Erotica (Madonna album)

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Erotica
A woman's face with eyes closed and her mouth open. On her left cheek, the words "Erotica" and "Madonna" are written in black color.
Studio album by
Madonna
ReleasedOctober 20, 1992
Recorded1991–1992
StudioClinton Recording, Mastermix, Soundworks (New York)
Genre
Length75:24
Label
  • Maverick
  • Sire
  • Warner Bros.
Producer
Madonna chronology
The Immaculate Collection
(1990) 		Erotica
(1992) 		Bedtime Stories
(1994)
Singles from Erotica
  1. "Erotica"
    Released: September 29, 1992
  2. "Deeper and Deeper"
    Released: November 17, 1992
  3. "Bad Girl"
    Released: February 2, 1993
  4. "Fever"
    Released: March 6, 1993
  5. "Rain"
    Released: July 19, 1993
  6. "Bye Bye Baby"
    Released: November 5, 1993

Erotica is the fifth studio album by American singer Madonna, released on October 20, 1992, by Maverick and Sire Records. The album was released simultaneously with Madonna's first book publication Sex, a coffee table book containing explicit photographs of the singer, and marked her first release under Maverick, her own multimedia entertainment company. For the album, the singer enlisted Shep Pettibone and André Betts, with whom she had collaborated on 1990's "Vogue" and The Immaculate Collection.

In mid-1991, Pettibone sent Madonna a three-track

hip-hop, house, techno, and new jack swing
.

Upon release, it received generally favorable reviews from critics, who regarded it as one of Madonna's most adventurous albums. Some, however, felt the music was overshadowed by its sexual themes. Commercially, it was less successful than Madonna's previous endeavors; it peaked at number 2 on the

her debut. Internationally, it reached the first spot in Australia, Finland, and France, and peaked within the top five of several other countries such as Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Erotica was later certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
, and has sold more than six million copies worldwide.

Six singles were released from the album, including the title track and "Deeper and Deeper", both of which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. The album was supported by the Girlie Show, Madonna's fourth concert tour, which visited cities in Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Asia in 1993. Somewhat overlooked at the time of its release in part due to the backlash surrounding the Sex book, Erotica has been retrospectively considered one of Madonna's most important albums, as well as one of the most revolutionary of all time by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Many critics have since noted influence of Erotica in works by contemporary female artists such as Janet Jackson to Beyoncé.

Background

On April 21, 1992, it was reported that Madonna had teamed up with

Time Warner Inc. to form Maverick, a multi-media entertainment company.[1] Maverick consisted of a record company, a film production company, and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing and merchandising divisions.[1] The deal paid the singer an advance of $60 million, and gave her 20% royalties from the music proceedings, one of the highest rates in the industry, equaled at that time only by Michael Jackson's royalty rate established a year earlier with Sony.[1] Madonna described Maverick as "the perfect marriage of art and commerce", further adding that she envisioned it as an "artistic think tank", and likened it to a cross between the German arts institute Bauhaus, and Andy Warhol's The Factory; "it started as a desire to have more control. There's a group of writers, photographers, directors and editors that I've met along the way in my career who I want to take with me everywhere I go. I want to incorporate them into my little factory of ideas", she explained.[1][2] The first two projects from the venture were Madonna's fifth studio album, and a coffee table book depictng her "erotic fantasies", titled Sex.[1][3]

Madonna described the album as "soulful, with a jazzy undertone and lot of beatnik-style poetry in it".[2] Titled Erotica, the record saw the singer reunited with producer Shep Pettibone, with whom she had previously collaborated on "Vogue", and "Rescue Me" from The Immaculate Collection (1990).[3][4] Alongside Pettibone, Madonna enlisted help from producer André Betts, who previously co-produced "Justify My Love" from The Immaculate Collection.[5] She was interested to work with Pettibone and Betts due to their ability to remain plugged into the dance underground; "they come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their music style and approach to music, but they're both connected to the street and they're still young and hungry".[6]

Development

"We were listening in my home studio to one of the first songs and I turned to her and said, 'It's great, but it's no 'Vogue'. She told me that not every song could be 'Vogue' [...] but I pressed my case anyway: 'I guess I'm always trying to out-top myself, the next thing should be bigger than the last'. Madonna just turned and looked me straight in the eye. She said, 'Shep, no matter how fierce something is, you can't ever do the same thing twice'".

