SCORE: 9.639 11 x 10 @Babyface @Jonathan27 @paullypaul @WoW73 @torontodj @letuinmybackdoor @MilesAngel @unnameable @Bleu Noir @Beautiful Child 2 2015 PLACEMENT: DOWN 1 - 4 of 210 (9.534) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 107!!! (@RJF @nikkysan @AshtrayHeart @Andreas @Tigerlily @Vasilios @cheida @Jwentz @Raichu @dodoriazarbon @P'NutButter @eatyourself @m_dimitrov @nanafan @djmakemewet @discoteca @Dangerous Maknae @tom71 @Lucy Honeychurch @rdp @tylerc904 @Doenjang @rav4boy @Angeleyes @2014 @Future Lover @JMRGBY @Remyky22 @Cutlery @Suburbia @gezza76 @GimmeWork @Mirwais Ahmadzaï @Andrew.L @dylanaber @Mjg0806 @relby @elear @Andy French @fatyoshi @Up Down Suite @CasperFan @1991 @dancingwithmyself @Babylon @Aester @Syzygyz @Dreampopboy @Fuchsia @NightmareBoy @Skyline @BreatheBox @FridayNight @Modeblock @Daniel_O @Coochi @DominoDancing @scottdisick94 @Robsolete @Fortune @R27 @Sideout @RetroPhysical @Zdarlight @joeee @Xanax @TrueBeliever @DinahLee @aaronhansome @SloMover @Jimmyandroid @JonBcn @Candy Perfume Girl @paperboyfriendd @Miss Lange @Mister_G @phoenix123 @Pop Life @K94 @clowezra @Rogue @wintersleep @evilsin @TheChoirgirlHotel @KingBruno @Remorque @Digital Ghost @Trinu 3.0 @MrMannacroix @LTG @Ramalama @nametag @Markus1981 @sexercise @Mr Blonde @happiestgirl @Music Is Death @strangekin @Chezam @japanbonustrack @fancygreen @Bangers&Bops @Weslicious @tommylander @Touchofmyhand @Push @beyoncésweave) LOWEST SCORE: 5 x 1 (girl... @Butterfly) Well, one step into the Top 5 and already we see a change! "Into The Groove" slips one spot from its #4 placement in 2015, but as you can see from the score, it was always was going to be a lock for the Top 5. A 0.1 jump is tiny in most other rates, but here it's a massive gulf. "Into Groove" zoomed into the Top 5 by 40 voters and that is where it stayed. "Into The Groove" was rather famously chucked together in about ten minutes while Madonna perved on her hot neighbour from the balcony of her apartment in New York City. That's honestly the story. She was trying to write some songs and wanted to be done with this particular song quickly so she could go and chase some dick. This was probably compounded by the fact that the song wasn't originally even going to be for her until she realised what a bop she had created. Madonna's also had a fairly rocky, unattached relationship with the track, with it being one of the songs she said she felt "retarded" singing in 2009 (sis...) but I can maybe understand what she means... somewhat. It was such a low energy effort for her to pull together, and it has gone on to become one of her biggest, most beloved songs while songs she has slaved over don't get nearly the same amount of praise. Someone who is always moving forward as much as Madonna also maybe slightly resents always being pulled back to that balcony when she chucked a song together for another artist while she waited for her nail polish to dry, only to end up performing it for the next thirty years. For what it's worth, I don't think she's nearly as caustic towards the past these days. "Into The Groove" is... The First Bop. Sure, there were jams before it. You could even sway a little. Maybe tap your foot in the footwell of your car. Click your fingers a bit. But "Into The Groove" was The First Bop. In the caves, where the first drawings of man exist, next to stick figures and animals and the sun and the moon, there is also, in a font eerily resembling some homosexual's awful Android font in the present day, the words "Into The Groove is a bop! YAS." When translating the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, experts were stumped for decades when they discovered the phrase, "This slaps!" with absolutely no context. It is eternal, it is forever. It has even existed long before Madonna, who wrote it. It bops, therefore... it bops. "Into The Groove" has endured because everything about it is evergreen. Madonna has had her fair share of profound lyrics and soul-shaking songs, but we always come back to her summoning us to dance it out, don't we? It's something that it shares with another Top 5 denizen; this idea that dancing is for everyone but also specifically for you. How it's individual and communal at the same time. And this is true whether it's in the club or, like recently for all of us, in the two square feet of free space you have in your bedroom. It's always going to be Madonna's finest message; that there is freedom in music and movement, that a sway of your hips can expel your worries and troubles and insecurities, even if only for three minutes. "Into The Groove" is powerful because it is a safe space. Live out your fantasies here with me. The moment those synths crash in, you are guarded by something loud and wild and fierce. You can dance. But yeah... it's a fucking bop. Like, who gave Madonna