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TL;DR:

  • Tipper Gore was scandalized by Madonna’s “Dress You Up” and Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop.”
  • They were two of several songs that inspired a government hearing.
  • Nevertheless, “Dress You Up” was a big hit in the United States.

Madonna‘s “Dress You Up” is a pretty innocuous song. However, “Dress You Up” was once considered so dirty that it inspired a government hearing. Subsequently, the hearing changed music forever.

Madonna’s ‘Dress You Up’ upset activist Tipper Gore, the wife of Al Gore

According to Rolling Stone, Tipper Gore, Al Gore’s wife, helped found the Parents Music Resource Center. The group created an infamous list called the “Filthy Fifteen,” which included the recent songs they found the most objectionable. The “Filthy Fifteen” included Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop,” Prince and the Revolution’s “Darling Nikki,” and Madonna’s “Dress You Up,” among others.

The Senate’s Committee on Commerce held a hearing on the “Contents of Music and the Lyrics of Records,” which was about the possibility of putting warning labels on records. Ultimately, the record industry devised the parental advisory stickers found on explicit albums.

The controversy looks strange in hindsight because “Dress You Up” was far from the most explicit song to come out of the 1980s. It’s not even the most sexual song in Madonna’s discography. Tracks like “Hanky Panky,” “Erotica,” and “Justify My Love” are more risque. In a post-Lady Gaga, post-Rihanna, and post-Cardi B world, “Dress You Up” would barely turn any heads.

Madonna once said that she could not stop being sexy if she tried

During a 1985 interview with Spin, Madonna revealed her her feelings about her image. “I couldn’t be a success without also being a sex symbol,” she opined. “I’m sexy. How can I avoid it? That’s the essence of me. I would have to have a bag over my head and over my body; but then my voice would come across, and it’s sexy.”

Madonna compared herself to an icon from the previous generation. “I like to look the way Ronnie Spector sounded: sexy, hungry, totally trashy,” she revealed. “I admire her tonal quality. I don’t have a deep, throaty voice or a womanish voice when I sing. I think my voice sounds innocent and sexual at the same time. That’s what I try to tell people, anyway; but they always misconstrue what I mean when I say ‘sexual innocence.’ They look at me and go, ‘Innocent, huh?’ They think I’m trash.”

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How ‘Dress You Up’ performed on the charts in the United States

“Dress You Up” was a hit in the United States. The track reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 16 weeks. The tune appeared on the album Like a Virgin. That record reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for three weeks, staying on the chart for 109 weeks in total. Like a Virgin became the Queen of Pop’s first chart-topper in the U.S.

“Dress You Up” caused controversy, but it’s still a great pop song.

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