Burroughs

Did Erotica really didn't meet the expectations or people actually were outarged by SEX and Body of Evidence that preceded Erotica, which resulted in boycotting the album? I mean Erotica itslef without SEX book background is just an album named Erotica. Some lyrics might be perceived as dirty but finally in lyrics wise they're just wordplay.

First overall sound of the song, later the meaning of lyrics.

Did Madonna bite those off?

Did Madonna bite those off?

The reason why it didn't meet expectations was obviously because of the Sex book, but I was talking about fans complaining about Erotica Album (in the 90s) because it wasn't a huge success.

Did Erotica really didn't meet the expectations or people actually were outarged by SEX and Body of Evidence that preceded Erotica, which resulted in boycotting the album? I mean Erotica itslef without SEX book background is just an album named Erotica. Some lyrics might be perceived as dirty but finally in lyrics wise they're just wordplay.

Ohhh...well i think her speech at billboard brought up a point i had never thought of, when she was married she wasn't seen as a threat. The Ritchie years were wild and ngl when i think of her, I think of that y2k madonna and she was generally loved. Did she face criticism? Yes but definitely not the same tone. I think history often repeats itself and I think of how when films depicted women behaving badly, they had to he punished by dying in the film to send a moral message. I think if she was still married to Guy, we would be seeing a very different reaction to her. It's a double edged sword because (only my personal view) she was severely dimmed. She tried her best to be the good wife, the good girl, the good mother. Once the divorce happened she went back to who she was before marriage and maybe it can be taken as regressive and a devolution and because she was already considered old, she never had the "revenge dress" moment many young women are afforded. She behaved like a "man" and dated young, dressed young, and was going through a midlife crisis of sorts. One entertainment show, someone said and this always makes me chuckle...was she gonna be slutty or go through a mia farrow adopting alot of kids midlife crisis. I hope when she passes people will have a better understanding and think of her in a fond way. She really is one of the last pop stars of the golden age of modern pop music the way Joan bette marlene and garbo were the last of the golden age of Hollywood.

😂

Yeah the demo leaked like decades ago sung and written by Jem. Same lyrics etc except it has an Indian sound/vibe. Somewhat Bollywood IMO.

You’re right: I had completely forgotten it.
But this has never been a problem for me because I love how Madonna makes any song written by others her own. I don’t understand why it should matter in the case of MDNA.

So what? Many of her biggest hits were songs nobody else wanted, and she just tweaked a word here and there, and we never complained about that (Holiday, Like A Virgin, Open Your Heart, La Isla Bonita—a song originally for Michael Jackson, Justify My Love..........) Let's not be hypocrites now with this issue when we talk about MDNA...
One of Madonna's greatest talents has always been her ability to take songs written by others and make them her own.

I also love 'Beautiful Killer,' and I think it's one of the highlights of the album. I don't understand why it's not part of the main album either. I suppose it was included as a bonus track to 'force' casual fans to buy the deluxe version. I don't know if it would have worked as a single, but I think it could have inspired a great music video.
What frustrated me most about the MDNA era was the number of great songs that could have had amazing videos (even though I love the videos for Give Me All Your Luvin' and Girl Gone Wild). I miss the old days when her albums had four or five music videos.

Such a great read @steady75 Wow!
And while is one of my personal faves, I have to agree. While it's a window to her most depressed soul at the time, it's also aggressive, raw, non pleasant. There's no warmth at all. It's definitely a mid-life crisis album. One should wonder why she was so reflective and... miserable indeed? only two years after getting married to her so-called "soulmate".
Well, maybe now we know why?
I also think the Ritchie connection made her explore violence and raw darkness (not inspiring darkness) within her own creativity, maybe being inspired by his own work or maybe to try to appeal to his macho views. Explicit use of violence had never been part of the Madonna recipe up until she met him.