the right to have so many of pop's finest basslines under her name? That vocal delivery that sounds like a perpetual dare, the piano breakdown on The Immaculate Collection version that everyone hates despite it being the definitive version that plays with the structure magnificently (FIGHT ME.) and that absolutely insane, catapulting, ricocheting, bouncing 80s production. Is it any wonder why Billboard named it Dance Single of the Decade at the end of the 80s? Songs don't sound bigger than this. I once heard this on a dance floor followed by Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and I shit, girls. I shit. Like all the songs in the Top 5, it is one of the best pop songs of all time, and will always have that magic. There's also some Desperately Seeking Susan-adjacent nonsense concerning "Into The Groove", but like I've said before, there are few things in this would I would rather do less than watch Madonna's filmography, so I'll let y'all fill in the blanks while I jump over to the 11/10 commentary corner. Let's see who has taken this life-affirming banger and turned it into an allegory for their queer trauma this time, shall we? First up is @Babyface who is a Taylor Swift stan, so you know we're about to get some fucked up childhood story now. "I wrested for a while with either giving my 11 to Like A Prayer, which is a perfect pop song and likely the defining song of Madonna’s career, or Into The Groove which is both an incredible song and also my personal favorite Madonna song for an entirely different reason. I went to college in Texas so I spent some of my most formative years, when I was still learning to accept myself, in a place I had limited avenues for safely exploring or openly expressing myself the way I wanted to. One place that became a safe haven to me at the time was an 80s themed nightclub, where it felt like I was stepping into a different world and I could go get lost on the dancefloor without having to worry about what everyone around me would think because they were all doing the same thing. It was at that club where I heard Into The Groove for the first time and it was practically a religious experience, a rush of pure euphoria that I remember every time I play the song. Madonna’s voice booming over the speakers, commanding us to dance while the music video played on giant projectors on both sides of the dancefloor…a moment. One that I will never forget, one that is most pleasing to me in my career. As I’ve mentioned in this thread, I was a stranger to a lot of Madonna’s catalogue before taking part in this rate (which I blame on growing up in a country-music stanning household and only allowing myself to fully embrace my love for pop music during the aforementioned formative years) but that night and that memory are what sparked my interest in participating, and I’m glad I did because what discography and what a woman. I’m pretty sure this has no chance of winning, but hopefully this 11 can help propel it up into the upper echelon where it belongs." Wait, that was actually sweet rather than heartbreaking! Will @Jonathan27 follow it up with something a little more tear duct twisting? "When choosing my 11’s in the past, I have always been able to base my decision off of standardized criteria. Typically this amounts to what song intrinsically connected me to an artist, or it might be the song that feels the most emblematic of the respective artist’s body of work. In re-assessing Madonna’s discography for this rate, I found myself dragging my heels not due to an aversion to crack open my appreciation but rather due to the hesitation to quantify my relationship with her work. Reading the thread throughout the forum’s preliminary discussion has proven this conundrum is not unique to me. The sheer breadth of Madonna’s impact on all of our lives cannot be limited to just one song, as evidenced by the love and appreciation for her work by at least one sector of the fanbase at nearly every stage of her career. It isn’t so much a matter of being a Madonna fan but rather being a fan of pop music itself which is either indebted to Madonna, or it’s a passion that led to inevitably discovering her catalog. So how does one condense their relationship with the greatest pioneer of pop as a zeitgeist into one perfect song among dozens of candidates? Ultimately my decision came down to fifteen choices. Some of these were obvious, others less so, but what stood out more than anything was just how formative these songs all were for me. Nothing Fails claimed one of my 11’s last time and nearly cinched this one as well as it has long been the catalyst to my acceptance of religion as a chronic rift separating me from my family. What once manifested as pain and resentment has shifted to understanding and peace, in no small part due to Madonna herself. But