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Your opinion on Erotica?


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Erotica was a very brave record to make!  Madonna had come off of a string of monster pop records and a string of unprecedented hits (Madonna, Like a Virgin, True Blue and Like a Prayer) and then she changed lanes entirely.  No other mainstream artist would have ever tried such a thing.  Imagine Michael Jackson, Prince, Britney, Eminem, Tina Turner or Janet ever pulling this off or even attempting on such a scale.  They were all carefully cultivated formulas and never strayed.  Never.

The Erotica album is also shocking in all of the right ways.  Madonna used sex in a way that had never been done on a mainstream stage.  She weaponized sex as the ultimate protest against an unjust society, chipped away at many millenniums of patriarchy, and delivered a scathing review of the ugly truths of inequality that were (are still) infesting in society at large.   Madonna shed more than her clothes to make this record but her very skin, psyche and soul.

Clearly, Erotica is not about being sexy, it is about being powerful, prolific, and protecting others.  It was a also a brilliant response to the intolerance of gay people and the largely ignored AIDS crisis in a time when LGBTQ people were demonized by 90%+ of the world.   Madonna created a safe space within Erotica for all who needed refuge.  

Perhaps Erotica was Madonna's true Opus as it revealed her at her most vulnerable.  It also killed off the Material Girl forever.  I love this record musically but even more so as a blueprint to love and equality.  Years later, M is still a freedom fighter but this was an unprecedented move to trade in the worldwide applause and accolades for the opportunity to lift others and speak the truth.  For me, I suppose that Erotica is the Gospel section of Madonna's life and I appreciated both the message and being invited.  Erotica never really was about Madonna but about reaching out to other people in love.  It was a sort of love letter and it touched me.  Long live the Queen.  

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I listened this record on monday night + some instrumentals. Best videos era ever ! Best vocals era on Girlie show. I love your Dita so much. You are our STAR. Thak you Bitch  for your HARD WORK. Respect !

:whipping:

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Whenever I'm asked which Madonna album is the best, I always reply that it's too hard to answer that, but that the one I listen to more than any other is Erotica. I love every single thing during that era (starting with This Used To Be... and ending on The Girlie Show) - I don't skip a single song (yes, that includes Did You Do It? - it's hilarious and that groove is pure bliss), love the remixes, b-sides, demos, videos and the tour, of course. My only wish is she worked with Andre Betts more - his tracks really stand out and are unlike anything she's ever done. 

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i was 17 when Erotica was released. i expected bops like Vogue, so must admit at first i was disappointed. But the album grew on me as i got older and now Erotica is my favorite Madonna album. It's not her best album, though imo. The Erotica era was tough for a fan. There was the media backlash, but also my friends completely ignored Madonna, nobody even mentioned her. It was so weird.

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Let's put it that way:

I understand its importance and its value but for me, personally, this is one of her bottom tier albums.

Why?

I'm not particularly fond of that heavy early 90s sound and I wished there was more singing and less talking on tracks like Where Life Begins and Waiting. Back in the day it wasn't well-received and for a long time it didn't get the appreciation it may have deserved to a certain extend but calling this her best album? That's an exaggeration. I do understand that people feel it deserves "justice" and therefore overrate it to compensate the lack of love it received back in the day. There are always people who root for the underdog albums. It happens for every artist, really.

The album itself sounds a bit too rough and just hasn't aged well imo.

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1 hour ago, MPowered said:

Let's put it that way:

I understand its importance and its value but for me, personally, this is one of her bottom tier albums.

Why?

I'm not particularly fond of that heavy early 90s sound and I wished there was more singing and less talking on tracks like Where Life Begins and Waiting. Back in the day it wasn't well-received and for a long time it didn't get the appreciation it may have deserved to a certain extend but calling this her best album? That's an exaggeration. I do understand that people feel it deserves "justice" and therefore overrate it to compensate the lack of love it received back in the day. There are always people who root for the underdog albums. It happens for every artist, really.

The album itself sounds a bit too rough and just hasn't aged well imo.

That’s exactly how I feel about bedtime stories album - I think Erotica is a far superior album and it’s aged much better - I think some songs on erotica are timeless too - especially the Andre Betts tracks 

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2 hours ago, MPowered said:

Let's put it that way:

I understand its importance and its value but for me, personally, this is one of her bottom tier albums.

Why?

I'm not particularly fond of that heavy early 90s sound and I wished there was more singing and less talking on tracks like Where Life Begins and Waiting. Back in the day it wasn't well-received and for a long time it didn't get the appreciation it may have deserved to a certain extend but calling this her best album? That's an exaggeration. I do understand that people feel it deserves "justice" and therefore overrate it to compensate the lack of love it received back in the day. There are always people who root for the underdog albums. It happens for every artist, really.

The album itself sounds a bit too rough and just hasn't aged well imo.

Agreeing 100 per cent.

