Sire Records in the context of "Like a Prayer (song)"

Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer Madonna, released on November 12, 1984, by Sire Records. Following the success of her 1983 eponymous debut album, Madonna was eager to start working on its follow-up. She selected Nile Rodgers to produce the album due to his work on Let's Dance (1983) by David Bowie, which she was a fan of. To ensure it be exactly as she envisaged it, Madonna chose all the songs for the album: she penned five of her own, four of which were co-written with former boyfriend and collaborator Stephen Bray, and four were written by other artists. Recording sessions took place at Power Station studio in New York City. Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson.

Upon release, Like a Virgin received mixed reviews from music critics: Rodgers's production received praise, but Madonna's vocals were criticized. It became Madonna's first number one album on the Billboard 200, as well as the first female album to sell over five million copies in the United States. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) later certified it diamond for shipment of ten million units. Overseas, it reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. With sales of over 21 million copies worldwide, Like a Virgin remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. In the United States, four singles were released from the album ―all reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, with the title track becoming Madonna's first number one, and "Material Girl" reaching number two.

New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles that emerged in the mid- to late 1970s as a lighter and more melodic "broadening of punk culture". The term new wave initially held distinct regional differences between the United States and United Kingdom. In the US, "new wave" had originally been used by music critics to label New York punk bands during the early-to mid 1970s. The term was later adopted by Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who launched the "Don't Call It Punk" campaign in October 1977 to replace "punk" with "new wave". In the UK, new wave was less rooted in punk and had a more diverse definition. Over time, the genre became a catch-all for several musical styles that emerged after the initial popularity of punk rock, such as synth-pop, alternative dance and post-punk.

New wave commercially peaked during the late 1970s into the early 1980s with an abundance of one-hit wonders. In 1981, the MTV channel was launched, which heavily promoted and popularized new-wave acts in the United States. Regional new wave scenes developed across Europe, particularly the Netherlands' ultra, Germany's Neue Deutsche Welle, Spain's La Movida Madrileña, France, Poland and Belgium's coldwave, as well as the Yugoslav new wave. Additionally, the movement inspired subgenres such as minimal wave and darkwave.

Madonna is the debut studio album by American singer Madonna, released on July 27, 1983, by Sire Records. In the late 1970s, Madonna had established herself as a singer in downtown New York City; alongside her Michigan boyfriend Stephen Bray, she put together a demo tape with four dance tracks and began pitching it around local nightclubs. She managed to get Mark Kamins, the resident DJ at Danceteria, to play "Everybody"—one of the songs from the tape. The song drew positive reception from the crowd, and Kamins took Madonna to Sire Records, where label president Seymour Stein signed her on for three twelve-inch singles. Following its release on October 6, 1982, "Everybody" found success on the dance scene, and the label approved the recording of an album.

For the album, Madonna worked with Warner Bros. producer Reggie Lucas, who had worked with artists like Roberta Flack and Stephanie Mills. Soon, however, problems between the singer and Lucas arose, as she was not happy with his production outputs. Madonna then invited John "Jellybean" Benitez, her boyfriend at the time, to work and remix the rest of the album. Madonna is mostly a dance-pop post-disco album, and features the newest technology of the time, including the LinnDrum drum machine, Moog bass and Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. Its songs talk mostly about love and partying. Five singles were released from the album: "Everybody" and "Burning Up" were published months before it was completed; neither song made a major impact on the charts. "Holiday" was Madonna's big breakout single, followed by "Lucky Star" and "Borderline".

American singer Madonna has released 14 studio albums, three soundtrack albums, six live albums, nine compilation albums, and 10 other limited releases. Madonna is recognized as the world's best-selling female recording artist of all time by the Guinness World Records, with estimated record sales ranging from 300 million to 400 million. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) confirmed in 2006, that Madonna's albums alone had sold over 200 million copies worldwide. She is ranked by the RIAA as the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and fourth highest-certified female artist in the United States, with 65.5 million album units.

In 1982, Madonna signed a recording contract with Sire Records, a label owned by Warner Bros. Records. The first release under the label was her self-titled debut album, Madonna (1983). It peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 and was certified five-time platinum by the RIAA. She followed the debut album with Like a Virgin (1984), which became her first chart-topper in various countries and was certified diamond by the RIAA. Her third studio album, True Blue (1986), reached number one in a record-breaking 28 countries and was once named the best-selling album by a woman of all time by the 1992 edition of Guinness World Records. During 1987, she released two albums that reached platinum status in the United States: the Who's That Girl soundtrack and her first remix compilation, You Can Dance. Madonna's fourth studio album, Like a Prayer (1989), made her the woman with most Billboard 200 number-one albums of the 1980s (second overall, behind only Bruce Springsteen).