—Producer Shep Pettibone on working with Madonna in Erotica.[7]

Following the release of The Immaculate Collection, by mid-1991, Pettibone began working on new music: "I knew I could do something great after 'Vogue' and 'Rescue Me' so I just started putting tracks together with my assistant, Tony Shimkin", Pettibone recalled.

percussion and synthesizer parts and transfer them to an eight-track recorder; then, Madonna would record her vocals.[9] According to author Mark Bego, the first batch of songs they worked on were the title track, "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl", "Thief of Hearts", and "Rain".[10] Recording took place at New York's Soundworks Studios, Master Mix Studios, and Clinton Recording Studios.[11] The producer described their work schedule as "sporadic", because Madonna split her time between other ventures: She was working with Steven Meisel on Sex and would sometimes leave for two weeks; occasionally, she'd also meet with producer André Betts.[7] At first, Madonna did not like the first group of songs she had recorded. According to Mark Landeros from Classic Pop, Pettibone's "glossy sheen and pristine production were the antithesis of what [she] envisioned" for Erotica.[4] She wanted it to have a "raw edge", as if it were recorded in an alley in Harlem.[7]

Problems also arose during sequencing; computer processes would take too long and delay recordings. Pettibone had to keep things moving as fast as possible as he did not want Madonna to lose interest in the music.[7] Also at this point, the music was getting "a little melancholy" and Madonna's lyrics and ideas "a lot more serious and intense".[7] It was Pettibone's idea to write a song for Madona's friend Martin Burgoyne who died of HIV/AIDS, and came up with the chords to "In This Life"; she wrote the lyrics in 15 minutes.[12] Title track "Erotica" underwent "numerous radical changes" during the recording process, with four different versions being recorded; the singer would first sing it one way, and then decide to erase everything and start all over again.[8] Shimkin affirmed that the original version was not "as slinky and sexy and grimy and dirty", until the mixing process; at that stage, the song was still an "experimentation", but when they realized it was going to be the lead single, a "different, darker vibe" was taken on.[8] While recording Erotica, Madonna was also working on Sex; for the book, she incorporated a dominatrix alter-ego named Mistress Dita, heavily inspired by German actress Dita Parlo.[13] After seeing the book, Pettibone suggested that the singer incorporate the dominatrix theme into the song's lyrics: "'You have all these great stories [in the book]', I told her, 'Why don't you use them in the song?'".[7] Madonna left the studio with a copy of Sex with her, came back and recorded her vocals to "Erotica" in a "very dry" way; Pettibone then realized the song "would never be the same again".[7] The chorus and bridge were changed entirely and the song's "psyche" became "sexier, more to the point".[7]

"Some of the guys in the studio were asking if Madonna and me had done it — you know, had sex. I just started freestyling: I recorded one of the guys saying, 'Did you do it?' and then me saying, 'You know I did it'. Even though I didn't! [...] When she heard what I'd done, she laughed so hard she got tears in her eyes. A few days later, she called me and said she wanted the song on the album. I was like, 'No no no, Madonna, I'm not a rapper, I was just freestyling'. She put her manager on the phone and he explained that I was gonna get a very generous cut of the publishing. So I was like, OK, the song's on the record!".

—André Betts on "Did You Do It?".[12]

For "Deeper and Deeper", Madonna wanted to have a flamenco guitar in the middle, an idea Pettinbone disagreed with, but eventually gave in.[7] He later decided to add castanets to "really take it there".[8] According to Shimkin, while they were recording the song, Pettibone began singing some lines of "Vogue"; Madonna, who heard this and emulated it, liked the sound and decided to keep it.[8] She later explained: "When we were actually recording, doing the final vocals, I just went off into that for a second because ['Vogue'] to me it's just one of those great kind of feel good dance songs."[14] "Where Life Begins" was the first song for the album Madonna composed with André Betts, who was pleased with the song's explicit subject.[8][12] The singer and Betts also worked together on "Waiting", which samples her vocals from "Justify My Love", and thus was "an easy sell [to Madonna]".[12] During a break from recording, Shimkin and Pettibone went on vacation to the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, respectively. Having heard a lot of reggae on their trips inspired them to come up with the music to "Why's It So Hard".[12] "Did You Do It?" began as a joke; while Madonna was out, Betts began freestyling over the instrumental of "Waiting" after being asked if he'd ever been intimate with Madonna.[8] The singer liked the result and decided to keep the track on the album.[12]

