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What Made Madonna’s 1995 Such a Fascinating Transition Year in Her Pop Stardom?

This Vintage Pop Stardom episode of Greatest Pop Stars looks at Madonna's 1994, and her 'Bedtime Stories'-era pivot to a more adult stardom.

A half decade of increasingly controversial (though often brilliant) albums, singles, videos, movies and appearances had left the public divided and unsure about the Queen of Pop’s standing, while the dance-pop she’d conquered the world with in the ’80s had fallen out of fashion in a top 40 landscape dominated by alt-rock, hip-hop and R&B. We pick up mid- Bedtime Stories rollout with Madonna, as she improbably scores the biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit of her entire storied career, and we make it through her LP’s experimental final two singles (and their rather notable music videos), through getting cast in the film role of a lifetime, through the ’95 Video Music Awards, and finally end with her Something to Remember era, while she preps the world for a year of Oscar campaigning. In the meantime, we brace the most important questions about La M as she reached the midpoint of her 1990s: Which super-cool-and-acclaimed European act made for better Madonna collaborators, Björk or Massive Attack?

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