Erotica is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on October 20, 1992 by Maverick Records, three years after her previous studio album. Madonna worked mostly with Shep Pettibone, as well as André Betts. Famously released simultaneously with Madonna's first book publication, Sex, the album is driven by its sexual themes. It is Madonna's first album to feature a Parental Advisory sticker.
The album incorporates influences from house music, new jack swing, and lounge music. Many of the songs see Madonna at her most provocative, drawing from themes of sex and romance, such as the lead single and title track "Erotica". Madonna was also inspired by the idea of homosexuality, particularly in the album's second single "Deeper and Deeper". Others take on a more confessional tone, influenced by the loss of two of Madonna's close friends to the AIDS epidemic. Visually, Madonna was inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and BDSM culture. Erotica was met with generally favorable reviews from critics. Rolling Stone described the album as "a post-AIDS album about romance."
Commercially, the album failed to live up to the success of its predecessors, possibly due to the negative backlash surrounding the album's sexuality. Peaking at number two on the Billboard 200, the album was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It peaked in the top five in most territories, topping the charts in Australia. Six singles were released from the album – "Erotica", "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl", "Fever", "Rain" and "Bye Bye Baby". The album failed to produce any number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Worldwide the album has sold over 5 million copies.
The Erotica era has more recently been seen as one of Madonna's most important due to the controversy surrounding it. She faced strong negative publicity from critics who commented that "she had gone too far" and that her career was over. The album, however, spawned the critically successful Girlie Show World Tour.
Madonna reunited with Shep Pettibone for the album. Pettibone first began working with Madonna in the 80s, providing remixes for several of her singles. He later produced the single "Vogue" (1990) before working with Madonna on Erotica. Pettibone first started working on the album while Madonna was filming the 1992 film A League of Their Own.[2]After filming was complete, Madonna met with Pettibone in New York to begin recording the album. Pettibone said, "Deeper and Deeper, Erotica, Rain and Thief of Hearts made up the first batch of songs we worked on together. I did the music and she wrote the words."[2] Speaking of the album's sound, Pettibone said, "Madonna wanted Erotica to have a raw edge to it, as if it were recorded in an alley at 123rd Street in Harlem."[2] Early versions of some of the songs on the album, as well as demo versions of songs that were not included, were included in The Rain Tapes, a collection of 23 tracks registered during the album development stage.
The album features Madonna's first album with a "Parental Advisory" label (the only other albums to do so being 2003's American Life and 2007's live concert album, The Confessions Tour). A separate "clean" version was released, the only difference being the omission of the sexually explicit "Did You Do It?".
"The Rain Tapes" were demos recorded by Madonna in late 1991 and early 1992, during the development of the album, submitted to the Library of Congress for copyright registration on two C90 cassettes. The songs were written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Tony Shimkin, and produced by Madonna and Pettibone. Most of the songs are early and alternate versions of songs used on theErotica album, while others—"Shame", "You Are the One", and "Jitterbug"—remain completely unreleased. Five full tracks from the tapes - and a few clips of others —leaked onto the Internet from 2007 to early 2008 and have become widely available for download. However, a wide number of fakes are also circulating, which claim to be from The Rain Tapes, though they are in fact fan creations which mix clips from interviews and TV appearances with Shep Pettibone instrumentals from the likes of Cathy Dennis. The only genuine Rain Tapes tracks in circulation remain "Erotica (Final Demo 2)", "Goodbye to Innocence (Straight Pass)", "Bye Bye Baby (First Day Rough)", "Thief of Hearts (Old Music)", "Cheat (Drunk Girl)" and part of the demo of "Shame". Any other songs in circulation claiming to be from the Rain Tapes are, in fact, fake.
Madonna took the album title from the song of the same name. Erotica refers to works of art, including literature, photography, film, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions. Madonna's intentions were that the album would be an accompaniment to her book Sex, which shares the same cover photograph – a colored reverse negative of Madonna's face done à la Andy Warhol, from whom Madonna found much inspiration during her so-called "Erotica period" (for example, her "Erotica" and "Deeper and Deeper" videos were shot in near identical style to many of Warhol's films, with Madonna paying obvious homage to Edie Sedgwick in the latter). The photos included in the album's liner notes also come from the Steven Meisel Studio photographs shot for the Sex book.
