You're listening Ad Free on Amazon Music.

Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast.

I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series?

On today's show, 20 years ago this month, Madonna debuted on Billboard's album chart with her first series. On today's show, 20 years ago this month, Madonna debuted on Billboard's album chart

with her first studio album in four years, the trippy yet maternal ray of light.

And I feel like I just got home. And I feel. And I feel like I just got home. As that seemingly

Rade of light was the culmination of multiple threads in the life of Madonna Louise Chaconne.

Going into 1998, Madonna was entering her 16th year as a recording artist,

already extraordinary longevity for a woman whose career grew out of New York clubs in the early 80s

and a post-disco brand of electric dance pop.

By the 90s, Madonna had also become a mogul, the co-founder and flagship artist of Maverick, a recording and media company distributed

by Warner Brothers. It grew into much more than a so-called vanity label. Maverick wound up

issuing some of the top rock and pop of the decade.

For all her success and the influence she wielded in the music industry, by the mid to late 90s,

it was an open question whether Madonna wanted to be just a pop star anymore.

She was increasingly focused on her acting career.

And her biggest hit songs in the first half of the decade had mostly been mid-tempo pop and stately ballads.

Most of them bigger hits on adult contemporary radio.

Take about the night is over.

This masquerade is getting older.

Lights are low.

The curtains down.

...