Madonna's Erotica

Madonna's 1992 album Erotica was a controversial release that reflected the cultural tensions of the time. It was seen as a symbol of the decline of family values by conservatives, a celebration of a sexual culture by gay men, and a means of selling scandal by Madonna herself. However, the album is more sentimental than pornographic, and its ambivalence over sex makes it crucial for understanding its time and navigating culture a generation later. It was influential in the development of queer theory and cultural appropriation, and its legacy continues to be relevant in today's culture wars.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 07 September 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Madonna's 1992 album Erotica was a controversial release that was seen as a symbol of the decline of family values by conservatives, a celebration of a sexual culture by gay men reeling from the AIDS epidemic, and a means of selling scandal by Madonna herself. However, Erotica is more sentimental than pornographic, and this ambivalence over sex is what makes the album crucial for understanding its time and navigating culture a generation later. As queer politics transitioned from sexual liberation to civil rights like same-sex marriage, Madonna tried to do both, and her songs proved formative for works of queer theory. Erotica was also central to a developing consciousness about cultural appropriation. In this book, Michael Dango considers Erotica and its legacy by drawing on the intellectual traditions at the center of today's hysteria over critical race theory and "don't say gay" and on his own experiences as a gay man too young to know the original carnage of AIDS and too old to grow up assuming he could get married. Madonna offered up Erotica as a key entry in the 1990s culture wars, and her album speaks all the more urgently to the culture wars of today.

Weight: 126g
Dimension: 165 x 120 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501388996