The unveiling (Image via video still)

Madonna Unveiled is a new project that had its beginnings a dozen years ago, when an anonymous fan of the Queen of Pop decided to deeply analyze every aspect of her music, music videos and live performances in order to highlight the complexity of her output.

It's a timely project, considering Madonna is more pilloried than ever for continuing to make contemporary pop music — and a chunk of the negativity is coming from her own fans, some of whom possessively want her to do everything but what she wants to do instead of letting her be Madonna and deciding which aspects thrill and which do not ...

The book's first three chapters are free to read here. Check the book out on Facebook and YouTube, too, for some elaborate side-by-sides to get at the root of Madonna's many inspirations. 

I actually love finding previous inspirations in artists' work, but I feel like that became such a toxic pursuit in the Madonna vs. Gaga era — it seemed like fans used any similarities between them, and between Madonna and past legends, as indictments, as proof of a lack of originality.

Nothing is being made up out of thin air, it is all inspired. The key is how inspired each artist's witches' brew of references winds up being, and I've always thought Madonna's to be intoxicating as hell.