Yes, it's been twenty years since Vogue came out as a single, though it was also included in the soundtrack for the movie Dick Tracy : I'm Breathless, and later that same year in the Immaculate Collection.
I became absolutely obsessed with this song and especially the video as soon as it came out. I was ten, but it just spoke to me, I've no idea what it was that captivated me, but in hindsight, the collection of Lempicka images and references to Horst and Mainbocher all put together and coming to life through a fabulous and intricate choreography were something that could just not go by unnoticed, even for my (yet) untrained eye.
Inspiration has become quite a frequent word lately, especially regarding current pop-stars' videos: How much is "inspired by" and how much of their work is just a blatant copy. I think Vogue is the perfect example of how to take references from different artists (the aforementioned ones), no matter how explicit they might be, to then mix them with something as current and not-so-mainstream as "voguing" was back in the day. I think it takes a lot of vision to be able to mix things that are so distant and that apparently have nothing in common (hedonism is the obvious common denominator) into something so new and unique, and what's even more difficult, into something of Madonna's own: it is virtually impossible to separate Madonna from voguing nowadays.
In 2004, I went to my first-ever Madonna concert. Vogue was the opening song, and she performed in a corset, not designed by Mainbocher, but by Monsieur Christian Lacroix himself.
However, I feel my favorite Vogue performances will always be the one at the 1990 MTV Music Awards and ESPECIALLY the one from The Girlie Show.