True Blue is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on June 30, 1986, by Sire Records. In early 1985, Madonna became romantically involved with actor Sean Penn, and married him six months later on her 27th birthday. Additionally, she met producer Patrick Leonard while on the Virgin Tour, and formed a professional relationship with him. The first songs they created together were "Love Makes the World Go Round", and the ballad "Live to Tell," which was featured in the film At Close Range, in which Penn starred.

In late 1985, Madonna and Leonard began working on her third studio album; she also enlisted the help of former boyfriend Stephen Bray, with whom she had worked on her previous record Like a Virgin (1984). Titled True Blue, the record saw Madonna co-writing and co-producing for the first time in her career. Inspired by Madonna's love for Penn, to whom she dedicated it, True Blue is a dance-pop album that features influences of Motown sound, girl groups, and Latin pop.

The Immaculate Collection is the first greatest hits album by American singer Madonna, released on November 12, 1990, by Sire Records. It contains fifteen of her hit singles recorded throughout the 1980s, as well as two brand new tracks, "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me". All the previously released material were reworked through the QSound audio technology, becoming the first ever album to use it. Meanwhile, the new material saw Madonna working with Lenny Kravitz and Shep Pettibone. The album's title is a pun on the Immaculate Conception, a Marian dogma of the Catholic Church.

The release of the album was accompanied by a same-titled home video release, an EP titled The Holiday Collection, and a box set titled The Royal Box. "Justify My Love" was released as the lead single from the album, with a controversial music video featuring overtly sexual imagery. After being banned by MTV, the video was released on VHS and became the best-selling video single of all time. It also became Madonna's ninth number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single, "Rescue Me", had the highest debut on the chart since the Beatles' "Let It Be" (1970) and peaked at number nine.

Like a Prayer is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on March 20, 1989, by Sire Records. It saw the singer reunited with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, with whom she had collaborated on her previous studio album True Blue (1986), and the soundtrack to the 1987 film Who's That Girl; artist Prince also collaborated on the record, co-writing and co-producing one of the tracks alongside Madonna. Her most introspective release at the time, Like a Prayer is a pop record with elements of rock and dance-pop. Its lyrics deal with personal themes she had been too afraid to approach on previous albums: her Catholic upbringing, her troubled marriage to actor Sean Penn, the death of her mother, and her relationship with her father.

Upon its release, Like a Prayer received universal acclaim from music critics, who praised its introspective tone, cohesiveness, and Madonna's increased artistic merit. It was also an international success, reaching the top of the charts in 20 countries, and was certified quadruple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Worldwide, it has sold over 15 million copies. Six singles were released from the album: the title track became Madonna's seventh number one hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, while "Express Yourself" and "Cherish" both peaked at number two, and "Keep It Together" became a top-ten hit.

"Material Girl" is a song recorded by American pop singer Madonna for her second studio album, Like a Virgin (1984). It was released on January 23, 1985, by the Sire label as the second single from Like a Virgin. It also appears slightly remixed on the 1990 greatest hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection, in its original form on the 2009 greatest hits compilation, Celebration and Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones (2022). The song was written by Peter Brown and Robert Rans, and produced by Nile Rodgers. Madonna said the concept of the song was indicative of her life at that time, and she liked it because she felt it was provocative.

"Material Girl" consists of synthesizer arrangements with a robotic-sounding voice chant repeating the hook, "living in a material world". The lyrics identify with materialism, with Madonna asking for a rich and affluent life, and only wanting to date men who can offer her this. Contemporary critics have frequently identified "Material Girl" along with "Like a Virgin" as the songs that established Madonna as an icon. "Material Girl" was a commercial success, reaching the top-five in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan and United Kingdom. It reached the number two position on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, becoming her third top-five single there.

"Vogue" is a song by American singer Madonna from her soundtrack album I'm Breathless: Music from and Inspired by the Film Dick Tracy (1990). Written and produced by herself and Shep Pettibone, it was inspired by voguing, a dance popularized in New York City in the late 1980s. The song was released as the lead single from the album on March 20, 1990, by Sire Records and Warner Bros. Records. "Vogue" is a house song with influences of disco, which contains escapist lyrics describing the dance floor as "a place where no boundaries exist". Its middle eight features Madonna name-dropping several actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. "Vogue" was later included on three of Madonna's compilation albums: The Immaculate Collection (1990), Celebration (2009), and Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones (2022).

Upon its release, "Vogue" received positive reviews from music critics, who noted how it was musically different from the rest of the tracks on I'm Breathless; it was retrospectively seen as one of Madonna's career highlights. The song was commercially successful, topping the charts in a number of countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Vogue" became Madonna's biggest selling single at the time of its release, and has sold more than six million copies worldwide to date. It additionally received prizes at the 1991 Juno Awards and at the American Music Awards of 1991.