Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Madonna: The Veronica Electronica Edition (Encore)

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History,

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2018

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1998, Madonna was at a career crossroads. After dominating the ’80s with hits like “Like a Virgin” and “Open Your Heart,” she spent the first half of the ’90s wavering between roles as a provocateur (Erotica, Sex) and adult-contemporary balladeer (“I’ll Remember,” “Take a Bow”). That’s when she took a sharp left turn, working with producers and deejays in the burgeoning electronica scene. If it even was a scene: The very term “electronica” was a music-business confection, and by 1997 it was more hype than hit. But the result of Madonna’s experiment—her acclaimed ’98 album Ray of Light—was not only one of her biggest smashes ever. It also helped turn electronic music into viable pop. Email: hitparade@slate.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening Ad-Free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	This is an encore presentation of Hit Parade.
0:08.3	We are reposting this episode about the creation of the 1998 album, Ray of Light, in honor of Madonna's 60th birthday, coming up on August 16th, 2018. We hope you enjoy this celebration of a one-of-a-kind
0:26.1	Queen of Pop's career, but also the dawn of electronic dance music in the 1990s. Enjoy.
0:35.0	Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from
0:41.6	coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's
0:47.3	Why Is This Song Number One series? On today's show, 20 years ago, Madonna debuted on Billboard's album chart with her first studio album in four years, the trippy yet maternal ray of life.
1:03.0	And I feel like I just got home. And I feel. And I feel like I just got home. As that seemingly
1:20.6	Indicatory description indicates,
1:23.3	Ray of light was the culmination of multiple threads in the life of Madonna Louise Chaconan.
1:29.7	Going into 1998, Madonna was entering her 16th year as a recording artist, already extraordinary longevity for a woman whose career grew out of New York clubs in the early 80s and a post-disco brand of electric dance pop.
1:51.4	By the 90s, Madonna had also become a mogul, the co-founder and flagship artist of Maverick, a recording and media company distributed by Warner Brothers.
2:05.8	It grew into much more than a so-called vanity label.
2:10.0	Maverick wound up issuing some of the top, rock, and pop of the decade.
2:14.7	It's like rain.
2:21.7	It's the decade. For all her success and the influence she wielded in the music industry, by the mid
2:27.5	mid to late 90s, it was an open question whether Madonna wanted to be just a pop star
2:33.0	anymore.
2:33.9	She was increasingly focused on her acting career.
2:38.7	And her biggest hit songs in the first half of the decade had mostly been mid-tempo pop and stately ballads.
2:56.9	Most of them bigger hits on adult contemporary radio.
3:00.4	Take about the night is over.
	...

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