Like a Prayer (album) that the album's release "marks the moment when critics first begin to describe Madonna as an artist, rather than a mere pop singer". Glen Levy from "Time" stated: "Madonna has always been a keen student of pop-culture history, and her creative powers were probably at their peak in the late 1980s on the album "Like a Prayer"." Hadley Freeman from "The Guardian" opined that "Like a Prayer" shaped "how pop stars, pop music, music videos, love, sex and the 80s were and should be". Jon Pareles, from "The New York Times", said that " ["Like a Prayer"] defiantly grabbed Christian
Like a Prayer (album) Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of three million units. After the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan era in 1991, the album sold a further 575,000 copies. "Like a Prayer" has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In Canada, the album debuted at number two on the RPM Albums Chart on May 1, 1989. It remained on that position during four weeks, before dropping to the third position the week of May 29, 1989. The album was present for a total of 37 weeks on the chart, and was certified five times