In 2023, Like a Virgin was selected for preservation in the United States' National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress due to it being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Following the release of her 1983 self-titled debut album, and hit singles like "Holiday", "Lucky Star" and "Borderline", Madonna became, according to author Craig Rosen, "one of the most exciting new artists of the 1980s".

[2] Angry with the label, the singer would publicly vent during interviews, and refer to her bosses as a "hierarchy of old men [...] a chauvinistic environment to be working in because I'm treated like this sexy little girl".

[2] She picked Nile Rodgers, co-founder of American disco band Chic, and main producer of David Bowie's Let's Dance (1983), one of her favorite albums of the time.

[5] Rodgers had previously met Madonna after attending one of her gigs at a New York City nightclub, and was impressed with her stage presence; "I kept thinking to myself, 'Damn, is she a star', but she wasn't at that time.

Rodgers had previously asked songwriters Andrea LaRusso and Peggy Stanziale to write a song for Madonna in the style of Chic but, due to other projects, the composition took time.

[11][12] When the lyrics of the song were submitted, Rodgers turned them down as he felt there was no time to compose a melody and record it for the album; however, Madonna liked them and persuaded the producer to include the track.

[22] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian described Like a Virgin as a "cocktail of post-disco dance music, with a dash of hip-hop and a surprisingly large shot of choppy, angular new wave rock".

[31] The title track, "Like a Virgin", is a "mildly titillating" dance-rock song, in which the singer talks about how true love can make a girl feel shiny and new.

[27][12] It features a guitar solo on its bridge, while Madonna sings about clothes she would like to drape over her lover, so that she can cover him with "velvet kisses", and caress his body with her hands.

[12][29] Starting with the refrain followed by an opening verse, the eighth track "Pretender" is a synth-pop song about seduction and the insecurity felt by Madonna as she "[lets] things happen too fast" with a man who "isn't what he seems".

[39] The sepia-tinted cover shows the singer lying on a satin bed, decked out in a wedding dress, with a tight-fitting bustier, full-length gloves, and a belt buckle that reads "Boy Toy"; she stares directly at the camera with heavy make-up and messy hair.

[43] Even though it was completed by the end of April, the release of Like a Virgin was held back, due to the success of "Borderline" and the continuing sales of Madonna's first album, which at that point exceeded one million copies in the United States.

[51] MTV's Jessie Peterson opined that the performance put Madonna "on the map as Queen of Pop Music", and established the VMAs as "the place where water-cooler moments happen".

[52][53] On December 13, Madonna sang "Like a Virgin" on British television program Top of the Pops, decked out in a pink wig and golden metallic jacket.

[70] The accompanying music video was directed by Mary Lambert, and shows the singer sailing down the canals of Venice in a gondola, and roaming around a castle in a white wedding dress.

Dubbed "The Virgin Party", it drew a crowd of around 1,200 people; attendees were encouraged to wear white, and for $5 admission fees, were able to view the Madonna videocassette and the "Material Girl" music video.

[2][103] From Billboard, Brian Chine called it a "fine" second album, even though Madonna "does no searching whatsoever in her singing [...] [She] hits her notes straight on, and with a pretty enough melody".

[105] From The New York Times, Stephen Holden was pleased with the "handsomely produced" record and the singer's voice, which he felt echoed the "rock-and-roll girl-group tradition that preceded the Beatles", but while these "worshipfully extolled their boyfriends' cars, haircuts and rebel poses, Madonna's point of view is decidedly more self-interested".

[106] From streaming service Tidal, John Murph described the album as "far warmer, fuller and more soulful than the often cold and tinny synth sounds that typified a lot of underground dance music" of the time.

[114] Both Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine and Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt it is not as "innovative" as Madonna's first record, with the former adding: "[On the first album], she stunned with style and a certain joy.

[120] Madonna became the third female artist in the 1980s decade ―after Barbra Streisand and Kim Carnes― to score both a number one album and single, as the title track had reached the Hot 100's top spot two weeks prior.

[107] To Daniel Garrán from Spanish radio station Los 40, "[Like a Virgin] proved [Madonna] was not a one-hit wonder but a versatile artist capable of cementing her place in the music world [...] pop culture gave in to her charms".

[Asserting] her sexuality as only male rock stars had done before, moving well beyond the limited confines of being a pop artist, to becoming a focal point for nationwide discussions of power relationships in the areas of sex, race, gender, religion, and other divisive social topics".

[152] "[Like a Virgin] defined Madonna as the seminal 1980s pop star, as she symbolically entered the culture war debates of the 1980s (sex, feminism, and career women) and helped change a generation of young girls into sexually expressive adults, and alerted woman to the dated ideologies of religion and gender norms".

[153] The singer herself recalled that women would show up to the concerts with "flap skirts on and tights cut off below their knees and lace gloves and rosaries and bows in their hair and big hoop earrings.

[150] Nathan Smith from Out magazine wrote that young women idolized the "transformative transgressions of Madonna, a star who wanted to be in control of sexual identity and dictate the terms of her own erotic encounters".

[35] Smith ultimately concluded that, "[Like a Virgin] stands today as a polemic for the reborn woman of the 1980s: empowered, sexually demonstrative, financially independent, and drawing on old antiquated traditions to move ahead in the world".

[156] Consequence of Sound considered Like a Virgin the second best sophomore album of all time, with Michael Roffman saying it "carved out the throne, the crown, and the title that would be Madonna's forever: The Queen of Pop".

[158] Finally, In 2023, Like a Virgin was selected for preservation in the United States' National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress due to it being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".