The album tracks "cherry-pick elements from classic disco, modern house, techno and the ever-evolving New Jack Swing sound."[3] Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly said, "Madonna explored the stripped, shadowy bass beats of the underground gay dance genre known as 'sleaze.'"[4] Lyrically, Rolling Stone describedErotica as "a post-AIDS album about romance — it doesn't so much evoke sex as provide a fetishistic abstraction of it."[5]
The album's opening track is the titular lead single "Erotica", which uses spoken word vocals like her 1990 single "Justify My Love". The song is "an ode to S&M."[6] "Fever" is a "sassy, house-style remake" of the pop standard.[7] "Deeper and Deeper", which is sonically similar to Madonna's 1990 single "Vogue", combines "swirling disco synths, of-the-moment Philly house beats, and [...] flamenco guitar."[6] The song deals with a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality after falling in love. "Where Life Begins" is "the album's most overtly sexual track."[6] "Bad Girl" is "a slow, sorrowful look at the sort of woman who uses drunken debauchery as a mask for her pain."[7] "Rain" and "Waiting" are "yearning ballads."[5] "In This Life" was written in memory of friends who Madonna had lost to the AIDS epidemic.[6][7]
Despite the controversy surrounding the Erotica era, music critics were mostly positive about the album. Allmusic states, "While it didn't set the charts on fire like her previous albums, the ambitious Erotica contains some of Madonna's best and most accomplished music."[8] Arion Berger of Rolling Stone gave the album four stars (out of five), writing, "Erotica is everything Madonna has been denounced for being — meticulous, calculated, domineering and artificial. It accepts those charges and answers with a brilliant record to prove them."[5] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly was less positive, declaring that "Erotica may be the most joyless dance music ever made."[9] While Berger praised the album's "cold, remote sound," Browne criticized Madonna's "soulless" voice.[9] In fact, the sexual imagery Madonna put forward in both Erotica and the Sex book was widely criticized for not actually being erotic, but being sterile and calculating. Kurt Loder likened the album to an iceberg.[6] J. D. Considine stated that "what seems most surprising about the songs [...] is that they find Madonna lusting for love, not panting after sex."[7] In its 15th anniversary review of the album, Slant Magazine called Erotica "Madonna at her most important, at her most relevant."[6] In 2010, an MTV News blog wrote, "Because the content is so obsessed with sex, the music on Erotica often gets short shrift, but it's one of the strongest albums of Madonna's career."[3] Erotica is ranked at number 24 on the Slant Magazine's list of 100 Best Albums of the '90s.[10]
The surrounding massive media and critical backlash hurt Erotica sales. While sales were initially brisk, the album did not go through the roof as many predicted. It debuted at number two on theBillboard 200 shifting 167,000 in its first week. It was held off from reaching the top spot by Garth Brooks's blockbuster album The Chase (which that same week sold only 4,000 copies more thanErotica). In the UK the album also debuted at number two behind Simple Minds's Glittering Prize 81/92. The album stalled over the long-term, selling two million copies each in the U.S. and Europe. While two million is impressive by any standard, it was not up to par with Madonna's other successful records. Erotica also became the first album since her debut to yield no number-one hits in either the U.S. or the UK, with the title track reaching number three, being the highest-charting single from the album. In fact, the number-thirty-six Billboard Hot 100 peak of "Bad Girl" made it the first Madonna single to fail to reach the U.S. top twenty after twenty-nine consecutive releases stretching back to "Holiday" in 1983 had done so. Nonetheless, the album produced six singles and was well received on the dance club circuit. To date, Erotica has sold more than five million copies globally.[11]
"Erotica" was released as the lead single of the album on September 1992. The video, directed by fashion photographer Fabien Baron, was inspired by Andy Warhol.[3]
"Deeper and Deeper", the second single was released on November 1992 in the UK and on December 1992 in the US.
"Bad Girl" was released as the third single on February 1993.
"Fever" was released as the fourth single of the album on March 1993 in Europe and Australia.
"Rain" is the fifth single and was released on July 1993.
"Bye Bye Baby", the last single was released on September 1993 in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany and Italy.
Originally, "Bad Girl" was planned as the second single from the album with an X-rated video to match the "Erotica" single, but it was changed due to the backlash of the Sex book and instead it was released as the third single. Madonna performed "Erotica", "Fever", "Bye Bye Baby", "Deeper and Deeper", "Rain", "Why's It So Hard", and "In This Life" on her 1993 Girlie Show Tour. She also performed "Deeper and Deeper" on her 2004 Re-Invention Tour, the "You Thrill Me" demo of "Erotica" on her 2006 Confessions Tour and "Rain", that was used as a video interlude, on her 2008-09 Sticky and Sweet Tour.
In the review for 15th anniversary of the album, music critic Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine declared that "This is Madonna at her most important, at her most relevant." While Madonna had always expressed her sexuality suggestively through her art—primarily through music and promotional music videos—she was never as explicit as she had been during the Erotica period of her career. Erotica was one of a trio of sexually-oriented mainstream projects released by Madonna or with her involvement within a span of several months. Released nearly simultaneously with Erotica was the coffee table book Sex, which featured the singer in photographs depicting simulations of sexual acts andBDSM. Less than four months later, a poorly received film titled Body of Evidence was released to theaters, featuring Madonna fully nude and in scenes engaged in simulated sexual acts. With all these explicit projects, Madonna faced strong negative publicity with critics and fans commenting that "she had gone too far" and that her career was to be over. Interestingly, the sexual imagery Madonna put forward in both Erotica and Sex was widely criticized for not actually being erotic, but sterile and calculating. On the subject, Madonna said to CNN's Larry King on January 19, 1999, "I didn't write a book about sex. I wrote a book that—I mean I published a book that basically was sort of a—an ironic tongue-in-cheek, sticking-my-tongue-out-at-society photo essay..."
Erotica is Madonna's first album ever to have the "Parental Advisory" label. A separate "clean" version was released, the only difference being the omission of the sexually explicit "Did You Do It?". In Malaysia, it was the first Madonna album banned by the Government for homosexual-related content. At the same time, Sex was also banned from bookstores around the country. In spite of this, her singles "Rain" and "Deeper and Deeper" were significant airplay hits there.
"Erotica": contains samples of "Jungle Boogie" performed by Kool and the Gang and "El Yom 'Ulliqa 'Ala Khashaba" by Arabic singer Fairuz (the latter is uncredited)
"Erotica", "Bye Bye Baby", "Bad Girl", Thief of Hearts", "Words" and "Why's It So Hard": ASCAP has officially added Anthony Shimkin as co-writer to these songs. Inlay notes to the album do not include this.
"Did You Do It?" features Mark Goodman and Dave Murphy. This song is available only on the Parental Advisory-stickered version of the album, omitted from the clean version. Shep Pettibone has been officially added by BMI as co-writer of this song [12]