"Fever"'s inclusion was a "happy accident".[9] Madonna and Pettibone were working on "Goodbye to Innocence", a house song that talks about "living at the center of a controversial media storm", but, according to the singer, "[it] just wasn't working [...] the vibe wasn't right".[15][16] When they decided to try and record the song one final time, Madonna started singing bits of Little Willie John's "Fever; she had previously attended a Peggy Lee concert, and her rendition of the song had "made a strong impression on [me]".[16] Pettibone liked how it sounded, and they decided to record a cover. The problem, however, was that neither knew the full lyrics.[7] Madonna called Seymour Stein from Sire Records and, "within an hour, we had the lyric sheets, the Peggy Lee version, and the original version of the song in our hands".[7] "Fever" was the last song to be recorded for Erotica.[6]

Composition

Sounds and themes

Author

queerness, female sex and sexuality, "not only in the hottest moments of physical relationships, but in their darker, more intimate instances, particularly in relation to the growing AIDS crisis", as noted by the Portland Mercury's Jeni Wren Strottup.[19][20][21] It has been referred to as a concept album about looking for romance in a post-AIDS era.[22][18][23]

Music and lyrics

"Jungle Boogie" (1973) by Kool & the Gang (left) and LL Cool J's (right) "Jingling Baby" (1990) are sampled in "Erotica" and "Bye Bye Baby", respectively.

Opening track "Erotica" is a

Victrola", while the lyrics talk about taking control rather than exacting revenge on a domineering, mind-game-playing partner.[30] The track ends with an explosion and the singer saying you fucked it up, which is bleeped out.[29]

Noted for being the album's "pure disco" moment, "Deeper and Deeper" has a "thicker arrangement" than the rest of the songs.

spoken words, in which a scorned and defiant Madonna faces up to the lover who's broken her heart, and samples her own "Justify My Love";[30][5][12] lyrics include Don’t go breaking my heart like you said you would, and I wish I could believe you or at least have the courage to leave you.[30][5] It ends with the singer uttering the phrase The next time you want pussy, just look in the mirror, baby.[37]

Madonna performing "Why's It So Hard" (left) and "In This Life" (right) on the Girlie Show. The former has influences of reggae, while the latter was written as tribute to the friends the singer lost to HIV/AIDS.

"Thief of Hearts" is a "dark, rumbling" and "smug" track that echoes the Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back" (1963), and Blondie's "Rip Her to Shreds" (1977).[38][28][39] It opens with the sound of smashing glass, and sees Madonna using "tough hip-hop language" such as Bitch!/Which leg do you want me to break? to attack and ward off a "cuckolding" rival, referred to only as "Little Susie Ho-Maker".[28][39][37] Ninth track "Words" begins with an "atmospheric" G♯ chord, which is followed by the sound of drum machine.[40] Its "sharp" lyrics find the singer lashing back at a lover who "won her with romantic letters, then used the same verbal skills to manipulate and humiliate her";[28] also present in the song are "typewriter-esque effects", and Pettibone's "clattering programs and icy synth block-chords".[34][41][42] The next song is "Rain", which has been described as an "optimistic" New Age ballad, comparable to the work of Peter Gabriel.[30][43] It features two spoken parts, "thunder-claps of percussion", a crescendo towards the end, and lyrics that compare rain to the idea of being in love.[40][5]

