She’s fearless and the bravest artist of her time. In fact, nobody come close to her up to these days. She leads and the rest just followed. Hands down to the Queen of Pop! Your reaction truly is priceless! ❤️
No pop star of her fame has been this sexually transgressive before or since Erotica. The song and video are just state of the art. I cannot be surprised taking into consideration that she has always been ahead of her time and I trully respect all her artistic choices. Love you Dita ❤️
@@mariahwhitneycelinejanetmadona looooooolllll...transgression and vulgarity is 2 differents topics...Madonna did this video in 1992...it was trangressive...Miley cirus just do what every "artist" do now...and nothing is trangressive, just marketing
@@mariahwhitneycelinejanetmadona So I agree with the other comments but I don't think I have to be as rude as they are. Let's break it down though. At the time this song was released in 1992 the top ten videos of that year for MTV were all headlined by rock acts like Van Halen and Nirvana. The highest-ranking pop video of the year was One by U2. So to put it into context videos like this had never really existed in the mainstream, and certainly, no one at Madonna's level was releasing these videos. The public was much more conservative about topics like sex. Keep in mind this is right in the thickest part of the AIDs epidemic and sex was thought of as something holy between a man and his wife. If it was mentioned at all in media it was almost always heterosexual centered and male-dominated. A video like this at the time could have caused such a scandal that it would essentially cancel Madonna - see Janet Jackson's Superbowl Halftime show scandal and you'll see what I'm talking about. This video was such a big deal because it was the first video of this caliber to reach this level of viewership and it was done by arguably the most famous person in the world at the time AND it was occupied by a coffee table book that featured full-frontal nudity of Madonna and other A-list celebrities engaging in BDSM and nude portraiture. The difference is that by the time Miley Cyrus found success independent of Disney two decades had passed and people had been there done that. It wasn't shocking or brave because it had become commonplace.
Look, even nowadays here in Brazil, where twerking is part of our culture, Madonna's videos would be controversial. Twerking is ok, showing skin is ok, but exposing those kinds of erotic lyrics, public talking about it, and showing all this imagery is controversial. Sometimes even when popular artists like Anitta and Luisa Sonza cross any of those boundaries they are heavily criticized even by those who follow them.
I was a teenager when this came out and honestly this was a really important song and video. There was like a wave of conservatism that followed the emergence of the AIDS epidemic and as a result sex and sexuality were being demonised by right wing media and particularly conservative Christians. Madonna kinda said screw you all, not only am I gonna continue talking about sex, I’m gonna celebrate it in all its varied forms. Particularly for the LGBTQ community that was being persecuted at this time, 90s Madonna helped encourage us not to be ashamed of our sexuality or our sexual practices.
I Think you are mixing between being progressive and DARK. This video is extremely dark , the scenes are taking place in a dark creepy cellar , with sadistic rituals, violence, chains and pain, even the colors are dark and creepy, sitting on the lap of an old perverted man in the age of her father. It’s a very disgusting video with disgusting messages.
Always ahead of the times in 2017, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame recognized Erotica (and Sex Book) as one of the most revolutionary albums of all times.
The Erotica video is the making of of the SEX book, released a day after the album. Because of the scandal the book caused, the Erotica album was Madonna's lowest sales at that time, selling "only" 5 million copies worldwide - ironically the book was a huge success. The whole media said that her career was over and that she had gone too far. There was a lot of pressure on her and finally she was smart and strong enough to survive that era.
If it was not for her award winning performance in Evita and grammy winning album Ray of Light, her career would have likely come to an end. To a certain extent, she did take it too far as it was released under a very conservative president George Bush senior, whose administration immediately condemned the album and her coffee table book SEX.
@@thomasgreen2525 Her marketing campaign was flawless during Bedtime Stories and Something to Remember, by the time she released Ray of Light her image was totally fresh and new. Such a genius!
@@thomasgreen2525 I'd say that if it wasn't for Bedtime Stories, her career might've been over. There was no way she could have pressed forward with how she'd been going from 1989 to 1993/4. Even Madonna got the message and did what she had to do to lower the temperature. Evita and ROL just continued what BS started.