what led me to selecting my 11 this time was the throughline that has always connected me to pop music and specifically Madonna. Growing up in the Midwest, weekends consisted of farm work (not to be confused with yard work), tending to the animals, gardening in the summer and worshipping the christian god year round. Pop music served as both a portal to another realm and as a salve to the uncertainty that comes with never fitting in. With that said, has there ever been a call to action quite as thrilling as “you can dance for inspiration”? Into the Groove may be nearing 35 (!?!) years old but it remains a blistering, beautiful monster of a pop song. Madonna emotes more in one elongated “I’m waiting” than most of these girls do across an entire album. Much of Madonna’s work telegraphed my transition from precocious teenager tortured by the dissonance of loving dick and loving god to an equally precocious college student navigating his sexuality while living hundreds of miles from his parents for the first time. I didn’t make friends easily, but that first year I didn’t need to: I quickly became fully entrenched in my obsession with dance as escape, as a means to shed perceptions of me and who I thought I needed to be. There was one club in Mid-Missouri that allowed adults under 21 years old to come and dance just one night a week. I romanticized that dance floor as a sanctuary, somewhere no one noticed I was alone and there was solidarity in getting lost in song. The club was within walking distance of my dorm, an ample 20-30 minutes that I would spend talking myself into not turning around and heading back to my room for the night. I chickened out the first handful of times before deciding to take my headphones with me to keep myself amped up. Madonna became the staple of these walks, mostly a shuffle of Confessions and Hard Candy with a few of my favorite singles thrown in for variety. The song that I always played to start was Into the Groove for both the opening lyric I cited above and because it paints a vivid, solitary moment of liberation. “Only when I’m dancing can I feel this free” becomes “I’m tired of dancing here all by myself.” Most songs about dancing are framed from the perspective of the dancefloor, while Into the Groove conjures a dancefloor from the confinement of one’s home where you have full agency but limited opportunity. Why was I sitting alone in my dorm room on a Friday night when I could be out dancing? This is who Madonna has always been for me: she is an inspiration not because she’s heartwarming or supportive, though she can be those things too. She is an inspiration because she represents fortitude and perseverance, an unshakable pillar for those of us who never had someone to tell us it’s okay to be different or to do what feels right. Madonna is inspiring simply by nature of continuing to defy what is expected. I may have never heard Into the Groove while I was in that club every week, but it’s because of this song and the artist behind it that I ever made it there to begin with." ...Yup. Next up is @torontodj, who manages to echo the previous commentators in appreciating the song's message of freedom and self-love without making me want to melt into goo. Well done, sis! ""Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free" is one of the lines Madonna sings in Into the Groove. The freedom of dancing, not only by yourself, but with others. The connection we feel with each other when we're out there on the dancefloor together. With the exception of Vogue, I don't think there is a better Madonna song that encapsulates the freedom, joy and power of dancing, and dance music, than Into the Groove. Shep Pettibone remixed the song for the 1987 remix compilation, You Can Dance (recognize the words) into an 8-minute-plus extravaganza. It's fine, of course, but I will always choose the 4:40 minute version. The You Can Dance version had a slower and extended opening. But the 4:40 minute version is like a rush from the very start. It literally gets you into the groove from the very first beat. It's perfection." The Immaculate Collection version though. @unnameable brings up that film I wasn't going to bring up, although from what I can gather from Madonna's 80s movies, just having her on a screen doing things was enough to sate the appetite of her stans. Thank God I was able to just take the music and run! "This is the most danceable song of all time. It’s also from peak 80s Madonna, and defines 1985 in some ways. I was too young to watch “Desperately Seeking Susan” at the time, when it finally came on TV I loved the song even more." Let's drop a couple of quickies together: @paullypaul dips to simply add, "Loved it at the time, still love it now. It’s perfect, timeless pop." while bride-to-be @Beautiful Child 2 adds, "I mean? There’s