In the reggae-infused "Why's It So Hard", Erotica's "vulnerable plea for solidarity", Madonna specifically asks: Why's it so hard to love one another?/What am I gonna do with all this anger/ Why do I have to fight?[28][39] It has a "heavy" bass line, a piano break, and a coda, where the artist sings the phrase before it's too late.[40] Twelfth track "In This Life" is a slow song with orchestral arrangements, that samples George Gershwin's blues lullaby "Prelude No. 2" (1926).[44] Madonna talks about the gay friends she has lost to AIDS, including Martin Burgoyne, her dance teacher and mentor Christopher Flynn, and artist Keith Haring.[44] Lines sung include, Have you ever watched your best friend die? [...] Someday I pray it will end/I hope it's in this life/I hope it's in this lifetime.[31] At one point, Madonna "bitterly" wonders, Who determines, who knows best?/Is there a lesson I'm supposed to learn? The song's drums have been likened to a doomsday Clock, and its refrain recalls that of the Beatles' 1965 song "In My Life".[38][40][5] Penultimate track "Did You Do It?" is a "raunchy" rap song, in which guest rappers Mark Goodman and Dave Murphy tell their "disbelieving friends" about their sexual conquest of Madonna, who sings and repeats the phrase waiting for you.[41][30][40] Closer "Secret Garden" features instrumentation from "shuffling drums, rolling bass and jazzy piano".[5][45] A "hymn to the singer’s vagina", its lyrics conjure up imagery of flowers, roses, thorns, lovers, and rainbows.[40][46]

Artwork and release

Athens, Greece
inspired by the cover artwork of Erotica.

The artwork for Erotica was created by Steven Meisel, under the artistic direction of Baron & Baron Inc. —consisting of Fabien Baron and photographer Siung Fat Tjia— who also oversaw the packaging and design of Sex.[11][47] The cover follows the "same monochromatic blue-ink cover shot" that had been used on the book, and shows Madonna's "faded" face on a pale background.[48][49] Photographs used for Sex were also included on the album's booklet; one shows Madonna in S&M garb, wielding a riding crop and licking her arm; another one features her bound and gagged.[50] The backcover has the singer engaging in "foot worship - blissfully sucking on someone's big toe", as noted by J. Randy Taraborrelli.[50] According to the author, "one didn't really need to hear the music to understand Madonna's intention with Erotica. If the title itself wasn't a tip-off, the CD's cover artwork certainly made the point clear".[50] Mark Bego, in his book Madonna: Blonde Ambition, wasn't fond of the "off-putting" picture, and felt it was "a bit too much, even for her fans".[48] Billboard's Melinda Newman saw similarities between Erotica's artwork and that of the Darling Buds' album of the same name, which was released two weeks before Madonna's.[49] From This is Dig! Mark Elliott said it's one of Madonna's "most provocative" album covers.[51]

Erotica was released on October 20, 1992, through Madonna's Maverick label.[34][52] It was the singer's first release to bear the Parental Advisory label due to explicit content in tracks such as "Did You Do It?", and thus was banned in several Asian countries, such as China and Singapore.[30][31][53][54] Two versions of Erotica were released: a clean 13-track version that omits "Did You Do It?", and the complete 14-track version that bears the Parental Advisory label.[11][55]

Promotion

On October 22, 1992, MTV aired a special called The Day in Madonna, hosted by Kurt Loder, which profiled the release of both Sex and Erotica. New York City's HMV music store held a Madonna look-alike contest, and set up a booth where people could view Sex for one dollar a minute. All the proceeds went to Lifebeat, the music industry organization founded to help fund AIDS research.[56]

Media appearances and tour

Main article: The Girlie Show (Madonna)
Madonna performing lead single and title track "Erotica" as the opening number of the Girlie Show.

On January 16, 1993, Madonna appeared on late-night live television show Saturday Night Live and sang "Bad Girl" and "Fever".[57][58] The singer also appeared on the 1000th episode of The Arsenio Hall Show, and sang "Fever" in its original version. She also performed "The Lady Is a Tramp" (1937) alongside Anthony Kiedis; they wore matching skirts, stockings, leather vests, cat-ear caps and lipstick.[59] On September 2, 1993, Madonna opened the MTV Video Music Awards with a Burlesque-themed performance of "Bye Bye Baby". The "risqué" number saw the singer in a tailcoat and top hat, with three scantily clad women, and included "stroked inner-thighs, spanks, [and] frottage".[60][61][62]

Erotica was further promoted on

Orthodox Jews staged protests to force the cancellation of the concerts in Tel Aviv to no avail.[72]

Singles

Madonna singing second single "Deeper and Deeper" during 2015–2016's Rebel Heart Tour. The track peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.

