Singles... if Erotica never received damage control treatment

[Blue Jean 15,253]

5 minutes ago, deathproof said:

In the Multiverse of Madonna, there’s a timeline where Thief of Hearts was the 2nd single, and became a global #1. With a music video featuring Naomi Cambell and a performance at the Grammys where it picked up 4 wins.

The same universe where MJ featured in the Sex book in a 3way with M and Naomi instead of Daddy Kane

[Robertthenurse 2,916]

I would die if she did Waiting on this tour. Just a sentence.

[Blue Jean 15,253]

5 minutes ago, Robertthenurse said:

I would die if she did Waiting on this tour. Just a sentence.

She could incorporate a snippet of it into Hung Up

[GregVsMatt 3,700]

17 minutes ago, Robertthenurse said:

I would die if she did Waiting on this tour. Just a sentence.

She's done it on instagram  

[Blue Jean 15,253]

13 hours ago, GhostOrchid said:

Yes well, with the tour it's a private show that you had to pay to get into, so understandably there would be no censoring there. Majority of people who paid to see the show already bought the album.

Footage of her gyrating with 2 men in underwear was all over the news . Plus all the details reported and scathing headlines printed in every paper. 

[EgoRod 5,448]

11 hours ago, Markdonna said:

I Love BYE BYE BABY.  This was also a Marilyn Monroe shout out that nobody ever caught or noticed as its the same title as a song from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

And BAD GIRL was simply EPIC on every level.  That video!!

To me, the song that SHOULD have been a single but sadly never was remains WORDS.  Love, love, love that track.  

Thank you! I just came to say why nobody mention Words yet?

I think Erotica was represented more as a flop by the media that wanted her career dragged than actually being a flop by itself.

And yeah it might be less sales and less number 1's but  as an album as so many mentioned, had lots of iconic looks, great mixes, great looks, fantastic videos , one of her best tours and everybody was talking about it. Along the sex book. The movie was'nt great.

I also believe Warner liked the 'sexy madonna' theme from JML and tried to cash out on it, just didn't give them the same numbers and change strategy. I think fans are the ones that keep seeing this as an album that 'never was as its most potential' because we know the whole data. 

Erotica came out after two incredibly pop and radio friendly albums, two top singles: Vogue (I'm Breathless) , the Immaculate collection (JML) and a hit ballad promoted during the Olympics, the stakes were really high to please anyone and I think she did great.

She did Madonna and that era proves it. Another artist might just tried to do another Like a Prayer and fail or being forgotten.

 

[EgoRod 5,448]

33 minutes ago, Blue Jean said:

Footage of her gyrating with 2 men in underwear was all over the news . Plus all the details reported and scathing headlines printed in every paper. 

" Madonna took part in fake orgies and outrageous lesbian and homosexual scenes"

The photos chosen is like a peep show.

Linda Duff was a fluff

 

https://madonnaunderground.com/the-girlie-show-press-articles/

[momosfantasy 947]

14 hours ago, DiegoLCL said:

I don't think things would be much different. Maybe if the album was more sucessful she would have been bolder and chosen a less commercial song as the final single but at the end of the day I'm pretty sure we would still have Deeper and Deeper and Rain as singles.

I never cared for Bye Bye Baby as single, such a silly song. It makes sense on the context of the album because it needs something lighter to balance it out but as a single? Up there with Dear Jessie as the worst choices up until the Interscope days for me. I don't care for the remixes either and the VMA performance is her most boring awards performance, and I like the performance on the tour but something was off that night.

Yeah, not a favorite performance, though it works in the context of the Girlie Show (although I think it should have been maybe the second number.  "The greatest show on earth is about to begin"??  Greatest show on earth is 3/4 over by the time she gets to BBB more like, amirite? 

The MTV performance is pointlessly lip-synched, and she really obviously misses her mark at one point.  I wonder if that's why she made sure to do live vocals when she toured.  

And Dear Jessie is a fantastic single, if only because it's so out of left field.  I just wish that it had some remixes.

[Blue Jean 15,253]

47 minutes ago, EgoRod said:

" Madonna took part in fake orgies and outrageous lesbian and homosexual scenes"

The photos chosen is like a peep show.

Linda Duff was a fluff

 

https://madonnaunderground.com/the-girlie-show-press-articles/

HOT

[LongIslandTea 1,591]

They should've released the Erotica video VHS single.

[Prayer 14,360]

3 minutes ago, LongIslandTea said:

They should've released the Erotica video VHS single.

That was probably the plan until it all got nasty.

[MaDöner Kebab 6,877]

Words is the one song that really could have and should have been a single. Amazing and very overlooked song! Would have been perfect in the first segment of the Girlie Show after Vogue.

[GregVsMatt 3,700]

On a side note, the only time I thought to myself, 'ok this is damage control' was when we got the endorsements in the American Life era (Gap Jeans, Estee Lauder) a softer image in the Love Profusion video - then RIT which I think would have been very different if AL was well received like Music - and then Confessions was a whole reestablishment 

[Bad Boy 53]

13 hours ago, GregVsMatt said:

I don't think there was any damage control with Erotica except the choice of Rain as the 5th single with the two new remixes as b-sides which was a common strategy at the time for later singles in album campaigns.