The uncensored version is even more daring! I'm not sure about "brainwashing" but the video and song were seductive. Yes, she always knows which taboos to challenge and buttons to push. Classic Madonna!
I have an upload of the uncensored version under the YT name PopBritneyBitch ( Madonna erotica uncensored) somehow it’s never been taken down and now over the years google / YT switch has me locked out w an old email like AOL and I cannot get back in but anyway it exists I wish he had watched it or reviewed it instead but oh well.
I cannot emphasize to you how absolutely controversial this was at the time. Madonna was an international superstar and had an impeccable record at this point. When this song, album, video and SEX book came out they were merciless towards her. The vitriol from the media was unbelievable. They said she was done, over and this had gone to far. Little did they know.
When Erotica came out I was 14years of age. I bought the album straight away! It's daring and great! In 1992 I listened Nirvana, Dr.Dre, Beastie Boys, Guns N Roses, Metallica and then there was Madonna with Erotica. I thought she was so brave to do that because I also thought she throwing away her career for in what she belives(it was an extrodinary move by her) and it's the end of Madonna but it wasn't. She was already in the same realm as Michael Jackson, Prince & Whitney Houston to fizzle out like that. I realised it when her Number #1 streak continiued with her next album Bedtime Stories. She just knows how to pull it! Genius woman!
@@ginasousabranco5637 Yes agree 100% by 1992 she was! But people these days have no clue that between 1989 and 1992 that she surpassed the others with her sheer fame! It was insane!
The Erotica Era, imo, had the BEST music videos for Madonna. Erotica, Deeper and Deeper, Bad Girl, Fever, Rain. You need to react to all of them. Also, you skipped Justify My Love and This Used to be my Playground. Both Billboard #1s for Madonna :-)
Dang was hoping you were reacting to the UNCENSORED version of the Erotica video. Your jaw may drop. The other videos in the album - Rain is super gorgeous, Bad Girl is poignant, and Deeper and Deeper is pretty dark!
Madonna literally changed my life and lives of so many people. She was a huge part of the change that we now see in the world. 80s and 90s were very different.
You should watch the uncensored version of it. It's wild. I'm so glad I grew up with her. I'm 53, so I was 15 when she became big and her Erotica album came out in my early 20s and saw the uncensored video at a club I used to go to.
Btw there's an Uncensored Version... Do you imagine being the Queen of the World at that particular moment and doing this? I mean, let's suppose that Taylor, Ariana or Adele (they are not and they will never be as global as Madonna) did this, it would be a huge scandal, even today 30 years after!! She has the biggest balls in this business, she risked her career, everyone said she was over... LOL, she's unstoppable!! A force to be reckoned with.
Did you watch Justify My Love? That single led into her Erotica era. Rescue Me from The Immaculate Collection is a song you need to give a listen to. Justify My Love and Rescue Me were the new songs she included with her first greatest hits package.
Love your Madonna journey! This video uses the photo shoots from her Sex book released around the same time. Definitely check the book out. She wanted to brainwash us all into sex positivity with a triple threat that year: Erotica album, Sex book, and Body of Evidence movie. To my complete adoration.
I’m still kind of annoyed with Madonna for that. I figure since “the time” it was, she didn’t want to fight that battle. I mean, look what happened to Natalie Maines.
You should react to “Human nature” a song she released to give society a message after Erotica era. It’s brilliant what she’s saying. Btw I love your Madonna reactions. Big fan here 😉😍
Will you watch the video to Rain as well? You should. And also the live performance of Rain, from The Girlie Show concert. In fact you ought to watch that concert in full
i was there. it was everything. so everything that i can't even express. but i can say it was this era that grabbed me firmly by the shoulders and told me that i would follow this woman forever. my favorite tidbit from this video, is that when she has all the naked men on leashes; she's wearing the same outfit she performed at the 1991 oscars in. like a cheeky little "oscars afterparty" nod or something.
G'day it's Steven from Down Under I recall when this music video was released around 1993, I was married a couple of years and yes my then wife & I were often intimate whist listening to this song, Madonna was of course criticised for this video, perhaps if she were a man the criticism would've been different. Great song and a bloody good album too.
