Here’s the thing: Madonna is no nostalgia act.

Fans love Holiday and Like a Virgin and Papa Don’t Preach. We look back fondly on Desperately Seeking Susan. We’ll bust out the Immaculate Collection during house cleaning.

But Madonna love isn’t fixated in the past. It follows her smirky disco groove into the future.

“Her music is still relevant today. She manages to change up and stay with what’s current, but it still has her flare – that Madonna signature,” says local fan Melissa Martinez, 36, who has seen Madonna perform only recently in Ft. Lauderdale (2004) and in Las Vegas (2006).

Currently bumping in Martinez’s car? Hard Candy and Confessions on a Dance Floor. No retro trips for her.

“She’s been around for so long but remains such a powerful music figure, at least in my world. Her stuff just isn’t boring.”

Hard Candy, Madonna’s 11th studio album, sold 280,000 copies its first week of release, big numbers for any artist in 2008. The disc’s first single, 4 Minutes, was her biggest hit since 2000’s Don’t Tell Me. She was named 2008’s best-selling American artist during this month’s World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, in recognition for Hard Candy’s global sales, which are at 3 million and counting.

Madonna herself is rarely interested in looking back. Her current Sticky & Sweet tour includes only a trio of songs – Into the Groove, Borderline, La Isla Bonita – that could truly be considered retro, and they’ve been radically reworked. She’s done the same thing on previous tours.

Her influence can be seen in numerous younger stars, from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Gwen Stefani and Fergie. Even Miley Cyrus has taken a few tips.

Instead of becoming a vintage diva, Madonna has pulled ahead of her ’80s peers. Prince can still be fierce on stage, but his albums have been uneven. Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston both crashed and burned.

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“It’s hard for me to even wrap my brain around how anyone could think the Sticky & Sweet tour is nostalgic. Madonna is constantly reinventing,” says Frank Saenz, 32, a former Houstonian who saw Madonna earlier this month in Las Vegas.

Though she was already a fashion icon and a controversial flashpoint, Madonna hit her musical stride with 1989’s Like a Prayer, an emotionally charged collection of mature pop anthems. It made her previous albums seem like the shallow musings of a naughty schoolgirl.

More growth followed on 1992’s underrated Erotica, a sexually charged companion to her Sex book; and 1994’s Bedtime Stories, which laced pop melodies with lush R&B arrangements.

But to this listener, Madonna’s creative peak was 1998’s Ray of Light, a trancey, electronic opus that was the result of her vocal training for Evita and her inspired collaborations with producer William Orbit.

A decade later it’s still an astonishing, fluid record, and the title track is an unmatched blast of pop euphoria.

Music came two years later and re-established Madonna’s pop muscle. The title track and Don’t Tell Me were radio hits. The disc played like a friskier companion to Ray of Light. And Madonna still proved to be a firestarter. The video for contemplative single What It Feels Like for a Girl was relegated to late-night airings because of its violent imagery.

American Life’s aggressive rants and anti-war sentiments caused controversy in 2004. The title track’s original, George W. Bush-bashing clip was pulled from TV. It’s all on-point today — another example, perhaps, of Madonna being ahead of her time. Dance fans took to the disc, and eight of its tracks became club hits, including the frenetic Nobody Knows Me.

“Madonna has always been a reflection of contemporary music,'” says Rich Pangilinan, known in club circles as DJ Riddler. He’s remixed tunes for Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Kelly Clarkson and Pink.

Pangilinan sees Madonna as still atop the pack.

“Madonna has always had the support of the club scene, which has traditionally been a youth-oriented market,” he says. “She came from the club scene and recognizes the importance of the DJs and club patrons.”

Confessions on a Dance Floor felt like a thank-you to fans who had stuck by Madonna through all the ballads and detours. It was a nonstop mix of disco shimmer and electro-pop dazzle.

Of course, I have my Madonna memories. They’re tied to actual events more than songs. Engaging in Madonna vs. Whitney debates with family. The patchouli-scented Like a Prayer cassette. (Cassette!) Attending the Blonde Ambition Tour at the Summit and bragging to awestruck high-school friends.

Begging my father to take me to Town & Country Mall for a quickly vanishing copy of the Sex book. Scouring record stores and Web sites for hard-to-find remixes of Buenos Aires. (I found them.) Traveling to Las Vegas and D.C. for tours that bypassed Texas.

And, for the past four years, dancing all night long during the Madonnarama events at South Beach Nightclub.

This year’s Hard Candy finds Madonna still ready to boogie, though the disco flourishes don’t feel as immediate as her previous albums. But the disc’s not a wash. Give It 2 Me and Heartbeat are standouts, along with She’s Not Me, a toot-toot homage to Donna Summer’s Bad Girls that finds our diva stating her case.

“She’s not me/She doesn’t have my name,” she sings. “She’ll never have what I have/It won’t be the same.”

Indeed. Many have tried, but few are, well, Madonna.