Whether by brazenly injecting sex in the public sphere, adopting gay subculture for mainstream audiences or becoming the top-selling female musician of all time, Madonna has asserted an incalculable influence. The pop superstar turned 60 on August 16 and is again breaking barriers - this time as a mature woman who is still brash, carnal and unapologetic.
Giving new meaning to the term sexagenarian, Madonna openly dates men three decades younger, maintains a svelte figure that would be the envy of most people half her age and on her latest tour put on a characteristically provocative show that simulated most conceivable sex acts.
Madonna is hardly the first female entertainer to stay active while growing older, with singers as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Cher, Dolly Parton and Stevie Nicks on stage in their 70s.
But Madonna - who entered pop culture at the same time as MTV - has embodied the cult of youth like few other artists and, while others reinvented themselves or staged nostalgic comebacks, the Material Girl has never gone more than four years without an album since her blockbuster self-titled debut in 1983.
The title of a single off her latest album, "Rebel Heart," summed up her unwavering attitude: "Bitch, I'm Madonna."
Freya Jarman, a music scholar at the University of Liverpool who co-edited a book on Madonna, said the pop star has already left her legacy, with younger artists such as Lady Gaga so evidently influenced by her.
But she emphasized that Madonna was now demonstrating a new kind of relevance.
"As an aging, female popular musician who is still so much in the public eye, she is absolutely relevant," Jarman said.
"Madonna stands out in a way that she always has done, in that she has always been interested in creating a stir which someone like Cher, for my money, does not, really."
Many stars "seem to fade in and out of focus, while Madonna doesn't seem to fade out," Jarman added.
'To age is a sin'
Madonna, as throughout her career, has faced harsh commentary as she grows older.
An ex-girlfriend of one of her former lovers, Brazilian model Jesus Luz, branded her a "ridiculous old bag," while numerous social media users heaped scorn when Madonna locked lips on stage at the Coachella festival with the much-younger Drake.
And tabloids have fixated on Madonna's hands, one part of the body that can uncharitably betray age.
In a 2016 speech as she accepted an award from music magazine Billboard, Madonna said that society allowed women to be "pretty and cute and sexy" but not to share their opinions - or sexual fantasies.
"Be what men want you to be. But more importantly, be what women feel comfortable with you being around other men," she said, describing unwritten rules of the music business.
"And finally, do not age. Because to age is a sin. You will be criticized, you will be vilified, and you will definitely not be played on the radio," said Madonna, likely referring to BBC Radio 1 declining to play one of her recent singles as it pursued a younger audience.
Madonna has persisted in her political outspokenness, delivering a fiery speech to last year's Women's March a day after President Donald Trump's inauguration, vowing that women would not accept "this new age of tyranny."
Both sexy and maternal
Madonna has also challenged conceptions of motherhood, adopting four children from Malawi in addition to her biological son and daughter.
Madonna, who last year moved to Lisbon where one of her sons is attending a youth football academy, is marking her 60th birthday by encouraging fans to donate to her charity for children in Malawi.
Even as a mother, Madonna has pursued her relationships. The attention stands in contrast to the comparative societal yawn over older men who date much younger women, with still active stars Mick Jagger and Billy Joel both recently becoming fathers again.
"As a feminist, I would say good for Madonna. If that's your sexual taste and she can pull it off, she is doing a fantasy that most women either don't want or can't do," said Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies aging and sexuality.
Older women have also enjoyed growing prominence in Hollywood, but their love interests - especially as depicted in films - are rarely younger men. Among leading mature actresses, Diane Keaton in "Something's Gotta Give" and Meryl Streep in "Hope Springs" both played in roles of rekindling romance with senior men.
Schwartz said Madonna had a more difficult task as an older woman as sexual outrage is so integral to her persona.
But she said that Madonna, along with aging Hollywood stars, was offering a new model for women of their baby boom generation.
"The baby boom, which has always been at the edge of trying to give new definition to sex and gender, is trying to say - you know, we're not ready to be written off just because we're older now."
60 scandalous years for Madonna
Madonna remains one of the most controversial artists of all time, with the Material Girl refusing to hold back with age from the unbridled sexuality that helped make her a superstar. With Madonna turned 60 on Thursday, here is a look back at some of her more scandalous moments:
Bringing sex to MTV
When MTV threw its first Video Music Awards in 1984, the young network quickly shattered the staid formula of established shows such as the Grammys and Oscars with a sensational performance by Madonna.
The pop star emerged from a five-meter (16-foot) cake to sing "Like a Virgin" in a wedding gown and a belt buckle that said "boy toy," rolling about on the floor to reveal her undergarments.
Her reputation was sealed - and she repeatedly turned to music videos to cause a sensation.
'Like a Prayer'
Debuting the title track off her fourth album "Like a Prayer" in 1989, Madonna could barely have hoped for a bigger audience, with Pepsi teasing the video in a commercial broadcast around the world, including during "The Cosby Show," one of the most popular shows on television.
The video itself, debuting on MTV, stunned viewers with its incorporation of sex with religious iconography. Addressing interracial romance, a topic then still controversial in parts of the United States, Madonna makes love to the statue of a black saint and dances in front of burning crosses, the symbol of the racist Ku Klux Klan.
The Vatican protested and religious groups threatened to boycott Pepsi, which bowed to pressure and canceled its advertising campaign with Madonna.
Too hot for MTV
A year later, Madonna became too controversial even for MTV, which banned her video for "Justify My Love." Shot by the French fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino in a stylized black-and-white that evoked 1950s cinema, "Justify My Love" depicts bondage and other kinky sex in a hotel, with the actors later saying that the lines between performance and reality were blurred during filming.
Cashing in on the controversy, Madonna released "Justify My Love" as the top-selling ever video-single, a format that has vanished in the age of YouTube.
Taking controversy on road
Madonna's antics were not only on camera. She injected a new sensationalism to her tours, several of which have grossed her more than $100 million.
Her "Blond Ambition" tour in 1990 took on a revolutionary feel with its celebration of sex and, through the dancers, homosexuality - which was much less widely accepted at the time.
The dancers pretended to masturbate Madonna as she sang "Like a Prayer," a scene that led police in Toronto to threaten to arrest her, although they ultimately backed down.
The "Blond Ambition" tour also gave birth to one of Madonna's enduring fashion statements - the pointed cone bra worn on the outside, designed by Jean Paul Gaultier.
'Sex,' the book
Even some fans of Madonna thought she had gone too far in 1992 with a coffee-table book simply entitled "Sex" that featured her posing in made-to-shock positions, including sexually straddling a dog.
The book became a bestseller but overshadowed the simultaneous release of her comparatively subdued album "Erotica."
Madonna has insisted that she has no regrets over the book and "Sex" has gradually won over some fans, who say she was at the forefront of the new proliferation of pornography.
Kissing as statement
Madonna has in recent years become a musical elder - one still able to generate headlines.
At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna locked lips with two younger stars eager to shed innocent images - Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, whose kiss with the Material Girl was especially passionate.
Madonna made a surprise appearance in 2015 at the Coachella festival, where she again provoked shock by giving a wet kiss to headliner Drake.