Blond Transition: Madonna: “Papa Don’t Preach”
In 1986, Madonna was about to risk everything. She didn’t record Still Like A Virgin or Still a Material Girl; gone were the rosary beads, the “Boy Toy” belt buckle, a tangled nest of brown hair in a bow, and the lacy, underwear-bearing wedding dress. Instead, True Blue became the more mature sound and, like a song on the album, the physical manifestation became “White Heat.” For Madonna, and as the decades would later confirm, she believed: If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway.
The first single, “Papa Don’t Preach,” marks this transition. The track starts with a brief overture, yet the popping bass chords, hard drum line, and percussion take over, reminding us that although she’s more serious, she’s not a fuddy-duddy. Madonna being the brilliant visual artist she was (and still is), it’s the accompanying music video that best illustrated this determined new direction. When the bass chords begin, the camera starts low as well, capturing a pair of black slip-ons, feet walking at a purposeful pace to the beat. And as the camera pulls up, it’s like a countdown to a liftoff: “Four”: fitted jeans (no lace); “Three”: the mid-drift (nothing bared, no provocative buckle); “Two”: a tucked-in, long-sleeve shirt, and a black leather jacket draped over the shoulder (no rosaries in sight); “One”: Madonna’s face, stern and pensive, sitting below shockingly cropped blond hair (no bows). “Blastoff!” She, the captain of her own career, off to embark on that mission “to rule the world.”
At the start of the first verse, Madonna—now shown with styled, white-hot blond hair, powdery skin, and red lipstick—turns to the camera and states her defense, not just to the patriarch in the lyrics, but almost symbolically to her followers, more specifically the “Madonna Wannabes,” that she’s no longer a (like a) virgin: “Papa, I know you’re going to be upset/’Cause I was always your little girl/But you should know by now/I’m not a baby.” By the chorus, another example of this newfound streamlined appearance: all-black, retro-inspired, pencil-thin leggings, and a bustier (a slight foreshadowing to the cone bra in four years).
Near the finale, she once again sings lyrics directly to the same side camera, pleading poignantly, yet confidently: “Don’t you stop loving me, Daddy/I know I’m/Keeping my baby.” If there’s one thing a Madonna fan knows, not unlike what a papa knows of his child: Just trust her; she knows what she’s doing and most of the time she’ll make the right decision.
Other video highlights: Madonna’s character in her famous, “Italians Do It Better” T-shirt does a double-take (rightly so) when she’s hit by the piercing blue-eyed stare from “the one you warned me all about,” played by the actor, Alex McArthur; Madonna’s longtime friend, the actress and passionate Tuscan cook, Debi Mazar stands next to her, rocking an orange off-the-shoulder and her signature, ‘50s-inspired ponytail.