The early Madonna stuff is really easy to sing, and she's really struggling. She has no control over her breathing and does the usual tricks to compensate: finish early and let the background singers take over, vocal fry, "squeeking" and other kinds of ornamentations to avoid holding notes. She clearly has had no formal training whatsoever at that point.
Which is fine. As I said, this is pop, good singing is overrated, other stuff is much more important, and I actually vastly prefer Madonna over Whitney Houston any time of the day.
Thanks for the link. But I think it is a bit unfair. Madonna is trying to sing while dancing. How can anyone have breath control while panting? How can anyone hold a note while bouncing up and down? Music videos where the singer is singing and dancing are all lip synced. They often even lip sync their concerts.
(How do I know they lip sync them? Because their "live" singing exactly matches the radio cut of their song! Nobody ever sings a song exactly the same way twice.)
Secondly, Madonna's tone still comes through as great. Breath control comes with training and practice, but you can't fix anyone who doesn't have great tone.
> So what you are actually complaining is how modern music is produced.
Well, sure. That's what I hear. To hear good singing, I have to go back to the 80s and earlier.
I still don't hear anything that can compete with the singers I listed. I listened to the singers you suggested. Listen to the links I suggested :-)