When Madonna's album, Like A Prayer was in production, Madonna knew she wanted to change how she created music. She chose to target a more mature audience, and with that came a change of style.
In this blog post, we'll take a look at the impact of Like A Prayer, and how that changed her career.
What Changed For Like A Prayer?
After significant change in Madonna's personal life, with her marriage ending, and also significant change in the music world, with the rise of rap and grunge artists created a change in public opinion towards her genre, Madonna knew that something about her albums had to change.
In order to create a completely new aesthetic for this album, Madonna opted for darker hair, which wasn't actually featured on the album cover in the end, as she instead chose to show off her worn jeans, and encrusted crucifix.
Where Did The Scent Come In?
To stick with the church theme of the album, Madonna wanted to scent the album in a way that was reminiscent of the church, making the album not only a listening experience, but an aromatic one.
To scent her album, she chose patchouli oil - which is used as an anointing oil by Christians. All original pressings of the album came with patchouli scented inner sleeves, which owners of the album say are still scented today - almost 40 years after the release.
After Like A Prayer:
Madonna took Like A Prayer on tour in 1990, and it had immediate commercial success - jumping straight in the top ten in the album chart, and reaching number one in the UK a few weeks after its release. This was her third consecutive number one album. It spent six weeks in the number one spot, becoming her longest running number one album. Because of its success, it is named in many music success lists, including Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.
Taking appealing to a more mature audience in her stride, she released her next album in 1992, entitled Erotica, along with a VHS tape - In Bed With Madonna - which we found a copy of, along with the book she released at the same time - Sex. While we have seen copies of this in the past, we currently don't have a copy, so we'll let your imagination fill in the blanks on that one!
Madonna Now:
Because Madonna had a career spanning almost 40 years, she has influenced many generations of music.
Whether you were with her from the beginning in 1982, or came across her music sometime later, her influence on the music scene has been undeniable. Want to get your hands on one of her albums? Check out what we have in stock below.
