True Blue: Madonna's Apex

(L to R: True Blue album-#1US, Live to Tell-#1, Papa Don't Preach-#1, True Blue-#3, Open Your Heart-#1, La Isla Bonita-#4).

In 1986 Madonna was the most famous person in the world. With two albums, and a score of hits behind her, she already had a solid base to build upon. Madonna was married to Sean Penn and wanted to explore her joy through her music. She reinvented her image, chosing a chic image that evoked classic Hollywood. Thus she enlisted Stephen Bray, her longtime collaborator, and Patrick Leonard, who would come to define her sound. True Blue was pop through and through, an expression of joy and love, but with a message. This was the 80s, when messages were everywhere. Madonna wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, and shared co-production credits on every song as well.

Papa Don't Preach opens the album with a defiant pro-life message, and uses classical instrumentation coupled with dance beats. Open Your Heart is an emotional power house, with a heavy dance beat and guitar chords. White Heat, Madonna's tribute to classic Hollywood, is a rollicking song that sample movie dialogue. Live To Tell, an aching, mysterious ballad, features raw vocals and profound lyrics, Madonna's best writing. Where's the Party, an anthem of Madonna's carefree persona, is another dance-rock song, but features a chorus of party voices near the end. True Blue, an homage to 50s pop, has a soaring chorus and is a love song for Sean Penn. La Isla Bonita, offered but declined by Michael Jackson, is an ode to Latin America and introduced a character of latin instrumentation and imagery that Madonna would revisit. Jimmy Jimmy, Madonna's tribute to James Dean, is a poppy, upbeat song. Love Makes the World Go Round is a very 80s song because its message of love and empowerment; Madonna wrote and preformed it for Live Aid a year earlier to raise money for Africa and AIDS.

True Blue is a cohesive record in sound and style. Madonna's singing retained the girlish exuberance, but her vocals were less thin. The Guinness Book of World Records called True Blue unprecedented, as it topped the charts in 28 countries, and became one of the best selling albums by a female artist in the world. Madonna couldn't have known Sean Penn would abuse her with a baseball bat when dedicating the album, but the lyrics in Jimmy Jimmy are telling: "why oh why do fools fall in love with fools like you." True Blue is really a triumph for music and Madonna, a true masterpiece, an album of epic proportions.

The videos for True Blue are some of Madonna's best remembered. Live to Tell is a simple video, but Madonna is at her most beautiful and most vulnerable as the camera hovers around her, like a person pressing for the secret of the song. Madonna plays a teenage mother in Papa Don't Preach. In Open Your Heart she explores themes of pedophilia and voyeurism, and celebrates her Italian heritage. True Blue was a simple video that paid tribute to girl groups of the 50s and 60s. La Isla Bonita cast Madonna as a forlorn Latina, praying for her lover and finding an escape in the music of the streets.

If anyone should listen to a Madonna album, True Blue is it. It's her most successful and the apex of her career. She launched her Who's That Girl Tour on the heels of True Blue and the Who's that Girl soundtrack (whose songs Who's that Girl?, Causin a Commotion, and The Look of Love are sonically identical to True Blue). Madonna toured in stadiums and parks, playing to sold out crowds in the 10s and 100s of thousands. She visited Europe, North America and Japan. In Japan, heavy rain caused the cancellation of a show, which prompted heavy rioting as the fandom reached a fervent pandemonium. At the time, this was the highest grossing tour and Madonna commanded the highest playing fee in the industry.