Why do I think American Life is the Anti - Madonna album?
While I've grown to love the record I think it's a really hard album to digest. The music is spiky uninviting and aggressive. In your face. There's something quite punk about it. It lacks a certain musicality the same way punk music did.  It's her least melodic record for sure but as well as this the album lacks harmonies which I think is intentional as maybe Madonna felt she had none in her life at the time. Go listen again you'll be shocked how little there is even on choruses. There's a couple in the acoustic bit of the title track and Intervention. 
Instead of using traditional harmonies on most tracks, they opt for a quite aggressive double track lead vocal scenario. When you think of harmonising to any song on the album it's hard to think of any natural fits. Even on the acoustic ballad X-Static process. The few selected harmonies are presented almost like other thoughts she is having, happening at the same time as the main melody, rather than an actual harmony. They aren't synced and in one verse all the harmonies even waltz off into different lyrics, making it sound confused or distracted "i'm not myself myself right now"
I say it's the anti Madonna album because here was always a warmth to Madonnas music where it felt like there was a more positive resolution to the songs or record. American Life is so icy and cold and that's seemingly on purpose. It's a pure midlife crisis album and a major turning point in Madonnas career. She's miserable and in some cases moaning on pretty much every track. There's a sadness and bitterness about everything and the listen leaves you a bit depressed rather than uplifted or emboldened. I have always suspected that much of the album was driven by Madonna potentially miscarrying a child around that time, or being unsuccessful at conceiving again ? I don't know if this is true but she clearly wanted more children after Rocco, and David came very quickly afterwards,
There's lots of doom mongering negative language. Nothing Fails, Die / I'm So Stupid / Intervention / Nobody Knows Me / Easy Ride. The miserablism of the title track and Hollywood. There is so much confusion. There was a time I was happy in my life, Do You Think I'm Satisfied, I forgot that I was special too, 
There are so many questions in the lyrics or lines that hedge bets and leave room for failure or the inevitability of pain or loss or failure
Should I lose some weight? Do you think I'm satisfied? This type of modern life, is it for me? This time it's got to be good How could it hurt you when it looks so good? Oh, mother why aren't you here with me? I guess I'll die another day? Jesus Christ will you look at me? Don't know who I am , Don't really know if I should give a damn I'm gonna wake up, yes and no I want to let go of all disappointment, that's waiting for me The use of the word Don't & No. No-body, no-thing, lost and life / living happens often enough. Fear makes a few appearances or is at least a theme.
"Dont want my dreams adding up to nothing" "I lost my memory in hollywood" "And I know, I know, There is nothing to fear".. (the second "I know" almost trying to convince herself) "I lost my reputation bad and good" "I have lost my illusions" "When I get lost in space" "Nothing fails, no more fears" I've climbed the tree of life" "Nobody knows me" I'm just living out the American Dream, and I just realized that nothing is what it seems "I used to live in a funny dream" "I've had so many lives" "I've got to calm him down now, I've got to save his life" "cause I used to live in a tiny bubble" Now I'm gonna try to improve my life" "No ones telling you how to live your life" "say hello to your life now you are living" "Nobody else could ever take the place of you" "What I want is to live forever"  
Mother & Father is talking about the loss of her mother AND as a result of her mother dying she lost her father too. Intervention is about losing herself and sense of identity. Even the love song Nothing Fails is a double negative In its wording. "Makes me wanna pray you'll always be here" gives a sense of foreboding...Something doomed perhaps. The album is her most self reflective and self critical. 
The self reference with the use of the word "I" is phenomenal. Just look at the lyrics. American Life. Nobody Knows Me and Die Another Day pretty much start every line with I. The amount of songs that begin with I. If not the verse the chorus. 
Verse:
I Tried To Be A Boy I Lost My Memory In Hollywood I'm So Stupid I've Had So Many Lives I'm In Love With You You Silly Thing I Got To Save My Baby I'm Not Myself When You're Around I'm Gonna Wake Up Yes And No I Want The Good Life Chorus
I go round and round just like a circle I got to give it up find someone to love me I guess I'll Die Another Day and I know that Love will keep us together I got you under my skin and if it's not "I" it's "Me"
Lots of use of the word "don't" too, another negative phrase.
I don't want, no lies I don't watch TV Dont want my dreams adding up to nothing Don't know who I'm supposed to be Don't really know if I should give a damn Push the button, Don't push the button Don't try to tempt me I dont want an easy ride When you're around I don't know who I am I'm not myself and I don't know how Even the tracks that didn't make the album offer the same similarities as the above tracks
It's So Cool:
Do you realize you pay the price? Do you know the cost of all your vice? Do you really know God's intention? Do you ever ask what it's all for? Isn't this the best thing you ever had? Set The Right:
Don't push me to the left Don't push me to the right I have learned Nothing is for free gather top your dreams just to stay alive Many examples of duality of things. There's also lots of questioning, both sides of the argument, second guessing and evaluation. Analyse this indeed.
Push the button, don't push the button.  I tried to be a boy, I tried to be a girl I tried to be a mess, I tried to be the best I'm not a Christian, I'm not A Jew I've had a million visions bad & good I'm bored with the concept of wright & wrong How can it hurt you when it looks so good adding up to nothing There are too many options, there is no one solution Sometimes it's such a pleasure, sometimes I want to tear it all down I always wish that I could find someone as talented as you, but in the process I forget that I was special too nobody else could ever take the place of you, nobody else could ever hurt me like you did I'm gonna wake up, yes and no I want the good life, but I don't want an easy ride  
Some of these examples hold better than others but my point is it illustrates a picture of negativity. Which Madonna has never been about. She and her music have represented positivity, control, ambition, empowerment, life affirming and inspirational messages. This whole record is none of that. If anything is looking at the dark underbelly or drivers of the positive things in her life through the lens of fear and questions of self worth.
It's also the first time she ever refers to herself as a victim in Mother & Father
"I made a vow that I would never need
Another person ever
Turned my heart into a cage
A victim of a kind of rage"
This is unprecedented and a real insight in the mindset of her as a child and beyond. Madonna would never wish to be seen or to present herself as a victim. In fact for all the comparisons to Marilyn Monroe Madonna was once quoted as saying. 
"Marilyn Monroe was a victim; I’m not" or something to that effect.
 