In Australia and most European countries, title track "Erotica" was released as the album's lead single on September 29, 1992;[73] in the United States, it was released on October 13.

Hot Dance Club Play chart, where it reached the top position.[79] Its accompanying music video was directed by Fabien Baron, and features scenes of Madonna dressed as a masked dominatrix interspersed with footage of the making of Sex;[18][80] it was highly controversial, being aired by MTV only three times, all after the 10pm watershed, before being completely banned.[81]

"Deeper and Deeper" was issued in Australia as Europe as second single on November 17, whereas in the US, the release date was December 8.[82][83] Critics lauded it for being more dance-oriented than "Erotica", with some comparing it to the work of Donna Summer.[8][31] It fared well commercially, reaching the seventh spot of the Billboard Hot 100.[78][84] The music video was directed by Bobby Woods, and was seen as a homage to American artist Andy Warhol and Italian director Luchino Visconti; Madonna plays a character based on Edie Sedgwick, who goes out to a nightclub to meet her friends and boyfriend.[85][86]

Erotica's third single was "Bad Girl"; like its predecessors, it was first published in Australia and Europe on February 2, 1993.[87] In the United States, it was released one month later with "Fever" as B-side.[88] Critics reacted positively towards the track, with some noting a departure from Madonna's highly sexual image of the time.[89] The song had a lukewarm reception on the charts: it became Madonna's first single to not reach the top 30 or top 20 of the Hot 100, breaking a streak of 27 consecutive top 20 singles that began with "Holiday" (1983) and ended with "Deeper and Deeper".[90] "Bad Girl"'s music video was directed by David Fincher; in it, Madonna plays Louise Oriole, a successful but promiscuous Manhattan businesswoman who engages in one-night stands with multiple men, until one of them murders her.[91][92] The clip was acclaimed by critics, who deemed it one of Madonna's best.[93][94]

"Fever" was released as the album's fourth single outside North America on March 28, 1993.[95] Despite not being published as an official single in the US, "Fever" reached the top spot of Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart.[79] In the United Kingdom, it reached the chart's sixth position.[96] The song received generally positive to mixed reviews from critics; Madonna's vocal performance was compared both positively and negatively to that of Lee's.[30][97] The music video was directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, and was Madonna's first to use chroma key.[98] In Australia and most European countries "Rain" was released as Erotica's fifth single on July 17, 1993.[99] In the US, it was the fourth and final single, released on August 5.[100] Critics referred to "Rain" as one of the best songs in Erotica, and one of Madonna's best ballads.[31][101][93] In the visual, directed by Mark Romanek, Madonna is seen during a film shoot, with Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto playing the director alongside a Japanese film crew.[102] "Rain" peaked at number 14 on US Hot 100, and at 7 on the UK.[78][96] The sixth and final single was "Bye Bye Baby", released only in Australia on November 15, 1993, to coincide with Madonna's visit to the country with the Girlie Show.[103][104] It reached the chart's 15th spot.[103]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[105]
Blender[106]
Chicago Sun-Times[107]
Entertainment WeeklyC+[108]
Los Angeles Times[109]
Q[97]
Rolling Stone[23]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[110]
Slant Magazine[5]
The Village VoiceA[111]

Upon release, Erotica was generally well received by critics. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it was an "ambitious" album, that contains "some of Madonna's best and most accomplished music".[105] To the staff of Billboard, "La M's first studio outing since 1989's Like a Prayer [...] is her most varied and creatively challenging collection to date".[112] Also from Billboard, Larry Flick from pointed out that, "cute ditties like 'Cherish' and 'Material Girl' are replaced by intelligent, pensive tunes and tough, dance/hip-hop jams [...] [Erotica] comes across like a conscious return to club-land, where [Madonna's] roots lie".[113] The Quietus' Matthew Barton added that, "[Erotica] takes Like a Prayer's ‘full-length piece of art’ modus operandi [...] to the next level with supreme confidence. It’s an intoxicating cocktail of house, samples, jazz, [and] trip-hop [...] pretty resolutely uncommercial in comparison to the sort of song that propelled [Madonna] to stratospheric levels of stardom in the mid-1980s".[114] Robert Christgau noted that, although "[Madonna] doesn't have great pipes [...] she doesn't need them. She's in control [...] The lyrics [in Erotica] are not stupid".[111] From The Independent, Giles Smith also applauded the singer's voice; "we're used to hearing it doubled and tripled, thickened with repetitions of itself and then pasted in a shiny layer across the top of the song. [In Erotica], you generally hear her sing unsupported [...] it somehow takes on a spotlit, cabaret feel".[101]

