FEATURE:
Bye Bye Baby
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1990/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Demarchelier
From Like a Prayer to Erotica: Looking at Madonna’s Biggest Reinventions
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ONE of the biggest album anniversaries…
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1992 for the Deeper and Deeper video
this year occurs on 20th October. This will mark thirty years of Madonna’s fifth studio album, Erotica. The album was released simultaneously with her first book publication Sex: a coffee table book containing explicit photographs featuring the singer, and marked her first release under Maverick, her own multimedia entertainment company. I wonder whether there will be a thirtieth anniversary release of that album. The photo I have included at the top of this feature was taken in 1990. I think that year marked a real transition for Madonna. 1989’s Like a Prayer saw her grow in confidence and talent as an artist. Whereas 1986’s True Blue was a reinvention and slightly more mature and bolder album compared to 1984’s Like a Virgin, she took another big step three years after True Blue. In terms of her lyrics and music videos, everything got bigger and deeper! More introspective than anything she had released to that point, Like a Prayer spawned six incredible singles – including Cherish and Like a Prayer – and saw Madonna named as the artist of the decade by many publications. There was this huge commercial and critical backing behind her. I am going to come to details and writing about Erotica soon. Close to the anniversary, I am going to go into more depth about the album. It was maligned by a lot of people in 1992, and it remains one of Madonna’s albums that remains underrated. Seen as a bit hit-less and too explicit by some, it definitely departed from her earlier sound. To me, it was an always-inventive artist trying something new and pushing boundaries.
Erotica is an album that lives up to its name. A Pop superstar that wanted to express herself and be true, there was a lot of pushback from those who felt she had gone too far or was being provocative. One cannot blame Madonna for having the desire to do what she did. In 1990 alone, she embarked on the smash that was The Blond Ambition World Tour. The fifty-seven-date world tour supported Like a Prayer, and the soundtrack album to the 1990 film Dick Tracy, I'm Breathless. Eight years after her debut single, Madonna had risen from this curious young artist to a global superstar who was ruling the music world. In her early-thirties when the tour started, obviously Madonna was going to be change things up. If her first few albums had a sweetness and sense of naivety here and there, Like a Prayer and The Blond Ambition World Tour confirmed that she was this bold and accomplished woman who was pushing Pop to new heights. A huge tour that took in cabaret, theatre and different elements to create this extravaganza! Obviously, by the end of 1990, Sire and Warner Bros. knew that a first greatest hits collection was overdue. Having achieved so much and scored so many big hits to that point, The Immaculate Collection was a massive release. It remains one of the most famous and loved greatest hits collections ever.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1990
Throw in the huge success Vogue had in 1990 and the rising profile Madonna had an actor to that point, she was entering the decade as this polymath and pioneer whose music was so much different to everything out there. Whereas a lot of her contemporaries were producing sugary and unsophisticated Pop that was throwaway, Madonna was growing as an artist. Producing and writing alongside Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray on Like a Prayer, she was also this burgeoning and hugely talented songwriter and producer who was commanding so much respect. Despite her success and the fact she was influencing so many around her, Madonna had to face a lot of judgment, misogyny and sexism. From the media and magazines slating her to some of her male peers being sexist and degrading, it seemed that there were a lot of people who were waiting for Madonna to fail! To this day, Madonna gets a lot of negativity and cruelty aimed her way. At the peak of her success, that sense of fame and hype meant there was a lot of vitriol and puritanism alongside the kudos. Although there were some boundary-pushing elements to The Blond Ambitions World Tour in terms of sex and the explicit, there was nothing any more rawer than what a lot of Rock acts and her male peers were doing!
In years since, many female Pop artists produced quite raunchy tours. To be fair, The Blond Ambition World Tour is this theatrical experience that was meant to be fit for an artist who was seen as a true queen and icon. I love the series of photos Patrick Demarchelier took of Madonna in 1990. The fact Madonna resembles Marilyn Monroe in some of the shoots is fascinating. Whether she saw herself as a doomed icon or this Hollywood sex symbol, I am not sure. Even though Madonna had the fame of Monroe and was equally glamorous and loved, there was this fear that Madonna might succumb to the pressures of fame or go off the rails. There is something of the Hollywood siren and this very powerful figure about Madonna in 1990. After a multi-million-dollar tour and a greatest hits album, it seemed that she was untouchable! If Like a Prayer ruffled a few feathers (the title track’s video courted controversy because of an interracial kiss and burning crucifixes; some feeling Madonna should be a better role model), Erotica would do more than that! It fascinates me what Madonna did in 1991. After such a busy past couple of years, Madonna started creating something that would divide people. Recorded between October 1991 and June 1992 at Soundworks Studio, Mastermix, there was a notable shift. Able to exert more creative and promotional control as her Maverick enterprise and label was launched, she collaborated with Shep Pettibone (who co-wrote Vogue).
