The second photo is not from Truth or Dare, but from the music video for the song "Vogue."

Shelley, Boston, USA

20 years later and I am still being made to watch Madonna writhing and gyrating everytime I turn on the tele. If she is so good at 'reinventing' herself, why has sex always been part of the equation? Can somebody remind she is 50 -and provided she acts quickly -might still age gracefully.

Molitor Patel, Vienna, Austria

Madonna achieved her fame by clever marketing, forced attempts at being offensive and controversial, and the selective hiring of skilled songwriters. She is far, far more a businesswoman than a musician. You really can't compare her music to the Beatles.

Charles, Waterville, Maine, USA

Well,

A nice job, but Holiday was released in NYC in 1982, which makes is 26 y's ago (well, actually 25 and a half).

I remember her supporting A Cetain Ratio (from Madchster), who didn't know who she was...

Best regards,

MIKKO MONTONEN, Helsinki,

What a crock.

Beyond the absurd Madonna/Beatles comparison (let's see what they're saying about Madonna's music thirty years from now), this whole idea that poor poor pitiful women have been held back from achieving anything by mean old men is even worse.

Women have always done whatever they wanted when they decided they wanted to do it. The only thing that ever held them back was themselves.

gb, Austin, USA

Pretty daft comparison as it just begs the kind of blind responses above, but the sentiment is correct.

I love how no men ever want to give her the production and songwriting credit she clearly has had in her own career. Yes, she collaborates but why would every single producer she has ever worked with constantly defend her involvement when questioned?

People just don't seem to be able to accept that behind the marketing and image - which, of course *she* controls (er, hello Brian Epstein) - she also has the talent to remain popular with her music. There's no way she could have lasted 25 years always at the top if she didn't.

Tony Barton, London, UK

I haven't read the article. The headline was enough for me. I won't say this woman is talentless because it takes some form of talent to be as 'successful' as she has been. But to mention her in the same breath as the Beatles is simply hilarious. She has got by all these years because she understands that sex sells. That's it. She has done nothing else. She can't sing, she can't act, she has appaling fashion sense. But because she is controversial, people are interested in her (goodness knows why!).

Personally, I just wish he would quietly go away.

Paul, Southampton, UK

I respect the artist for what she has achieved, but more clout than the Beatles?

I don't hear the name Madonna being spoken alongside Lennon & McCartney.

Maybe more clout in a different medium?

Marc, Antrim,

Madonna is, in my eyes, a musical vampire : choosing the latest zeitgeisty name to craft her record - her albums are basically solo records by their respective producers with her as guest vocalist. She gets the cred, the producer gets a ton of cash, everyone's happy. Her work will not endure.

Mark Reed, London,

"Madonna: more clout than the Beatles". Well, let's put it in perspective - the Beatles did it for little more than 10 years, Madonna's taken 25 years: to do what exactly? Acheive the same commercial success? Perhaps one day Caitlin, you'll understand that greatness isn't always measured in sales

Philip T, Leeds,

Bowie was not only culturally iconic, he also made sublime music, and has contuned to do so long after his commercial star has faded. Madonna works entirely on the surface; musically and theatrically; she embodies pop, and whilst she has lasted a long time..nothing she has done has endured.

John Pownall, Bridport,

Her only talent all these years has been her ability to market herself . She's not creative, intelligent, talented or thought provoking. She's a mass marketed product whose time has come and gone.To suggest that her cultural image is imbedded in every western women over the age of 18 is laughable.

Lynn, Philadelphia, USA

Madonna, is a business woman...just like kylie..etc etc...they are not real singers...but i do admire them for their successes and longevity in the music business which really is based these days on the way you look and nothing to do with real talent or good music.

lungz, melbourne, australia

Caitlin I see is putting her lack of critical faculties into print again. Madonna vs the Beatles - what a pointless comparison, one is a solo artist, the other a group, the group are all male, they were successful in different eras, the tone and subject of their songs are completely different, etc.

Iain, Edinburgh, UK

She's come a long way on limited talent.

Andrew Metcalfe, New York, United States

History is full of "madonnas", she´s just a trend.
But once in a while we enjoy a few examples of actual genius. Sixties were the Renaissance of music and The Beatles were on top of it. You can´t be serious comparing Madonna to them!!! Surely she herself would feel akward...

