the brilliant video but also the Pepsi commercial and all the influence and controversy it caused. With commentaries from the video's director - the brilliant Mary Lambert, producer Sharon Oreck, co-star Leon Robinson, the awful, back stabbing horrible and hypocritical Niki Harris, cinematographer Steve Poster and a slew of others.
So without further ado here is the program, Videos That Rocked the World, analyzing the greatest video ever made, Like a Prayer.
Fighting for the National Endowment of the Arts