Material Girl in an Imperial World Edition Part 1

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the late 1980s, the English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys dominated the U.K. pop charts and staged an invasion of the American charts. Years later, founding member Neil Tennant dubbed this streak of creative and commercial supremacy the group’s “imperial phase”—a term that eventually caught on among music critics and pop fans. So, what does it take for an artist to achieve imperial dominance? Why might Fleetwood Mac in the 1970s or The Weeknd in the 2010s qualify, while Cher or Lizzo don’t quite fit the bill? Are there rules for imperial phases? Hit Parade’s Chris Molanphy says yes—he’s got chart rules for determining when an artist is at peak imperiality. And he says Madonna’s late ’80s streak of hits might be the ultimate imperial phase. Join Chris as he dissects the most regal artists across the decades, defining what makes them imperial—and he walks hit by hit through Madonna’s biggest phase, which may remain unmatched. Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Is anyone out there?
0:02.0	Ah, another salesperson, enduring the endless search.
0:06.0	Exhausting.
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0:27.9	Terms and conditions apply. Hey there, hit parade listeners. What you're about to hear is part one
0:35.0	of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear is part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month.
0:40.5	Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It
0:47.0	supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com slash hitparade plus. You'll get to hear
0:58.2	every hit parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus, hit parade the bridge, our bonus
1:05.4	episodes, with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia.
1:11.9	Once again, to join that's slate.com slash hit parade plus.
1:18.0	Thanks, and now please enjoy part one of this hit parade episode.
1:24.0	It doesn't matter if you love him or capital H-I-M-A-M-A-M.
1:33.6	Just put your paws up because you were born this way, baby.
1:43.3	Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast.
1:51.7	I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series on today's show.
2:00.4	14 years ago, in February 2011, Lady Gaga
2:05.3	dropped a single celebrating empowerment for the LGBT community and ethnic minorities. That song,
	...

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