Pablo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Madonna has a few hummable tunes, but her success has been a triumph of marketing over substance by the industry. The sex tour (saw the show in Rio) was a further slide down the "let's try to shock and the recods might sell" route (after you've done religion, sex and a bit of politics, what is left to disguise a lack of real creativity?).
Immediate contrast to the Beatles, who innovated and changed the face of pop forever - so many artists today claim inspiration from the Beatles, either collectively or individually - how many would admit to Madonna's bland influence? Enough said. PS Macca still delivers the goods live - the Beatles tunes on his recent tour were awesome!!

Dave, Wirral,

yada yada yada yada
Did Madonna write all her music? Did Madonna do it in 10 years like the Beatles? If you take the number of years that Madonna has been at it and the increase in market over the years, Madonna would need double the hits of the Beatles to be considered equal. But then again Madonna is a singer, nothing more.

Mark, Melbourne,

What the hell have heels got to do with it? I am not even going to entertain the comparison between The Beatles and Madge. The Beatles started the ball roling. She has stayability, I'll give her that and she is an icon to many but she's no music God. The Beatles are in a differant stratosphere.

Brian O'Sullivan, Dublin, Ireland

This article has to be the joke of the year. Let's return to the issue in quarter of a century and see who had the real cultural impact.

John Tomlinson, Brentwood, UK

God Save the Queen.

eugene, heidelberg, germany

She's still no Mariah Carey.

Carys Mathews, Chester, UK

Tom, San Diego - SPOT ON...........

Anna, Exeter, Devon, UK

there are some very important questions that journalists don't seem to be asking her that need answering, these are:

will you keep using sex and controversy to sell when she is 60, 70 and 80?
why doesn't she let her children watch tv?
is she afriad that they will see her overtly sexual videos?

jason lee, london,

Madonna's achievement is in packaging.

Gaston, Leeds,

Give me a break. Increasingly predictable dancefloor ditties (sung with that annoying squeaky voice) and a change of hairstyle each summer and she's bigger than the Beatles?

James, Hamilton, Bermuda

25 years ago she sang songs and did sexy dance routines......last week she sang songs and did sexy dance routines...move on woman...get a life.

emma langdon, bradford, england

Can someone please tell her that she does not look good in a leotard. Please!

Alex C, London,

Madonna is an extremely successful performer, perhaps the most successful. She was trained to be a dancer after all. Unfortunately, she is not a musician.

Madonna has a knack of using the right producer at certain times in her career. Her most recent album exploits the talents of Timberland, Pharrell and the like. The problem with drastically changing styles of music is that her whole body of work fails to fit together as one piece. With a band or musician like Air or Goldfrapp for example their sound evolves and incorporates personal elements of music that has inspired them in the past. Madonna's lacks that personal touch and so her sound is more commercial.

I'm sure she's lost a substantial amount of her older fans through the release of her previous two albums, but then she must have gained and appealed to so many more and i wonder if that's what it's all about for her.

Adam Hunt, London, UK

Describing Bjork as a putative heir to Madonna's throne does them both a disservice. They're both great artists (and are both regularly accused of relying too heavily on collaborators - which is nonsense), but Bjork's artistry is altogether more uncompromising and would never have resulted in world domination. You sense that's exactly the way she would want it to be.

Still love Madonna, though (except for Hollywood - an awful, bland record. And the Britney Spears one - desperate). I'd take her over the Beatles any day of the week (including the 8th).

David Harrison, Manchester, UK

I don't know why you Brits are so obsessed with Madonna. Other than the usual pop publications she gets zero time in the media. Check it out. Go to the New York Times or Washington Post websites, there won't be any articles debating Madonna versus The Beatles, Elvis, or even Nancy Sinatra.

Jim, Spaldwick, UK

Maybe she affects fashion, but her music doesn't have the staying power of the Beatles!
Her songs are short-term hits, but they soon sound dated.
So, depending on your yardstick (metre-stick?), she has more influence than the Beatles.
I disagree wholeheartedly!
Only time will tell, but I think it's more likely kids will learn Beatle songs in 50 years than Madonna songs, because the magical thing about the Beatles is that their songs seem like they've always been here. I'm not denying Madonna is talented, but the Beatles were magic, like lightning in a bottle.

M Rossa, Brandon, FL USA

Please let her retire from the music business. I dread to think of another 25 years of her vain mediocrity!

Kat, Cambridge,

The Beatles, with George Martin, were completley in control of their own creativity. From writing to producing to artwork they were the real deal. Madonna has more changes of minions than Sven on a second half England friendly!