She said ‘I do not endorse a way of life, I describe one..’ Artistic license where the some of but not all of this work reflects the fantasies of the artist. The press reaction was too literal, in part because people didn’t want her to make money from her book and album.
When this came out everyone lost their shit, literally. MTV banned it and wouldn’t play it so she sold it on VHS and it sold like over a million copies. The album was a commercial flop because she released a box called SEX that all those images in this video are in and much, much more. The book sold out at over a million or more copies (I still have my copy) but it really overshadowed the Erotica album because everyone was so shocked by the book. True fans like myself loved both. Erotica the album still holds up today imo. The music is ground breaking and fantastic. One of my most favorite albums. I love watching you discover why Madonna is the Queen. Thanks for this series. I love seeing her music through fresh eyes. ❤️
I can remember every time she had a video released on MTV . Holiday, Borderline and everyone after. I was in High School from 83-86.. We were dressing like Madonna since her 2nd video . She was as big as Big as star as you can become . The 80’s produced the greatest Music & Movies . It was great time to be a teenager .
Hi, OTDE! I am the same age as Madonna and I remember very well when this video (and accompanying book) came out in 1993. This was WAY before "Fifty Shades of Grey" and some of the wilder parts of this video were part of a very fringe "scene" that was almost unknown to most people and difficult to even get access to. Cheers on your ongoing deep dive.
She was hated, she was vilified, she was censored. I have loved her since 1984 when I heard her as a child, and I never cared what anyone said, I loved her then and I love her now!
This was an enormous trifecta. The album “Erotica” coincided with the book “Sex” and the film “Body of Evidence”. It was absolutely amazing to see someone of her stature pushing this into conservative America. The video is a compilation from behind the shooting of “Sex”. The book completely sold out, and was a hefty $60 in the early 90’s. ( Yes- I have a copy. ) There won’t be another artist like her in our lifetime.
There were so many people that wanted the album banned including her coffee table book "SEX" for its explicit lyrics and graphic pictures. Various Christian groups conducted public burnings of both the Erotica album and her book "SEX," suggesting the material encourages teen sex and for people to explore unhealthy sexual encounters. I was in junior high when the album was released and remember parents refusing to allow their children to listen to the album or videos released on MTV. The impact of this album nearly destroyed her music career. If it was not for her Golden Globe winning performance I'm Evita and her grammy winning album Ray of Light, Madonna would probably not have become the cultural phenomenon she is today.
Many of the images from this video were also used in her book "Sex" which was released at the same time as the Erotica album. And yes, it created quite a hostile reaction in the culture. When you get to your reaction video of her 1994 album Bedtiime Stories, the song "Human Nature" is her response to the criticism she received. And oddly enough, your observation in your reaction video that she's putting out this imagery of sex and fantasies that no one wants to talk about is what she included in the lyrics of "Human Nature".
Just subscribed, cool vid like to see "your generation" reaction vids, I was there when it was popular on the radio (it came and went fast) and I remember MTV had a problem with the video, not sure they even played it. Thanks for the upload!
The 90s was an ubderatedly conservative era in terms of sexuality especially with the aids epidemic it caused a foul stigma in the air and gave right media an opportunity to persecute the lgbtq community not only did madonna push against this with erotica but push the boundaries of sex in general for women for people erotica strangely doesn't make sex sound so complicated and conservative it just feels natural
You are right it’s very abstract. But so well done. I loved it then and I love it now. It got very limited air play I only seen it in it’s entirety a few years after it was released.. really cool era
Great analysis ! You gotta check out the uncensored version. Thats a hot one. Also, i recommend checking out her Sex book, a creative coffee table book for your pleasure.
When you get to Ray of Light, you NEED to watch more than one video. I would highly recommend Frozen and Drowned World/Substitute for Love. Those two videos are beautiful, you’ll love them
And if you can, she has another song included in the Japanese edition called Has to Be, I won’t blame you if you don’t watch it, but it’s beautiful too. There will be a deluxe version of Ray of Light and I know Has to Be will be included in it
the world was not ready for this. only years later was its importance to pop music and to women within the industry recognized. The insults were continuous from the press. 1992.
