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I kind of agree about the her being a "follower", but come to think of it... everyone so far followed someone. People who started a trend always generaly tended to be a bit uncharismatic and then someone else took that trend to new heights. Rock N Roll had it's fair share of neglected heros like Bill Hayley and Carl Perkins (up to an extent even Roy Orbison). It took someone with a great charisma to propel it up the charts and make it an iconic household name. Elvis was just the man for the job. He didn't "invent" anything. He just merged charisma with an existing art-form.
That's basically what Madonna does, with a difference that she made that same thing with different genres. When she first came on the sceene she was considered as nothing more than a cheap Cyndi Lauper clone. Girl-power synth pop tunes were hardly the last word in originality even back then. But she added something extra to propel her to stardom. She became way more popular than Cyndi, eventually turning into a pop icon in the process (that MTV performance where she sang Like A Virgin in a wedding dress IMO cemented her status as an ultimate MTV icon). And she did it many times later, which is the really impressive thing. She didn't invent electronica, let after Ray Of Light it went huge. She didn't invent House music, yet house DJs all over the world are crediting her for making it a household name with "Vogue". So in reality she's doing nothing what Elvis didn't do decades ago - merging charisma with existing art-forms. It's the thing that makes people go "oh hell... they aren't all that special". But they are.
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