I was thinking about…

Gen X Icons: From Madonna to Michael Jackson

By Andy Lee

Let’s take a hot tub time machine ride to revisit two icons defining the pop culture skies of my early teen years: Madonna and Michael Jackson. As a card-carrying member of Generation X born in 1971, I hit peak impressionability just as these rule-breaking luminaries hit stratospheric fame. While boomers get to claim The Beatles and The Stones as their adolescent idols, Ms. Ciccone and The Gloved One will forever be our mononym-worthy overlords.

When 13-year-old Andy wasn’t scouring record store racks compulsively searching LPs categorized by artist and album release year, he was glued to the TV in our wood-paneled den. My couch crater bore permanent imprint by summer of ‘84 thanks to the dawn of something called MTV. Suddenly the radio stars dancing in my head 24/7 had bodies, movements and style for days. Mesmerized by this radical concept of 24-hour music television, I witnessed pop history unfold through clips that defined entire eras.

Take Madonna’s notorious MTV Video Music Awards debut performing “Like a Virgin.” Shocking backlash be damned, every molecule in my angsty, still-figuring-itself-out teen body responded viscerally to this siren singing about hearts beating in overdrive. Draped in white, writhing atop a gargantuan wedding cake with unapologetic ambition, she made softness look edgy and vulnerability look strong. I realized desires need not live within norms. Molds could shatter spectacularly to let our truest selves breathe.

Just a year later, Michael Jackson’s Al Capone-inspired “Smooth Criminal” video premiered and suddenly gangsters could also pop and lock. By then 14-years-old, I watched slack-jawed as Michael leapt onto the pool table with gravity-schmravity moves, fedora tilted just so. His magic stemmed not solely from inhumanly fluid dancing or Five Octaves of vocal range…but the sheer audacity to be whoever the music summoned in that moment. Time and identity stood no chance against the creative cosmic force moving through him.

I lived for the MJ experience those MTV years unlocked. Every startled note and signature “woo!” quake leading up to that first moonwalk across our den shag carpet remains etched into memory’s meticulous catalogue of consummate pop performances. Michael Jackson set loose notions of what real artistry could embody while teaching fearlessness starts with feeling the funk down to your toes.

Together these pop culture phenoms made bystanding totally uncool. Whether singing about virgins or criminals, their message came through clear: Self-expression = liberation. Their art dissolved rules, making space to reinvent tradition. In doing so, they granted Generation X permission to likewise dismiss labels, push boundaries and manifest revolutions in our own lives.

While I can’t hit Signature 8 Octave Runs or spend overnights designing Swarovski military jackets, I absorbed lessons from these icons that guide me today. Madonna and Michael Jackson may have dominated headlines for spectacle, but their call to honor our own weird went mainstream by empowering honesty over fitting in. And this latchkey kid listening intently to visions dancing behind their eyes learned sometimes we find family when we claim ourselves.

Stay golden, keep making your own magic! ✨