If you were shocked with this version wait until you see the uncensored one! Lol. This album has so many beautiful and interesting videos. “Bad girl” and “Rain” are definitely two of Madonna’s best videos and you need to check them out. 🙂
This video only aired a few times I think and late at night, then MTV banned it due to being too racy, which was absurd then and even more so now in hindsight. Many of the images in the video were in her Sex book which upset puritanical America. So much so that when Madonna did her Girlie Show Tour for this album, she refused to tour in America, but did add a couple dates only in NYC I think, but that was it. It was her middle finger raised to America for being so uncool.
What an emotional review, even with the understanding that this was in the 90s. He still managed to handle it. Our current society looks at sex just as dangerously as they did in the 90s. Nothing ever changes. Great and well informed review. And fyi to the content creator, yes you paused at the worst times.
Madonna’s Justify my Love makes this video look like SpongeBob lol. She wild’d it out thanks to Lenny Kravitz supplying the lyrics and the music. And then to be banned only for her to sell video singles and make a bigger splash. She’s an icon.
Hi, have ever heard ¨secret garden" of than album and "where the life begins" awsome songs, I was 12 when this album arrives to Mexico, and my generation consider this record, one of best, of her carrera. hi by the way man:)
This is the 2nd video banned from MTV for Madonna. Previously "Justify my Love" was banned after just one rotation on the channel. I had to wait to purchase the VHS to watch "Justify my Love," and I didn't see "Erotica" at all until 8 or 9 years later, thanks to the internet.
Great reaction. As a teenager I was impressed by this era. As soon I got the opportunity I went to a couple SM clubs in Europe and Texas, I has to admit that they were scary places and definitely not a child play. I saw people literally bleeding while been flagellated. They were located in marginal areas, full of crime and poverty. In the one on Texas we literally escaped trough an emergency door, the back was fenced and guarded with Rottweilers. Thanks God the gate was not tight enough for us pass through. We were skinny TG. I’m not blaming Madonna for not hearing my good judgment. This video at least the aesthetic is REAL
I was there at the time this song/album came out, so I can tell you a few things. I was 19 and, although I was a repressed teenager, I loved the hell out of it! I am sure unconventional, broad thinking individuals , as well as the gays, loved it too. In Italy, where I grew up at that time, it was scandalous and the press trashed it consequently, and unfortunately, it was not a successful piece of work and Madonna went down with it. As a place that it's so puritan, and that holds Christian values so dear, I get the strong feeling that must have been the case in America too. Madonna was probably too ahead of her time back then, but that's what true visionaries are all about: pushing boundaries and create controversy. I hope that now this gem of an album is regarded as a unique piece of art that, somehow, it paved the way to sexual liberation and a more open minded outlook.
The video is supposed to simulate the old pornographic super eight reels, in all their grainy, scratchy film glory, pun intended. Directed by the amazing Fabien Baron who was also art director at Harper's Bazaar at the time, these images also appear on her "Sex" book featuring some notable people like Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell and Udo Kier. Some scenes were shot in a couple of notorious sex clubs in New York. And you probably already know but this was the version edited for MTV, and having learned their lesson after Justify My Love caved in to put it on rotation, albeit only after midnight.
I always thought that, even edited, it was allowed to air between midnight and 6am, but Justify My Love (which was more tame, in my opinion) was outright banned from broadcast (which worked in her favor as the first video single) was… strange. I also want to add that around the same time, there was rear nudity on network television; specifically, NYPD Blue on ABC. Then, everything seemed to become more censored toward the end of the 90s. Possibly, due to the Clinton sex scandal.
that's what I said - after MTV came out looking "prudish" after their outright ban of Justify, they agreed to accept "Erotica" (edited) but aired it only after midnight
Not so much this reaction but after watching many reaction vids I can’t believe over 30 years later this still shocks the younger generation. We came to expect it and grew up on this shit. Well at least the cool kids. Lol so right about America.