Bye Bye Baby was just a case of available remixes, perhaps explored as an earlier single and then released in Germany and then the two touring markets Australia and Japan where Warner wanted a single to go with the tour etc

Of the 6 singles, I think they were the strongest choices and the right way to go 

Do you know the purpose in commission the Waiting Remix? Made no sense to commission a remix just for b-side purpose. Must have been considered a single or done for live arrangement at one point. 

[Bad Boy 53]

5 hours ago, Robertthenurse said:

I would die if she did Waiting on this tour. Just a sentence.

The Girlie Show was the perfect chance to do it. Perhaps mixed with Rain, or in place of In This Life.

[MaDöner Kebab 6,877]

40 minutes ago, Bad Boy said:

The Girlie Show was the perfect chance to do it. Perhaps mixed with Rain, or in place of In This Life.

I think if anything, Bad Girl was considered in place of In This Life.

One of the earlier drafts of the Girlie Show setlists was this:

1. Erotica

2. Fever

3. Vogue

4. Rain

True Blue (Interlude)

5. Express Yourself

6. Deeper And Deeper

7. Why's It So Hard

8. In This Life

The Beast Within (Interlude)

9. Like A Virgin

10. Bye Bye Baby

11. Live To Tell

12. La Isla Bonita

13. Holiday

Encore:

14. Justify My Love

15. Everybody

I really can't warm up to this tour. Some of the song renditions were way too long, very odd setlist choices. While it had nice visuals, great vocals and a great band it’s definitely missing a few more oldies and better songs from Erotica (Bad Girl, Secret Garden, Words, Thief of Hearts)

[LongIslandTea 1,591]

2 hours ago, Prayer said:

That was probably the plan until it all got nasty.

Since there's already a backlash, why not go all the way to get the most $$$$?

I'm sure Erotica single would have been certified multi-platinum single if the video single was released back then.

[MaDöner Kebab 6,877]

4 minutes ago, LongIslandTea said:

Since there's already a backlash, why not go all the way to get the most $$$$?

I'm sure Erotica single would have been certified multi-platinum single if the video single was released back then.

What else could they have put on the cassette single? I remember Justify My Love had the VMA performance of Vogue included.

Edit:

OH I KNOW! The Oscars performance of Sooner or Later.

[LongIslandTea 1,591]

11 minutes ago, MPowered said:

What else could they have put on the cassette single? I remember Justify My Love had the VMA performance of Vogue included.

Edit:

OH I KNOW! The Oscars performance of Sooner or Later.

???

I'm talking about the unreleased VHS single.

[MaDöner Kebab 6,877]

50 minutes ago, LongIslandTea said:

???

I'm talking about the unreleased VHS single.

Is there an unreleased VHS single of Erotica? I wasn’t aware. I was just brainstorming about what could have been included on the VHS single alongside the Erotica video.

[deathproof 10,607]

26 minutes ago, MPowered said:

Is there an unreleased VHS single of Erotica? I wasn’t aware. I was just brainstorming about what could have been included on the VHS single alongside the Erotica video.

It was planned but scrapped. The artwork proofs with written comments are out there. (Was trying to pull it up myself but couldn’t find it)

[Donna 16,438]

28 minutes ago, MPowered said:

Is there an unreleased VHS single of Erotica? I wasn’t aware. I was just brainstorming about what could have been included on the VHS single alongside the Erotica video.

Why put anything else on it? Just release the video alone like they released Justify My Love or Ray of Light VHS single.

Then again, I guess they could have added both uncensored or censored versions of the video.  Maybe added bonus footage from the Sex Book video?  But at this time, it was so uncommon to release video singles let alone extra footage. 

[TheGoth 499]

I had read years ago that Bad Girl was originally planned as a video single as well. Madonna wanted it to be a long music video that was inspired by a French movie I think. I think quite a few of the original plans didn't come to fruition with this album. Press and conservatives/repressed fuckwits just couldn't help themselves. Every week it was "has she gone too far?" It was fucking tiresome. I was still in school at the time and the shitheads in my class began calling me disgusting for liking her. It was just one after next during that time... almost feels like it was a mistake to have a hit with something as tame as This Used to be My Playground only to jump to the Erotica video a few months later. They just weren't ready. On radio they talked her "encyclopaedia of sex" coming out and her "parade of perversion". It was really not a good time.

[Blue Skies 1,303]

I'm reading through this thread...  while I'm not into comparing different artists and what not at all it just makes me think Taylor Swift is pretty boring now as a colossally huge pop star these days.    

 

[Donna 16,438]

18 minutes ago, Blue Skies said:

I'm reading through this thread...  while I'm not into comparing different artists and what not at all it just makes me think Taylor Swift is pretty boring now as a colossally huge pop star these days.    

 

Taylor Swift has the business sense of Madonna yet plays more toward the conservative safe side of things, even though she's becoming more outspoken politically on the liberal side of things.  Say what you will of Taylor, but she appeals to millions of people and while I agree she's "boring" compared to Madonna was at her age, Taylor is on the right side of things.  I think she knows her base very well and they teeter a bit on the conservative side of things when it comes to being entertained. I'm sure a lot of that is due to the fact that she has a cross over base from country music.  I think Taylor knows she can hardly play a "sex symbol", so she focuses on being more reserved as an entertainer.