nothing to say, really. Get up and move." So I guess I'm one of the fifteen people invited to the ceremony on Thursday? Good thing I have no prior commitments! And finally, we have @Bleu Noir, who echoes all the other ladies above who are using Madonna as their therapist. I mean, aren't we all? "Maybe too obvious for some but for me this is not only THE defining Madonna song of all time, it is THE pop song of all time. It’s both ‘Dancing On My Own’ and ‘I Want To Dance With Somebody’ simultaneously. It’s melancholic and euphoric. You really can dance for inspiration." "Into The Groove" received some shitty compilation video because five of Madonna's music videos were smashing on the medium at the time and Warner were afraid of flooding the public. This was the the reason pretty most Like A Virgin era singles don't have visuals. Still, that didn't stop it from being her first No.1 in the UK and, to this date, her best selling single here. Taste, for a changer! In the US, however, they stuck it on the b-side to fucking "Angel" and it didn't even chart. That didn't stop it from becoming one of her most known hits though. The song has also been performed A LOT. I have done my best to compile them all below. Enjoy! Extras OUT. Re-Invention Sticky & Sweet Rebel Heart
"INTO THE GROOVE" - FULL SCORE SHEET Babyface 11 Jonathan27 11 paullypaul 11 WoW73 11 torontodj 11 letuinmybackdoor 11 MilesAngel 11 unnameable 11 Bleu Noir 11 Beautiful Child 2 11 RJF 10 nikkysan 10 AshtrayHeart 10 Andreas 10 Tigerlily 10 Vasilios 10 cheida 10 Jwentz 10 Raichu 10 dodoriazarbon 10 P'NutButter 10 eatyourself 10 m_dimitrov 10 nanafan 10 djmakemewet 10 discoteca 10 Dangerous Maknae 10 tom71 10 Lucy Honeychurch 10 rdp 10 tylerc904 10 Doenjang 10 rav4boy 10 Angeleyes 10 2014 10 Future Lover 10 JMRGBY 10 Remyky22 10 Cutlery 10 Suburbia 10 gezza76 10 GimmeWork 10 Mirwais Ahmadzaï 10 Andrew.L 10 dylanaber 10 Mjg0806 10 relby 10 elear 10 Andy French 10 fatyoshi 10 Up Down Suite 10 CasperFan 10 1991 10 dancingwithmyself 10 Babylon 10 Aester 10 Syzygyz 10 Dreampopboy 10 Fuchsia 10 NightmareBoy 10 Skyline 10 BreatheBox 10 FridayNight 10 Modeblock 10 Daniel_O 10 Coochi 10 DominoDancing 10 scottdisick94 10 Robsolete 10 Fortune 10 R27 10 Sideout 10 RetroPhysical 10 Zdarlight 10 joeee 10 Xanax 10 TrueBeliever 10 DinahLee 10 aaronhansome 10 SloMover 10 Jimmyandroid 10 JonBcn 10 Candy Perfume Girl 10 paperboyfriendd 10 Miss Lange 10 Mister_G 10 phoenix123 10 Pop Life 10 K94 10 clowezra 10 Rogue 10 wintersleep 10 evilsin 10 TheChoirgirlHotel 10 KingBruno 10 Remorque 10 Digital Ghost 10 Trinu 3.0 10 MrMannacroix 10 LTG 10 Ramalama 10 nametag 10 Markus1981 10 sexercise 10 Mr Blonde 10 happiestgirl 10 Music Is Death 10 strangekin 10 Chezam 10 japanbonustrack 10 fancygreen 10 Bangers&Bops 10 Weslicious 10 tommylander 10 Touchofmyhand 10 Push 10 beyoncésweave 10 DJHazey 9.5 AllGagaLike 9.5 theelusivechanteuse 9.5 Hurricane Drunk 9.5 muddleddreams 9.5 citoig 9.5 Epic Chocolat 9.5 Lila 9.5 eliminathan 9.5 No hay banda 9 HEARTCORE 9 Sprockrooster 9 maverick_79 9 sfmartin 9 OSHi 9 matthew. 9 madgemad 9 Ana Raquel 9 Drew 9 VeryPSB 9 joe_alouder 9 BTG 9 Filippa 9 ABoy’sGot2Suffer4Fashion 9 ufint 9 RainOnFire 9 Holly Something 9 Endothelium 8.5 Sail On 8.5 BEST FICTION 8.5 Crisp X 8.5 acl 8.5 M24 8.5 aux 8 Euphoria 8 soratami 8 Phonetics Boy 8 godspeed 8 Mikl C 8 Mvnl 8 FrozenNight 8 Maki 8 funkyg 7.5 Michael17 7.5 Joe. 7 Verandi 7 Sleepycat 6 Butterfly 5
Well, as a long-standing Confessions stan, I am deeply devastated to see Into the Groove bow out but also very excited to see how far Hung Up has come.
That Live Aid 1985 performance... nothing but a bold lip, a tambourine, her natural hair colour, and two queens for back up. Out there in front of one hundred thousand people in broad daylight barely three years into her career and giving it, "Alright, people of the wooooorld." before slaying. That's ROCK STAR SHIT. A few points to raise: Who else? How was she doing it? Who gave her the right? Where is my wig? Things she did: This That
I wonder how many 11s are left now. At least one of the remaining songs will probably get the record of most 11s in a PJ rate I guess.
I love how Madonna just does. Not. Let. Up on Into the Groove. There is barely a second of the original version where Madonna's vocal is absent, from intro to fadeout there she is - imploring you to let go, get down and dance. It really feels like the scrappy determined Madonna essence distilled into a single song.
A total of 111 have been given out so far. That would leave 54 left if everyone gave an 11 although not everybody did. 10 is the number to beat.
In fact ever since #8, the amount of 11's has gone up by 1 on each subsequent elimination. Will it last? 8. Drowned World... 11X7 7. Deeper And Deeper 11X8 6. Ray Of Light 11x9 5. Into The Groove 11x10