Brian, Woking, UK

When i heard her music in the 80s it just sounded like high energy pop ,It all sounds very DATED ,And she cant sing anyway.Unlike Blondie with Debbie Harry fronting Now theres an icon.Powerful voice and songs that will never sound dated!
Oh And Debbie harry is way better looking than madge even now shes in her 60s and still sounds fantastic.
Im afraid madge is a Debbie wanna be and failed miserably.

E Reynolds, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

"The Beatles didn't do it in heels"

Caitlin,

Are you too young to remember Cuban-heeled boots?

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Madonna has made no contribution to popular culture. She is utterly forgetable. She is not even real. Just a machine. Zero.

Roger Haszard, London, England

She is the best!

Anna, Voronezh, Russia

Madonna is indeed an Icon, and certainly empowered herself as a woman in the highly male-dominated pop music world.
An innovator she certainly is not. She uses the same tactics that her masculine forebears used for generations before her, the Beatles included. The tactic (Read "Marketing Strategy" if you like) was and is shock value.
In the 50's it was only necessary to comb your hair differently to shock your parents. Once that shock became old news the next generation sprung up with a new device.
This cycle is repeated by each new wave of teenagers. Some exploit it to gain fame and fortune by exemplifying it in their music or art. The shock tactics will continue to escalate with a few resurgencies of old tricks since forgotten.
All of this is labelling of products whose intrinsic values range from excellent to boring.
Madonna markets herself excellently, but is musically of little importance.
How could anyone put that above the musical genius of the Beatles?

Derek Herbst, Sinsheim, Germany

the beatles are happen to be the #1 band in music history because they broke so many records that no one could ever do, not even Madonna. They had more #1 hits than Madonna did. Their album Sgt. Peppers is the reason of changing popular music and if they did not create this, Madonna would not be a star.

Danielle, madison, Alabama

Jealous??? Toni from Chicago??
Madonna's an icon and a legend
get over it

nick rhodes, london, uk

"Madonna’s intentions and impact on Western culture have been bigger." Are you kidding me? Didn't you know that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus - in 1966?

The Beatles have had a continuous, discernible influence on Western culture since 1963. They're sold hundreds of millions of records, videos/DVDs, and books, made generations of teenage boys have mushroom-haircuts, and still sell more calendars per year than Madonna sells records.

As far as vacuous, talent-bankrupt women go, she's done very well. As for never having to use her body to sell her records - oh, wait.

Anita (19 years old), London,

Madonna's impact greater than the Beatles? Absolute rubbish. Their's were albums filled with memorable songs, Madge's was more singles - good ones at that too. I bought the latest CD Hard Candy as a pirate version on the streets of Shanghai for about 40p - I got ripped off. There is little evidence of tunes - it is all studio beats and tricks. There's no Ray of Light - the last time Madge "came up with the goods". There were no duds among the Beatles album - even the filler tracks are good - few artists can say that. I admire how Britain's music scene will review nearly all artists from anywhere in the world and champion them if they are good or slam them when they fail - it is the latter for Madge this time.

Ed Banger, Beijing,

To compare anyone with The Beatles is a joke, the writer of this article obviously knows nothing about music or culture, in 200 years Beatle music will be played in orchestra halls while Madonna will be a footnote destined to join 99 % of everyone we consider famous now.

Tom, San Diego,

Madonna... Where do I begin? She is a BUSINESS woman, JUST a business woman. She would not qualify as an artist in a million year. I would like to think this woman would be totally despicable to anyone over the age of twenty that has a hunger to discover art and make a certain effort to appreciate music and artists that have some true artistic value. Women should stop thinking about Madonna's "power" and putting value in her money and success. What she has done is simply manipulate the public in an utterly shitty way. Pushing her coldness, greed, materialism, malevolence and dim-witted trash on a generation of impressionable girls. Yes, she did support Gays and their fight against AIDS, which is admirable but the cynical side of me says that she might have done it for shock publicity as much as anything else. Madonna's had a career because she has always hired a bunch of people who did all the work for her, creating her rubbish commercial music that shamefully became "hits."

Jerome Lebel, Drummondville, Quebec, Canada

And all by someone who, let's face it, can't sing!

Toni Summers Hargis, Chicago, USA

She has done very well especially considering her meagre talent. Comparisons with the Beatles are preposterous.

Jerry, Seattle, usa