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9 hours ago, Sultrysully said:

Erotica was a very brave record to make!  Madonna had come off of a string of monster pop records and a string of unprecedented hits (Madonna, Like a Virgin, True Blue and Like a Prayer) and then she changed lanes entirely.  No other mainstream artist would have ever tried such a thing.  Imagine Michael Jackson, Prince, Britney, Eminem, Tina Turner or Janet ever pulling this off or even attempting on such a scale.  They were all carefully cultivated formulas and never strayed.  Never.

The Erotica album is also shocking in all of the right ways.  Madonna used sex in a way that had never been done on a mainstream stage.  She weaponized sex as the ultimate protest against an unjust society, chipped away at many millenniums of patriarchy, and delivered a scathing review of the ugly truths of inequality that were (are still) infesting in society at large.   Madonna shed more than her clothes to make this record but her very skin, psyche and soul.

Clearly, Erotica is not about being sexy, it is about being powerful, prolific, and protecting others.  It was a also a brilliant response to the intolerance of gay people and the largely ignored AIDS crisis in a time when LGBTQ people were demonized by 90%+ of the world.   Madonna created a safe space within Erotica for all who needed refuge.  

Perhaps Erotica was Madonna's true Opus as it revealed her at her most vulnerable.  It also killed off the Material Girl forever.  I love this record musically but even more so as a blueprint to love and equality.  Years later, M is still a freedom fighter but this was an unprecedented move to trade in the worldwide applause and accolades for the opportunity to lift others and speak the truth.  For me, I suppose that Erotica is the Gospel section of Madonna's life and I appreciated both the message and being invited.  Erotica never really was about Madonna but about reaching out to other people in love.  It was a sort of love letter and it touched me.  Long live the Queen.  

Prince, a carefully cultivated formula? that just might be the most incorrect thing said in the history of this forum. The rest of your post was awesome though?

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On 12/22/2021 at 9:27 AM, LongIslandTea said:

I dun really like it when it first came out and used to skip a few songs (WLB, ITL, WISH, DYDI, SG)

But it gets better along the way and now I dun skip anything at all.

PS: I can totally get why TUTBMP was excluded 'cos it doesn't fit.

Couldn't say the same for AL & all-LN-era-albums. 

This Used To Be My Playground would've fitted if it had been included when the album was released. It's only because it wasn't included that people have since come to that conclusion. 

Presumably it's because of the sexual overtones running through almost every song that people think this, which holds no place on Playground. In which case, does a pure and simple love song like Rain really fit? Of course it does. But if things were different and Rain had just been released as a non-album single in 1993 between Fever and I'll Remember would we now be saying "Well, Rain wasn't included because it clearly doesn't fit with everything else around it."

So I honestly believe that Playground should have been added. I'm biased, because my love for the song is clear on other threads. And it is on my version of Erotica. I added the track as track 3 between Fever and Bye Bye Baby. Fits seamlessly, like it was always meant to be there.

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18 minutes ago, Drownedboy said:

mmm I really don´t think This used to be my playground really would have fit on this, too much strings and heart for Erotica.

And yet Rain does? 

Don't get me wrong, I think Rain does fit perfectly. I'm just saying that the general consensus is that Playground doesn't fit, purely because it wasn't included on there. If it had been included, everyone would be quite used to the track order and it wouldn't even occur to people that it shouldnt be on there.

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2 minutes ago, Alexei said:

And yet Rain does? 

Don't get me wrong, I think Rain does fit perfectly. I'm just saying that the general consensus is that Playground doesn't fit, purely because it wasn't included on there. If it had been included, everyone would be quite used to the track order and it wouldn't even occur to people that it shouldnt be on there.

Rain is a very dark song. Hauntingly beautiful. 

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This era should be studied in media, communications and sociology courses at universities around the world

The biggest backlash in pop culture history by male dominated media companies aimed at ONE WOMAN.

The amount of sheer hate and vitriol thrown at her during that era was staggering,

I truly don't know how she made it through and really looking forward to seeing this era covered in the biopic

It also makes you wonder how the stars of today would deal with a quarter of the controversy thrown at her.

Erotica has stood the test of time, also goes without saying the title track is a good song to bottom to.

Someone take me from behind and push yourself into my mind, I won't reject it

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3 hours ago, Alexei said:

This Used To Be My Playground would've fitted if it had been included when the album was released. It's only because it wasn't included that people have since come to that conclusion. 

 

I've always seen TUTBMP as the final song of the "Like A Prayer / Vogue / Blond Ambition Tour / Immaculate Collection" era. Why? I really don't know. For me the song marks the end of her golden era (it's like a good-bye). And Erotica (the song) marks the beginning of a totally different era (an amazing dark era). 

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13 hours ago, Aiwa08 said:

I've always seen TUTBMP as the final song of the "Like A Prayer / Vogue / Blond Ambition Tour / Immaculate Collection" era. Why? I really don't know. For me the song marks the end of her golden era (it's like a good-bye). And Erotica (the song) marks the beginning of a totally different era (an amazing dark era). 

