22. Madonna

Remembering that even the most heavenly club anthems are grounded by earthly emotions, Madonna crafts her celebration of dance music's nonstop metronomic pulse as a mirror-ball-lit meditation on love, life, fame and faith. Rather than go for easy nostalgia, she pushes stubbornly ahead with future disco mysticism as collaborator Stuart Price produces a sharp array of electronics. Employing everything from sampled Abba orchestrations to Stooges-esque guitar grime as her mashed-up medium, Madonna still preaches love as the message, even while sneering "Fuck off" in her toughest, funniest track in eons, "I Love New York."

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