J. D. Considine, from The Baltimore Sun, stated that the most surprising thing on the songs is that they find Madonna singing about love, not sex.[38] From The Washington Post, Richard Harrington added that, while some of the album's songs are "likely to be recast in their meaning by sexually suggestive videos", Erotica as a whole "is more concerned with the pain and torment of the heart and the perils of romance".[30] Phil Sutcliffe gave three stars in a review for Q, writing: "The substance [of Erotica] resides in a range of straight-talking, almost intimate songs based, not on an idea about sex, but on experience of relationships".[97] From online magazine Renowned for Sound, Andrew Le wrote: "Madonna’s weary, husky and rough vocals on Erotica are nothing like the polished, radio-friendly vocals on previous albums. However, they accentuate [its] rawness and stark reality".[45] In a retrospective review in Blender, Tony Power concluded: "That female artists (except Millie Jackson) never come on this strongly makes Erotica shocking and, well, arousing".[106]

Mark Elliott from website This is Dig! said that, although 1990's

The Advocate, while "not as bad as the Sex book", Erotica still comes off as "overindulgent".[118] In the same vein, Mark Bego expressed that, just like Sex, Erotica's content is "artistic yet suggestive, some of it is genuinely sexy, and some of it is lewd and musically unappealing".[48]

In more mixed reviews,

Sun-Sentinel, where Barbara Walker dismissed Erotica as a "somewhat sad, often tuneless and surprisingly unsexy assortment of club-inspired dance jams and gauzey recitation [...] a merely mediocre set loaded with just enough rootless shock value to rile her critics [...] [It] is left to rest virtually on overt sexual fantasy, a topic Madonna has mined publicly and endlessly".[120] Tom Ford, from the Toledo Blade, described the album as a "strange concoction of recycled Madonna music [...] worn material that has been repackaged".[121] Charlotte Robinson from PopMatters referred to Erotica as "the first disappointment of [Madonna's] seemingly enchanted career".[122] Richard Harrington was also disappointed with the album, likening it to a number from Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), in which "dancers-as-nearly-naked stewards and stewardesses say, as they explore all manner of sexual coupling before a small, shocked audience of potential investors, 'Our motto is we take you everywhere but get you nowhere'".[30] Both Entertainment Weekly's David Browne and Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani reacted negatively towards Madonna's vocals: the former deemed them "soulless", and the latter "nasal and remote".[108][5] Browned panned the album as "the most joyless dance music ever made".[108]

Commercial performance

The Chase by Garth Brooks (picture) kept Erotica from the Billboard 200's first spot.

In the United States, Erotica debuted at number two on the

Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videograma (CAPIF) for shipments of 240,000 copies.[132] Similarly in Mexico, Erotica achieved sales of 250,000 units according to Billboard.[133] The album received a gold certification from Pro-Música Brasil, denoting shipments of 100,000 units.[134] Sales in Brazil stand at 180,000 copies, as of October 1993.[135]

Across Europe, Erotica sold 1.5 million copies in its first week, and reached the top of the

Media Control Charts and was certified gold for shipments of 250,000 copies.[141][142] In Italy, Erotica sold 250,000 copies in its presales.[143] In Sweden, the album debuted in its peak of number six and spent only seven weeks on the chart.[144] Similarly in Switzerland, Erotica peaked number five and was certified gold by IFPI Switzerland.[145] It also received a platinum certification in Spain and sold 150,000 units there as of 1993.[146][147] 350 copies were sold in Iceland during November 1992.[148]

In Australia, the album entered the ARIA chart at number one, and was certified triple platinum by the

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).[155] Initial shipments of the album in Singapore were of 20,000 units, but quickly managed to sell 37,000 copies and became Warner Music's best-selling album of 1992 in Singapore.[53][156]
In total, Erotica has sold more than six million copies worldwide.[21]