Absolutely. Rain for me fits on Erotica although it´s the sweetes part of the pie, it´s melodic right, but not so orchestral as playground, and much more sexier and modern. It´s one of the highlights for me. I quite like deeper and deeper or Words and others, but other songs are too long and too many spoken words and monotonous for my taste: fever, even erotica, the last track...and I always disliked in this life, ugh. Please, compare it to you´ll see, drowned world, power of goodbye, time stood still, gone, Nothing fails or Ghostown. I mean, she improved a lot as time went by.

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On 12/21/2021 at 8:33 AM, Ziggy Stardust said:

Im very curious to see what everyone thinks about this album as a whole and which tracks you especially enjoy. For me Erotica is not only the greatest of Madonna's albums, but in the top ten records ever made my a pop artist. The word masterpiece is thrown around way too freely but this album really makes for such an incredible listening experience. Madonna is at her best here, utterly fearless and artistically controversial. Two of my favorite tracks are Erotica and Rain but I have a hard time picking any that I like best because the whole thing blends together so perfectly. Its the reissue that I am looking forward to more than any other.

Erotica_Madonna.png

A masterpiece but Idk why I find Bedtime Stories more erotic than this album. Just my opinion.

 

A provocative album where she set the bar highest of how to be sexual in music, than what men did. I think this is the album where a woman extemely expresses her sexuality than any other female artists back in the day. If George Michael and Prince did it good, then Madonna did it better.

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5 hours ago, Robertson II said:

A masterpiece but Idk why I find Bedtime Stories more erotic than this album. Just my opinion.

I think "Bedtime Stories" is more sensual for sure. I also don't see "Erotica" as a "sexy" or "erotic" album at all, it's far too detached for it. Even artwork and packaging evoke coldness rather than steamy sensuality. Her image while promoting it was also a reflection of that - take "Justify My Love" look, with full lips and blond curls, smokey eyes and black lingerie and then we have Dita with plucked Dietrich eyebrows, suits, thin lips, golden tooth, etc. "Justify My Love" was also warm musically, steamy and sexy in a way that "Erotica" is not. The only songs about sex on the album are "Erotica" and "Where Life Begins" really, rest is about love, pain, loneliness, heartbreak and loss. 

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25 minutes ago, kesiak said:

I think "Bedtime Stories" is more sensual for sure. I also don't see "Erotica" as a "sexy" or "erotic" album at all, it's far too detached for it. Even artwork and packaging evoke coldness rather than steamy sensuality. Her image while promoting it was also a reflection of that - take "Justify My Love" look, with full lips and blond curls, smokey eyes and black lingerie and then we have Dita with plucked Dietrich eyebrows, suits, thin lips, golden tooth, etc. "Justify My Love" was also warm musically, steamy and sexy in a way that "Erotica" is not. The only songs about sex on the album are "Erotica" and "Where Life Begins" really, rest is about love, pain, loneliness, heartbreak and loss. 

I have always thought of Erotica as a statement about female power. Madonna's sexual fantasies on the record are all about power and domination, things traditionally associated with men in the bedroom. Also a lot more of the tracks are about sex than you might think, like Fever. Erotica uses sex as a statement while Bedtime Stories is smooth and sensual.

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17 hours ago, Ziggy Stardust said:

I have always thought of Erotica as a statement about female power. Madonna's sexual fantasies on the record are all about power and domination, things traditionally associated with men in the bedroom. Also a lot more of the tracks are about sex than you might think, like Fever. Erotica uses sex as a statement while Bedtime Stories is smooth and sensual.

Fever is actually a great example of my original point. The most known versions of the song (Peggy Lee, Elvis) are genuinely sexy, sensual and simmering. Madonna's take is cold and aloof.  

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imo this is the first album of hers (then) that felt like a well thought out body of work, and where you can poor yourself a drink and that you can get lost in. Like a journey. Ofcourse her 80s music is great, but those albums, I don't find them to be that strong ? as awhole. As an experience.

Her 1992-2005 run was so incredible. Albums wise. I've said bedore that confessions isn't particularly my favorite. I have to find myself in the mood for it but its still a great ride once you surrender to it. 

Anyways. I love Erotica. The mood, the atmosphere, her vocals. The texturedness. It's very intimate and romantic even at times. and not as vulgar as someone new to it might expect. The songs are great. It still has some 80s elements here and there like in Rain. 

This album is Madonna at her best for me ??‍♂️and most like who she truly is imo.

Ray Of Light ofcourse is incredible, but I don't find it to be very truly her. More like a fase. 

 

 

 

Edited by Hari Beaux (see edit history)
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6 hours ago, kesiak said:

Fever is actually a great example of my original point. The most known versions of the song (Peggy Lee, Elvis) are genuinely sexy, sensual and simmering. Madonna's take is cold and aloof.  

I think that Madonna's overall attitude during the record was reflective of the state of mind she was in at the time. The vicious backlash in that era had hardened her to a dangerous degree but that was the only way she kept a sane mind I suppose.

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