‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: Madonna Strikes a Pose

Madonna’d already done enough shocking people for several lifetimes by 1990. What a strange experience, to be a little kid—to be a young, impressionable, but presexual human—in the mid-to-late ’80s, as Madonna ascended to MTV dominance and global megastardom, and to understand that this person was controversial and confrontational and quote-unquote sexy and possibly outright dangerous without quite understanding why. Boy, this…