Legacy

See also: Madonna and sexuality and Feminism of Madonna

Erotica has been referred to as one of Madonna's best and most important albums.[157][158][159] In 2017, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame considered it one of the most revolutionary albums of all time, writing 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 [...] [Erotica] remains one of the boldest expressions of female sexuality".[160] Kurt Loder added that, although she wasn't the first female artist to "exploit sexiness", with Erotica and Sex, Madonna "set a template for what women could get away with".[161] Influence of Erotica can be seen in the work of contemporary female artists such as Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Cardi B, and Kim Petras.[21][161][162][163] With the album, Joe Lynch from Billboard held that Madonna "set the blueprint for singers to get raw", while for Chuck Arnold it "forever sexed-up pop music".[34][8] USA Today's Edward Segarra felt it "helped expand female expression, usher in 'confessional' style".[161] Similarly, Reece Shrewsbury deemed it "a huge step for women's sexual liberation".[117]

"Erotica was the start of Madonna's newest era of being honest and true to her womanhood, counterpointed by the release of a companion book, Sex [...] While it marks the end of the pinnacle of her fame, it set the stage for empowered pop artists like Beyoncé and Britney, de-stigmatizing the bedroom and expanding the possibilities for women in pop. [Erotica] lives today as a reminder of the true fearlessness that made Madonna an icon".

—Jeni Wren Strottup commenting on the album and its influence.[20]

According to Taraborrelli, at the time of Erotica's release, "much of society seemed to reexamining its sexuality.

Attitude's Joseph Ryan-Hicks concluded that, "although Erotica was provocative, at its core were messages of safe sex and liberation at a time when people needed to hear them the most".[166] Through the album, Madonna was able to advocate for AIDS awareness and help bring the epidemic into the public discourse, according to Stereogum's Mary Von Aue.[167] From the Evening Standard, El Hunt wrote: "Both Erotica and Sex came out at a time when certain kinds of sex –specifically queer sex– were steeped in debilitating amounts of shame and fear [...] By putting forward a vision of sexual exploration that often feels cold, detached, and uneasy, Madonna flawlessly captured the emotional disconnect of searching out an intimacy that has suddenly become deadly".[157]
Sal Cinquemani elaborated:

By 1992, Madonna was an icon —untouchable, literally and figuratively— and Erotica was the first time the artist's music took on a decidedly combative, even threatening tone, and most people didn't want to hear it. [Erotica's] irrefutable unsexiness probably says more about the sex=death mentality of the early '90s than any other musical document of its time. This is not Madonna at her creative zenith. This is Madonna at her most important, at her most relevant. No one else in the mainstream at that time dared to talk about sex, love, and death with such frankness and fearlessness.[5]

Erotica was named "one of the biggest affronts to white, Christian, middle-class America ever to appear in pop music" by the staff of Gay Times.[168] Its biggest achievement, according to Rolling Stone's Barry Walters, is "the 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".[21] Joe Lynch concluded: "If her earlier work was an invitation to celebrate sexuality without shame, Erotica was a challenge [...] to witness and perhaps even indulge in society’s sexual taboos. Madonna may have addressed the male gaze before, but on Erotica, she wasn’t just staring back – she was making the world her sub".[8] 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".[169]

According to Slant Magazine, "no Madonna album was ever met with a louder backlash or was more rampantly misrepresented" than Erotica.[170] Taraborrelli commented that it is unfortunate that the album has to be historically linked to other "less memorable ventures" in the singer's career, such as Sex and Body of Evidence, as it has "true value".[164] 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".[114] Writing for Stylus Magazine, Alfred Soto felt Erotica "proved too sophisticated for a mainstream besotted with The Bodyguard and a college-radio claque eager to praise R.E.M.'s opaque dirges".[42] This sentiment was echoed by Reece Shrewsbury, who added that the general public "just wasn't ready to see a pop star who once had a clean image in such provocative positions".[117] Musician Doug Wimbish referred to Erotica as "ahead of its time", and applauded Madonna for being "enough of an artist to take the hues and shades of what's happening and put a concept together [...] She had Maverick, she'd done the [Sex] book, the film Dick Tracy, she dated a big-ass Hollywood actor (Warren Beatty). [Erotica] was her first record with her concept. She turned the system upside down for a moment, and they had to deal with the shock and awe of it all".[171] Brian McNair added that, by "dabbling in the pornosphere" with Sex and Erotica, Madonna took a financial risk with her career, and it wasn't until the release of 1998's Ray of Light that her record sales went back to "pre-Erotica" levels; nonetheless, the author concluded that, "what she lost in royalty payments, [she] more than made up for in iconic status and cultural influence".[169] From music portal Albumism, Justin Chadwick wrote: "Erotica was, is, and will forever be a fearlessly fierce album that only Madonna could make. No one has ever come close to replicating it and no one ever will".[172]