In summary: If the "absolutely no regrets" //door slam// was the sound of Madonna 1.0 slamming the door (or coffin lid) and walking away from the fearless, bolshy incarnation of herself and first decade of her career (83-93), before her introspective decade (94-04), then American Life is the sound of Madonna exhuming the coffin, looking at the corpse of her former self and having a good think about why she did what she did, where it's bought her, why the fuck she did what she did, and what's next.
American Life is Madonna falling out of the centre of the whirlwind of her career, sitting in the quiet eye of the storm and looking at the madness she has created around her. She's going to war with herself, maybe she's tired of her self. (Army fatigues anyone?). Deconstructing, analysing herself, her past, her present and what she wants her future to look like, and she sits mustering the strength to throw herself back into the whirlwind again, but first  deciding if she even really wants to...but she will, and she does because she doesn't want an Easy Ride.  
Interestingly Easy Ride is the song that closes the album after she decided she'll Die Another Day. A joyless, droll, glitchy funeral march of a song. The sound of a never ending round and round of Madonna's Catholic guilt driving her to keep lashing her own back with a cat'o'nine tails. The female embodiment of Flagellant monk forming mortification of the flesh by whipping their own skin with instruments of penance. Fascinating really. I think she left a lot of herself behind before she jumped back into that Maelstom and for me it was the second death of the Madonna we knew and loved, submitted to record before the commercial backlash. An act of self sabotage?
It's a record that is so opposed to the Madonna brand musically and thematically. And in true ying and yang fashion it's the first album we saw her brand being exploited with the singles all being heavily corporately sponsored. Mini Cooper / Gap / Estee Lauder.
So yeah..that's why, (for me anyway)...it's the anti Madonna album.

Oh. Here it is.  

I have always wondered this - I think he worked though for some magazine at the time.
But, you can now book online lol : 
https://ask.loc.gov/recorded-sound/faq/305175#:~:text=Appointments are required for listening,gov%2Frecorded-sound%2F .

We're getting super technical but songs with different ISRCs can also be merged if the system recognizes them as being the same track (or close enough to be considered the same track) and/or the label request it!
Example: "Music" has two different ISRC codes, one shared for the album version and the  "GHV2" one and finally another for the "Celebration" version. But all three versions (and two ISRC codes) are merged.
Note for those who don't know what we're talking about: an ISRC code is just like the unique number each released song on digital has, similar to the ISBN for a book.

My guess is that she was looking to soften her image after Erotica.  She knew if she latched on to what was popualr at the time it would be a big plus. It may have lost her some brownie points for some fans, but then again if you look at the album, it's not like she played it completely safe.  She still recorded "Human Nature".  She even released it at a time she was negotiating EVITA.  It's just bad ass, that after finally negotiating the deal for the Evita role, she still released "Human Nature".  While the song was huge on radio, MTV played it a lot.  I imagine if it was a bit more radio friendly, it would have gotten radio play more.  Though a song like that isn't supposed to be "friendly".   To me, she managed to haver her cake and eat it as well.  After "Human Nature", she concentrated on softening her image even more, and the birth of Lourdes just further helped her. 
It just proves Madonna is indestructible! 

We are just talking shit like everyday on Infinity. Relax, Londoner boy...

Saw this on insta. It wasn’t on a Madonna related page, and idk where it originated from, but lol.

"It had to be said, and it was said."

Rushed? Yes. Bought songs? Yes as well. But I don't buy this whole "no passion, calculated" narrative some fans have put over "MDNA" over the years. Yes, the superficial songs are superficial indeed, but she really exposed her soul on that album, songs like "Gang Bang", "I Don't Give A", "Love Spent", "Best Friend"... There's nothing soulless in all of them and she was exposing herself completely, almost too much. There's a lot of anger and confusion there. A whole feeling all the time of "what the hell has happened". It was really her second divorce album, but instead of an introspective one like "Like A Prayer", we got a horny, middle age woman, nasty divorce,  I don't give a f**k one.
I find a lot of truth in "MDNA" honestly. Of course we can discuss the quality of the music but that's personal preference in the end. I agree is definitely not one of her best sounding albums, but I dare anyone to try to find great sounding audio on most of mainstream pop music during those years, peak of loudness war and tiny MP3 players, everything was mastered with those in mind. Not an excuse, but an explanation.

Knowing her she has the rights to release her version. She co-wrote it anyway. 

Maybe, but it’s clear that many fans feel there was great material that could have been released as singles, with music videos that could have been epic, and yet they chose songs that didn’t even resonate with fans. Personally, I think Madonna might have kept the best tracks for album sales, especially since it was the era when CD single sales were declining. 
For me, as a fan, the Interscope era feels like a misstep in Madonna's career—despite the existence of some very good material, singles and music videos both missed the mark. Although, it was a significant financial deal for Madonna and she's the boss...

Ugh, don’t even get me started on the Rebel Heart album; it really pisses me off. It’s the only time Madonna has really disappointed me. She had that amazing album with Avicii and then came out with that "remix" album.
And please, let’s get back to talking about the singles on streaming. We’re getting too off-topic.