When "Ray Of Light" came out, I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, this song really captures what it feels like to live here in the late 1990's." The sunny optimism of that time is unbeatable.

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nindot@reddit

Len “Steal my Sunshine” and Fatboy Slim “Praise You” captured that late 90’s vibe for me…Music from a much simpler time.

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DexterousMonkey@reddit

INTERGALACTIC PLANETARY. PLANETARY INTERGALACTIC.

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Artistic_Potato_1840@reddit

I’d add “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals to that playlist.

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Ltimbo@reddit

I hope I never hear that song again. 30 years later and I’ve still heard it one too many times.

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GargantuanGreenGoats@reddit

I GET KNOCKED DOWN. BUT I GET UP AGAIN. BUT NOW ITS HARD CUZ OF MAH KNEES. I GET KNOCKED DOWN. MIGHT AS WELL TAKE A NAP. NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN (UNLESS IM NAPPING)

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Ltimbo@reddit

I HEAR THIS SONG. PLAYING IN MY HEAD. AND ITS ALWAYS GOING TO KEEP ME DOWN. I HEAR THIS SONG. BEFORE I HAVE TO WORK. THANKS FOR MAKING ME WORK WITH THIS SONG IN MY HEAD.

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GargantuanGreenGoats@reddit

NOW I FEEL SO BAD. IM REALLY SORRY MAN. I HOPE Y’HAVE A GOOD DAY AT WORK.

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thejaytheory@reddit

NOW THIS SONG IS STUCK, IN MY HEAD, THANKS A LOT GUYS, NOW THIS SONG IS STUCK, IN MY HEAD, THANKS A LOT GUYS

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Stop_Already@reddit

DONT CRY FOR ME I HATE YOU ALL I HAYR YOU ALL

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GargantuanGreenGoats@reddit

Too late, you already smelled what I’m cookin.

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bbbbears@reddit

Would it help you to know that a friend of mine thought it was “I GET NO TOWELS, BUT I GET UP AGAIN, NEVER GONNA GIVE ME TOWELS”

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As an aside that song and album is an unbelievable shitbrick in an otherwise unbelievably interesting career of anarchist communists. I'd describe their music as a hybrid between experimental Beatles stuff mixed by They Might Be Giants but produce by Trotsky.

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TheDevil-YouKnow@reddit

Courtney Cox and Marilyn Manson? 🤔

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thisistherevolt@reddit

I just looked at the video and saw a pair of JNCOs. I'm gonna go cry now in almost-40.

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Cutthechitchata-hole@reddit

45 and I hit my thumb nail hard against the door jam. I've been crying for 45 minutes

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TheDevil-YouKnow@reddit

Maaaaan - these two, Funk Soul Brother, and Ray of Light were some constant Winamp repeats for me. Along with the Blade movie's Bloodbath song. The rotation went Ray of Light to Bloodbath, to Funk Soul Brother, rounded off with Praise You.

But my greatest stereotype banger of this era was Around the World, Daft Punk.

Woooorld! Around. The world around the!

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ShortBrownAndUgly@reddit

I didn’t even like steal my sunshine back then and I still think the song is just ok…but it still manages to capture the vibe yeah

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_Face@reddit

Spacehog - In the Meantime

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fidgetypenguin123@reddit

For me it was Semi Charmed Life and Bittersweet Sympathy. If anything because they played it on the radio constantly but I also tolerated them at least. Couldn't stand Steal My Sunshine, and Praise You was almost just as annoying to me lol. (Maybe because by 99 I was getting ready to graduate HS and was over the mainstream music at that point and those other songs were apparently in 97?) Also bonus mention to Sugar Ray who was also all over the radio in the late 90s as well encompassing that time lol.

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pilates_mama@reddit

L-A-T-E-R that week 🎵

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LincolnPorkRoll@reddit

came here to say "Steal my Sunshine"!

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knightstalker1288@reddit

I was frying on the bench slide in the park across the street.

Best LSD ref in song lyrics ever…

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Elb0rrach0@reddit

“Every morning” by Sugar Ray is on my list as well. Waking up to go to school I would put on MTV and that was always playing, good simpler times bro.

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Em56479@reddit

Madonna the vaccine denier and tramp supporter..hate her..money privilege had gone true her azz,

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S1ayer@reddit

I like Frozen better because I am a miserable person.

