What do you think of them? I think there's fairly substantial differences, actually. Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love" always struck me as very genuinely '80s in a 1987 sort of way...just the cheesiness of the synth effects and the instrumentation. It's definitely an innovative sort of "off" song that's Prince-influenced, and it's not all that far off from something like "Give Me Tonight" by Shannon or "Point of No Return." Then, there's Paula Abdul. I always liked "Straight Up" and "Forever Your Girl", and I think they're a little bit of a bridge between stuff like Jody Watley and the '90s dance-pop like Mariah Carey (though that stuff sounds eons more modern.) Personally, I think it was stuff like Paula Abdul that caused the evolution of house music, since it was so glossy and overproduced. A song like "Gonna Make You Sweat!" or "Vogue" sounds much fresher, more vital, and stripped-down than "Straight Up", which is loaded down with musical effects to an excess.

I always thought of both of those artists as having produced a little bit lower quality work than Madonna. Madonna always had more "artistic aspirations" to her stuff, and they were all MTV dance-pop divas (and worked off Madonna's fame a little), and Madonna's stuff sounds less dated today. Also, both artists were pretty insubstantial and exclusive to their time, as opposed to Madonna, who reinvented herself for the '90s with "Vogue" and "Rescue Me" (though she later failed with Erotica and fell flat on her face.)

Strictly 80s I'd give the edge to Paula Abdul with her debut.

But Jody ruled the early 90s with her "Always and Forever" album.