It’s hard to pick a song by Madonna to represent her career, or a favourite. Of course I’m going to give preference to the 1980s, the decade that taught me about music, and of course the music video. The video description says 1989, but I was thinking this song was older. I’m sure the video description is correct.

And of course I have a funny story, not so much about the song but about Madonna. I had a cousin who was like a best friend and a younger sister to me at the same time. When my family would visit hers or vice versa, she’d follow me everywhere, and rope me into playing dolls or whatever it was she was into at the time. Two things I could not get from her: middle name, and favourite singer (or band). I got the former from her mum. The music thing was harder. I think she knew I was into Guns n’ Roses and Metallica there, and maybe felt like her answer would only disappoint me, so she deflected and changed the subject.

If you remember the old Internet, back in 1994-1996, before Google, when everyone had a GeoCities or AngelFire page rather than a Facebook or even MySpace, we all had this feature called a Guestbook. Much like a paper guestbook at a wedding, funeral/wake, or whatever, there was a part of the web page, near the bottom of the table of contents, usually above or below “About me” called “Guestbook” and it would ask you a series of questions, and you could configure it. I never saw the point, but I did then. So I remember I had first name, home state/province/country, a bunch of other personal questions (privacy was less an issue then, or we were blissfully ignorant)… and I made sure to include “favourite singer/band” as a question. My page featured a picture of me with my cousin, and I told her mom how to pull it up on their computer. So, exactly as I expected her to do, she put my cousin in the chair and let her explore the site. And, also as expected, she answered every single question in the guestbook, and I learned her favourite singer was Madonna.

So we had some choice words next time we spoke. To the tune of, yes my first love in music is hard rock. But that being said, pop music is a very close second if not my favourite music. You have to realise, music was just better in the 1980s. These days, from the mid-90s on, you talk about pop music, it’s about groups that are made by the record labels (like boy bands/girl groups) or they’re Disney stars or whatever. (Korea still manufactures bands, it’s part of why K-Pop is so huge. It’s a product.) Back in the day though, music was more real, more genuine. So not only did I also love Madonna, but I had her greatest hits album (“The Immaculate Collection”) and played it regularly.

The lesson wasn’t mine to learn, but I still learned it secondhand. You can never really judge a book by its cover, especially when it comes to music. Music is personal to the listener; every favourite song hit different chords of memory. For me, a lot of older Madonna songs remind me of that story. Someone else might think of something else.

P.S. I had a weird dream I missed a day posting a song of the day. I hope one day this comm grows enough that if I haven’t posted one by a certain time, someone else will post. And anyone can post their song of the day even if I’ve posted mine. Music is personal to the listener. Post your song. Speak your truth. Or just drop the link. I know someone posted two songs the other day and I commented on one. I’m still gonna check out the other song at some point. We’re here to share what moves us. The why is optional. If it’s too personal, you have the choice to keep it to yourself, we’ll just groove to the beat. Be excellent to each other.