3 Madonna Bangers That You Have To Admit Also Rock

Like David Bowie before her and Lady Gaga after, Madonna perfected the art of reinvention. Known for vivid imagery and pushing culture’s boundaries, the Michigan-born singer remains a touchstone of pop, dance, and electronic music.

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But those musical descriptions don’t quite capture the diversity of her sprawling catalog. For this list, I’m highlighting Madonna bangers that also rock. Though she isn’t the first to have blended dance and rock music, what makes Madonna’s rock-adjacent tracks so interesting is how they offer a glimpse of the genre from the dance floor.

“Candy Perfume Girl”

This grungy track from my favorite Madonna album, Ray Of Light, finds the Material Girl employing her inner Shirley Manson. Working with electronic producer William Orbit, the collaboration echoes the fragmentary assembly style of dance remixes. It was written with Susannah Melvoin, whose twin sister Wendy played guitar in Prince’s backing band, The Revolution. Susannah seems to have absorbed valuable lessons from Prince’s genre-defying work. A trip-hop beat propels “Candy Perfume Girl” before transforming the sugary entanglement into a clanking role reversal. It wouldn’t have been out of place on Version 2.0 by Garbage.

“I Love New York”

Hearing this Confessions On A Dance Floor track makes me think of mid-2000s New York. I’m immediately taken back to a hazy night at Misshapes, the city’s downtown “It” party. Where the cool kids in skinny jeans wouldn’t have minded if the DJ had followed LCD Soundsystem with Madonna’s ode to New York. “Los Angeles is for people who sleep. Paris and London, baby, you can keep,” sings one of pop music’s most iconic shapeshifters. Like New York, this one indeed rocks.

“Hung Up”

Staying put with another Confessions banger, “Hung Up” connects the irresistible hooks of ABBA with 70s disco. It reminds me of Giorgio Moroder’s work with Debbie Harry on Blondie’s “Call Me”, but also the frantic vibe of a Nine Inch Nails club remix circa With Teeth. Co-produced with Stuart Price, Madonna samples ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” as she describes giving up on a lover who reliably wastes her time. As the drama unfolds, a ticking clock and filtered disco beat increase the tension between romantic anxiety and finally moving on.

I can’t keep on waiting for you,
I know that you’re still hesitating.
Don’t cry for me, ’cause I’ll find my way,
You’ll wake up one day, but it’ll be too late.

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