How has an artist changed overtime - Madonna.

I have decided to study how Madonna has changed over time as she is one of the best selling and best artists of all time.
Madonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. She was born in Michigan and moved to New York to pursue a career in modern dance.
In 1982 Madonna signed a single deal with Sire Records, a label belonging to Warner Brothers. Her first release was “Everybody” in 1982. Slowly Madonna’s look and manner of dress, performances and music videos, became influential amongst young girls and women. Largely created by stylist and jewelry designer Maripol, Madonna's style of dress; defined by lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnet stockings, jewelry bearing the Christian cross, multiple bracelets, and bleached hair, became a female fashion trend in the 1980s.
Her follow up album, “Like a virgin” in 1984 became her first number one. She approximately sold twelve million copies worldwide. She performed the song at the first MTV Video Music Awards, wearing her then-trademark "Boy Toy" belt. The performance is considered as one of the iconic moments in the history of MTV. The next year, Madonna entered mainstream films beginning with a brief appearance as a club singer in the film Vision Quest. Its soundtrack contained her second US number-one single "Crazy for You". She also appeared in the comedy Desperately Seeking Susan, a film which introduced the song "Into the Groove," her first number-one single in the United Kingdom. Madonna embarked on her first concert tour in America, named the The Virgin Tour.
Madonna then went on to release her third album True Blue in 1986. The album spawned three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 charts: "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach" and "Open Your Heart", as well as other top-five singles "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita. In the same year, Madonna starred in the film Shanghai Surprise.
In 1987, Madonna starred in Who's That Girl, and contributed four songs to its soundtrack. In the same year she embarked on the “Who’s That Girl World Tour,” which was complimented on the artists innovative dress. Later that year, she released a remix album of past hits, You Can Dance. In 1988. By early 1989, Madonna had signed an endorsement deal with soft drink manufacturer Pepsi. Here, she debuted her new song “Like a prayer” in a Pepsi advert and also made a video for it. The video was very religious and suggested a relationship between Madonna’s character and a black priest. In the same year she released her fourth album “Like a prayer.” It reached number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and sold seven million copies world wide. By the end of the year Madonna had become the most successful female artist of the decade; with three number one albums and seven number one singles.
In 1990 Madonna started in the film “Breathless”. She once again released another album called “I’m Breathless” to accompany this film. It also featured her eighth US number one; “Vogue.” In the same year she also began her “Blonde Ambition World Tour.” It featured religious and sexual themes and was very controversial, even the Pope encourages Catholics not to attend. In 1992 she won her first Grammy award in the Best Long Form Music Video category. In November 1990 she released her first greatest hits album, named, “The Immaculate Collection.” It included two new songs and had a further number one with “Justify My Love.” Madonna sparked further controversy for the video that was made for her song “Justify My love.” It appeared to be too sexually explicit and was banned from MTV. Her first documentary “Truth or Dare” was released in mid 1991. It was based on her tour but also gave a glimpse of her personal life.
In 1992 Madonna founded her own entertainment company; Maverick, which was a joint venture with Time Warner, giving her twenty percent royalty. It consisted of a record company, film production company, music publishing, television, merchandising and book publishing divisions. The first release was Madonna’s first publication, “Sex.” This is included explicit sexual images photographed by Stephen Meisel. Again, this caused more controversy about Madonna and also caused a strong reaction from the media and general public. However, despite this she sold 1.5 million copies in a matter of days. At the same time she released her fifth studio album “Erotica.” She continued to display her sexualised and provocative image when she featured in the erotic thrillers “Body of Evidence” and “Dangerous Game,” contained scenes of S & M and bondage. At the end of 1993 she began “The Girlie Show World Tour.” Again, she furthered this extremely criticized image when during the tour it featured dressed as a whip-cracking dominatrix, surrounded by topless dancers. Later that year she also appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. On the show she repeatedly used vulgar and offensive language. Critics and fans said that this time “she had gone too far” and that her career was to be over. Madonna then tried to tone down this image she had given herself by releasing the single “I’ll remember.” She realised that she needed to connect with the public once more and so she wanted to dramatically change her music career. In 1996 she featured in her first critically successful film, “Evita.” She became romantically involved with her fitness trainer, Carlos Leon, and gave birth to their daughter on October 14th 1996.
After the birth of her daughter she became involved in the critically acclaimed Kabbalah. Her seventh studio album Ray of Light portrayed this change in her perception and image. The album won three Grammy awards and the title track “Ray of Light” won a Grammy for “Best Short Form Music Video.” In 2000 she starred in the movie, “Next Best Thing,” where she contributed two songs to the film soundtrack. In 2000 she released her eight album, “Music.” It went to number one on Billboard 200 and produced three singles. In this same year she also became involved in a relationship with Guy Richie where on August 11th she gave birth to their son Rocco. In May 2001 she released she went on her fifth concert tour called the “Drowned World Tour.” Later in the year she also recorded the title song for the James Bond film “Die Another Day.”
In 2004 she participated in the television concert Tsunami Aid. Within the same year she also performed at the Live 8 benefit concert in London. She also released her tenth studio album “Confessions on a Dance Floor” and received the Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album. The song “Hung Up” from the album went to number one in a record breaking forty-five countries. By 2006 fashion brand H&M had signed Madonna to become their world wide model. Her “Confessions” tour began in May that year and whilst embarking on this she travelled to Milawi to help fund an orphanage. She filed adoption papers to adopt a Milawian boy; the papers were finalized on May 28th 2008.
In April 2008 she released her eleventh studio album “Hard Candy.” To accompany this she went on her “Sticky and Sweet Tour”; becoming the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist. In September 2009, Madonna released her third greatest hits album “Celebration.”
As you can see Madonna is a well established artist and is extremely well known around the world. As an artist, what she has done throughout her career has been the subject of much scrutiny from critics. However, she has overcome this and still remains to be one of the biggest artists of all time. This research has allowed me to realise just how much Madonna has done throughout her life time and how successful she has actually been. As you can see her music and style has changed dramatically throughout the years and she has been an idol to men and women around the world.