--- title: Madonna Music History: 30 Years Ago, She Almost Quit the Biz description: The new 'Rebel Hearts' is her 13th studio album canonical: https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-09T14:47:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:41:01.922Z article:section: History og:title: Madonna Music History: 30 Years Ago, She Almost Quit the Biz og:description: The new 'Rebel Hearts' is her 13th studio album og:url: https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ae0c311f402803d/698780ce3c16390a9f451f32/1101850527_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Madonna Cover og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Madonna Music History: 30 Years Ago, She Almost Quit the Biz twitter:description: The new 'Rebel Hearts' is her 13th studio album twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ae0c311f402803d/698780ce3c16390a9f451f32/1101850527_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Time Madonna Almost Quit Music for Good ## Video: Madonna on Returning to Her Roots as a Songwriter [Watch (HLS stream): Madonna on Returning to Her Roots as a Songwriter](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YRGfIWXM.m3u8) (1:36)  _Published 2015-02-26. Madonna talks about her new album_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 9, 2015 2:47 PM UTC  Madonna on the May 27, 1985, cover of TIME Madonna on the May 27, 1985, cover of TIMECover Credit: FRANCESCO SCAVULLO  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 9, 2015 2:47 PM UTC Madonna’s 13th studio album, _Rebel Hearts,_ due out Mar. 10, is a sure a sign of any of a long and productive career. But when she burst onto the scene 30 years ago, it wasn’t clear what the future would hold for the Material Girl. The reason why was simple: _Desperately Seeking Susan._ It took a mere three months, almost to the day, for Madonna to go from a small [blurb](http://time.com/vault/issue/1985-02-25/page/61/) in TIME (“She is 24 and has been hot in the music business for all of six months”; she was actually 26) to [the cover of the magazine](http://time.com/vault/issue/1985-05-27/pages/). At that point, her concert tour was stirring up young audiences nationwide, her first album _Madonna_ had sold 2.8 million copies in the U.S. and her second, _Like a Virgin_, had done about twice that much. But the movie, made prior to her fame and released right in the middle of its first wave, tipped the scales. “As things are, _Susan_ gives Madonna an audience she can’t reach with MTV or disco,” TIME commented. In fact, _Susan_ was such a good fit for her that, for a moment, it seemed like she might switch focus: --- > “” --- Later in the story, she said that, while she planned to make more albums, the rock-star life was too grueling and that her ambition was to be a great actress. Of course, though she continued to add to her film credits, from _A League of Their Own_ to _Evita_, that career change didn’t materialize. Three decades after that cover story, she’s still closer to a rock star than to anything else. **_Read the 1985 cover story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Madonna Rocks the Land](http://time.com/vault/issue/1985-05-27/page/84/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/"},"headline":"The Time Madonna Almost Quit Music for Good","datePublished":"2015-03-09T14:47:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:41:01.922Z","description":"The new 'Rebel Hearts' is her 13th studio album","url":"https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/","keywords":["Music","Madonna"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ae0c311f402803d/698780ce3c16390a9f451f32/1101850527_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ae0c311f402803d/698780ce3c16390a9f451f32/1101850527_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Madonna Cover","caption":"Madonna on the May 27, 1985, cover of TIME","creditText":"Cover Credit: FRANCESCO SCAVULLO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/","name":"The Time Madonna Almost Quit Music for Good"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Madonna on Returning to Her Roots as a Songwriter","description":"Madonna talks about her new album","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YRGfIWXM/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-26T12:43:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YRGfIWXM.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/","duration":"PT1M36S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3721312/madonna-history/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```