Track listing

Erotica – Standard edition[11]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Erotica"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:20
2."Fever"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:00
3."Bye Bye Baby"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Shimkin
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
3:55
4."Deeper and Deeper"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Shimkin
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:33
5."Where Life Begins"
  • Madonna
  • Andre Betts
  • Madonna
  • Betts
5:57
6."Bad Girl"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Shimkin
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:23
7."Waiting"
  • Madonna
  • Betts
  • Madonna
  • Betts
5:46
8."Thief of Hearts"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Shimkin
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
4:51
9."Words"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Shimkin
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:55
10."Rain"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:25
11."Why's It So Hard"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Shimkin
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
5:23
12."In This Life"
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
  • Madonna
  • Pettibone
6:25
13."Did You Do It?"
  • Madonna
  • Betts
  • Madonna
  • Betts
4:54
14."Secret Garden"
  • Madonna
  • Betts
  • Madonna
  • Betts
5:32
Total length:75:24

Notes[11][55]

Formats

Credits

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[11]

  • Recorded at Master Mix Studios, Clinton Recording Studios and Soundworks, New York
  • Mastering at Sterling Sound Studios
  • Design and art direction by Baron & Baron Inc.
  • Maverick Recording Company. © 1992 Sire Records Company
    .

Musicians

  • Madonna – vocals
  • Dave Murphy – guest vocals
  • Mark Goodman – guest vocals
  • André Betts – synthesizer, bass, piano, strings, drums, keyboard, synthesizer strings
  • Shep Pettibone – keyboard
  • Donna De Lory and Niki Haris – background vocals
  • Anton Fig – drums
  • Jerome Dickens – guitar
  • Paul Pesco – guitar
  • Doug Wimbish – bass
  • Glen Dicterow – conductor, concertmaster
  • James Preston – piano, keyboard, synthesizer strings
  • Danny Wilensky – saxophone
  • Jeremy Lublock – string arrangements

Composition and production

  • Madonna – composition, production
  • Shep Pettibone – production, engineering, sequencing
  • André Betts – production
  • Eddie Cooley – composition
  • John Davenport – composition
  • Emile Charlap – contractor
  • Mark Goodman – assistant engineer
  • Joe Moskowitz – programming
  • Tony Shimkin – programming
  • Mike Farrell – engineer
  • Robin Hancock – engineer, mixing
  • George Karras – engineer
  • P. Dennis Mitchell – engineer
  • Ted Jensen – mastering
  • Sander Selover – programming

Design

  • Siung Fat Tjia – art direction, design
  • Steven Meisel – photography

Charts

Certifications and sales

‹See Tfd›‹See Tfd›
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Argentina (CAPIF)[132] 4× Platinum 240,000^
Australia (ARIA)[149] 3× Platinum 210,000^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[205] Gold 25,000*
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[134] Gold 180,000[135]
Canada (Music Canada)[131] 2× Platinum 200,000^
France — 250,000[139]
Germany (BVMI)[142] Gold 250,000^
Israel — 10,000[206]
Italy — 250,000[a]
Japan (RIAJ)[152] 2× Platinum 400,000^
Malaysia — 25,000[207]
Mexico — 250,000[133]
Netherlands (NVPI)[208] Gold 50,000^
Singapore — 40,000[156]
South Africa (RISA)[209] Gold 25,000*
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[146][136] Platinum 150,000[147]
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[145] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[138] 2× Platinum 600,000^
United States (RIAA)[126] 2× Platinum 1,989,000[128][127]
Summaries
Europe — 1,500,000[136]
Worldwide — 6,000,000[21]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Figures based in presales.[143]

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Bibliography

External links
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