19 comments to Evolution of Madonna Magazine Covers, 1983-2011

  • Incredible to reflect back on pop history over nearly 30 yrs and revisit the so many titles Madonna appeared on.

    Incredible again!

  • Dave

    I love your blog but it’s increasingly becoming dominated by copyright-infringing photograph collections like this. If you’re going to post something like this, you should at least give the photographers credit. I’m pretty close to unsubscribing.

  • Chris

    Hi Dave – thanks for your comment.

    Wherever we can, we provide full credit to the photographers – and other creators – whose work we showcase on How to be a Retronaut, as you can see looking back through the site’s history. If somebody provides us with credit information that is missing from a post, will we always add that information to the post retrospectively.

    We do not always seek clearance from the creators of the work we showcase, though in some instances we do. We have yet to have an example of a creator not wanting their material to be featured on How to be a Retronaut. In each instance to date, even when we have not sought prior clearance, the creator or creators have been very pleased to have their material showcased on the site.

    If a creator was not happy to have their work featured, we would always remove it.

    In the example of the Madonna magazine covers, our judgement was that the exercise of showing the evolution of Madonna magazine covers was of sufficient interest to How to be a Retronaut readers for it to be displayed, even though fully researching and crediting each magazine cover photographer would be beyond our capacity.

    Chris

  • @dave, (all due respect) these are Magazines, it’s not like they DON’T want the publicity. It’s not like “How to be a Retronaut” hacked someones phone? Also, “How to be a Retronaut” are portraying the Magazines in a good and decent manner. They are not reselling the magazines for their own gain.

    The owners of “this” material are the magazines, not the photographer. The photographer only own’s the original photo (in most cases) NOT the art work of the magazine. I can go online and find THOUSANDS of images of magazine covers EVERYWHERE: here’s one right here: http://artofmanliness.com/2009/01/06/best-mens-magazines/

    Anyways, the NAME of the photographer is usually inside the magazine, they don’t post it on the cover (mostly), so it’s hard to get the photographers name for credit.

    I want to point out that “How to be a Retronaut” gives credit to everyone, link backs and more (as far as I have seen). This is in fact one of the FEW sites that stresses QUALITY, openness, authenticity, fairness, and put’s the user in their focus and NOT advertising.

    It takes a lot to build a user focused site, I’m happy every morning when I get to work and then I come to this site to see what’s new. Those are my two cents over this, I don’t think this site is trying to steel things from people, as far as I have seen.

  • Emily

    Why hasn’t she aged! I think this is proof of immortality.

  • Pete

    I the the newer covers are actually using old photos and not from a current photo shoot, or like Marcos said, heavy on the photoshop.

  • La'son

    I love MADONNA. She rocks. :]

  • I am amazed to see this icon on sooooo many major publications. You cannot get away from the impact she had in the 1980s, whether you like it or not.

  • Ian

    1. The 2011 OUT cover uses a photo from the early 80′s (81, 82, or 83?)
    2. The 2009 Rolling Stone cover utilizes a pic from 87.
    3. The 2001 GQ cover is from 1993.
    4. The 1994 and 1995 mag covers uses photos from the same photo-session
    and so on.

    I like the “evolution” concept. And as a huge Madonna fan, I love what you’ve done, but it’s flawed. HOWEVER, the more I think about it, your editorial actually works because it seems to make a point that for Madonna, “Evolution” as a concept involves revival. Ferocious Glam often equates to Retro Glam. She’s often imitated but will never be duplicated.

  • Dan

    and i bet there are so many more covers she appeared on that are not mainstream…incredible

  • Jmo

    Wow, eyebrows! And then no eyebrows!

  • great post. Madonna is one of the most intriguing public figures who constantly reinvents herself for the public. Really can’t believe it’s been almost 30 years since Madonna first became famous, I was just a kid. And she’s still going strong. Wow.

  • K-Star

    Dead animals – just as many killed & worn today as she was responsible for 30 years ago. Gah. Vile old hag.

  • yoko

    she WAS beautiful, then they started to cover her up with garish costumes and clothes and painted her face

  • Dy

    She looks better now than she did in the 80′s.

  • Nowadays, she kinda looks like Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles…..

  • Matthew Carrick

    I liked her old eyebrows

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