During the recording session of Erotica, Madonna and Pettibone wrote This Used to Be My Playground, the soundtrack single of the 1992 film, A League of Their Own. The non-album single from The Immaculate Collection, Justify My Love, would nod to the sound and look of Erotica. From the cropped hair and leather jacket look of Papa Don’t Preach (from True Blue) to the long brown hair and religious artefacts and jewellery of Like a Prayer’s title track, this was a marked leap. Both of those songs are gritty and sexy. Justify My Love is sweaty, sensual and challenging. It was almost a shot to those who doubted her or criticised her for being too sexual. To me, it was this peerless Pop superstar unleashed and her most erotica. Written by Lenny Kravitz and Ingrid Chavez, Justify My Love is a terrific song that got to number one in the U.S. If some quarters were raising eyebrows and thought Madonna was taking things too far, the public definitely had an appetite for her music and videos! As I said, I will discuss Erotica solely in a series of features this summer. Its arrival – alongside the Sex book - stunned the world. Even though there was some finger-wagging and criticism levied at Madonna, there was also praise. Many noted how the more cold and detached sound worked. Other commended the amount of single-worthy tracks Erotica boasted. Others were impressed with this reinvention and the new persona, Mistress Dita. Charles Aaron of Spin observed the album was a brave comment on the tragic detachment of sex under AIDS.
With songs like Rain, Erotica, Bye Bye Baby and Bad Girl all successful and showing different sides to Madonna, Erotica is an album that deserves reinspection. Madonna, ironically, seemed untouchable as an artist through an album that is as physical and sensual as anything she had ever released! At the forefront of the sexual revolution, it is a funny, varied and hugely inspired album that is not seen as one of her very best albums – though it definitely should be. A blueprint for future artists like Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj, Erotica is fascinating and seminal. It was a case of Erotica and the Sex book arriving at the same time that did provoke some judgment. Maybe an overload. The next album, 1994’s Bedtime Stories, almost seems like the opposite. The title alone is almost child-like or apologetic. Even though the album itself is not toned-down or tame at all, it was a lot less sexual than Erotica. By 1998’s Ray of Light, Madonna had embraced spiritualism and a new direction once more. I find Erotica to be an album that set a blueprint and precedence. Maybe Pop as we know now would not exist. Certainly, it had a profound impact on Pop of the late-1990s and early-2000s. Before rounding off, this Wikipedia article reveals the influence and reputation of 1992’s Erotica:
“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame considered Erotica one of the most revolutionary albums of all time, declaring that "...few women artists, before or since Erotica, have been so outspoken about their fantasies and desires. Madonna made it clear that shame and sexuality are mutually exclusive... In the end, Erotica embraced and espoused pleasure, and kept Madonna at the forefront of pop's sexual revolution." Slant Magazine listed Erotica at number 24 on "The 100 Best Albums of the 1990s", calling it a "dark masterpiece". Miles Raymer of Entertainment Weekly said that "in retrospect it's her strongest album — produced at the peak of her power and provocativeness... and helped elevate her from mere pop star to an era-defining icon.” Bianca Gracie from Fuse TV channel called Erotica "the album that changed the pop music world forever... one of the most controversial and genre-defining albums in pop history."
J. Randy Taraborrelli documented at the time of Erotica's release, "much of society seemed to reexamining its sexuality. Gay rights issues were at the forefront of social discussions globally, as was an ever-increasing awareness of AIDS." Barry Walters from Rolling Stone noted that the album's greatest contribution is "[its] embrace of the other, which in this case means queerness, blackness, third-wave feminism, exhibitionism and kink. Madonna took what was marginalized at the worst of the AIDS epidemic, placed it in an emancipated context, and shoved it into the mainstream for all to see and hear." Brian McNair, the author of Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratization of Desire, stated that upon the album's release "academic books began to appear about the 'Madonna phenomenon', while pro- and anti-porn feminists made of her a symbol of all that was good or bad (depending on their viewpoint) about contemporary sexual culture." Daryl Deino from The Inquisitr dubbed the album as "a groundbreaking moment for feminism."
Erotica remains the most rampantly misrepresented Madonna album with the biggest backlash of her career. Taraborrelli commented that it is unfortunate that Erotica has to be historically linked to other less memorable ventures in Madonna's career at this time. However, he quipped that the album should be considered on its own merits, not only as one linked to the other two adult-oriented projects, because it has true value.
When asked to name her biggest professional disappointment, Madonna answered, "The fact that my Erotica album was overlooked because of the whole thing with the Sex book. It just got lost in all that. I think there's some brilliant songs on it and people didn't give it a chance." Brian McNair observed that Madonna took a financial risk with the album and it was not until Ray of Light (1998) that her record sales recovered to pre-Erotica levels. He further asserted that "what she lost in royalty payments, however, Madonna more than made up for in iconic status and cultural influence”.
That period between 1989 and 1992 is fascinating! I often chart the years and albums in terms of Madonna’s fashion and looks. Like a Prayer was playful in parts and edgier in others. Madonna definitely transitioning and blossoming in terms of her sound and look. The 1990 photo I have at the top of this feature is her almost as an iconic film star and idol. Someone beginning this real peak and explosion. The Blond Ambition World Tour took that to new levels. By 1992’s Erotica, a very different Madonna had arrived. It was a remarkable few years! I love the fact that she was always changing and was growing stronger as a performer and writer. I will explore Erotica more in the months to come, but I wanted to start that thread with a general look at how her career transformed and changed in the years before. It was most definitely an incredible…
PERIOD in music history.