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pilates_mama@reddit

Frozen speaks to my soul 🖤 also power of goodbye

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thejaytheory@reddit

Yesssss Frozen gave me chills then and still does to this days....just ahhhh what a wonderful song. I'll see your Power of Goodbye and raise you Drowned World/Substitute For Love, I even wrote a poem based on that song.

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pilates_mama@reddit

Substitute for love 👏 incredible song

This albums getting played today!

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thejaytheory@reddit

Hell yeah!! Enjoy!!! I need to revisit it soon at some point, I did get the CD a few months back. Saw it in a record store for a buck! (3 at most, I forget if I got it out of the dollar bin or not haha)

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SFPigeon@reddit

Yeah not every 90s song was happy

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Snoo-6568@reddit

I absolutely love this entire album. Still do! It blew my mind.

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mom_bombadill@reddit

The Power of Goodbye helped me through my first heartbreak. That song means a lot to me.

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Snoo-6568@reddit

Same!

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HTownGuero666@reddit

It rules. Her best by a lot!

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thejaytheory@reddit

By a lot indeed!

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thejaytheory@reddit

Yessss, still one of my favorites. Gave me chills and still does, always excited to Ray of Light love anywhere!

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astronaut_down@reddit

Whole album is good, but “Mer Girl” and “Candy Perfume Girl” were my favorites.

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kumogate@reddit

I still love Om Shanti and have the entire song memorized to this very day

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sky-lake@reddit

VANDE GURUNAM CARANAVINDE SANDARSITA

...ok full disclosure I had to google how to spell all of that, but I can recite that song perfectly! :)

My favourite was the "ahh ahhh ahhh" choir sample, this one track helped give that whole album the right vibe.

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ChrissiMinxx@reddit

Me tooooo!

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Tylerdurden389@reddit

Standing Outside a broken phone booth with money in my hands.

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TheDevil-YouKnow@reddit

Maaaaan - these two, Funk Soul Brother, and Ray of Light were some constant Winamp repeats for me. Along with the Blade movie's Bloodbath song. The rotation went Ray of Light to Bloodbath, to Funk Soul Brother, rounded off with Praise You.

But my greatest stereotype banger of this era was Around the World, Daft Punk.

Woooorld! Around. The world around the!

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lizeee@reddit

I thought she looked the most beautiful around this time of her life.

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wolandjr@reddit

I remember thinking how unbelievably old Madonna was. She was 39... 🤦

But also, awesome song, awesome album. Was on on repeat at the book store I worked at.

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slothbuddy@reddit

Wow, still able to get out of bed at her age. Good for her

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FitzInPDX@reddit

Her magnum opus work of art. 80s Madonna was pretty fucking radical but I have to say that the span between Ray of Light and Confessions is her peak as far as I'm concerned. :)

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thejaytheory@reddit

100% agree with this...Ray Of Light --> Music ---> Confessions....what a dope trilogy.

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FitzInPDX@reddit

I even like American Life, even though it’s nowhere near one of her best - it was just such a gamble, I appreciated that she *went there * …

And I also suspect if that hadn’t “flopped,” we wouldn’t have gotten Confessions. So, thank the fucking gods for American Life! 😂

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thejaytheory@reddit

D'oh I forgot American Life came out before Confessions, but you're so right!!

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Amy_Macadamia@reddit

Can we add Life After Love to this late 90s optimism playlist?

gif

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Living_Ad_5386@reddit

Frozen is such a better song

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thejaytheory@reddit

Just chills.

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kittystrofe@reddit

I still love Ray of Light

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thejaytheory@reddit

And it feels....like I still love this album!

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InterestingHat9239@reddit

She on drugs bro

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PhoneJazz@reddit

Nah just Kabbalah

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thejaytheory@reddit

Yeah this is the answer haha

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marcusdj813@reddit

I didn't know what to make of that song's parent album at first, but it grew on me with each single Madonna released. This is some of her best work.

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thejaytheory@reddit

I definitely appreciated the message more as I got older, the wisdom in it.

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tenro5@reddit

AND I FEEEEELLLLLL

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thejaytheory@reddit

And I feeeeellllllll, ohhhhh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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PhoneJazz@reddit

I always thought she was saying “like a disco ball” but she’s actually saying “like I just got home”

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medusa_crowley@reddit

I had this CD and had this song on repeat on a school field trip, my CD player and massive headphones and all.

“She’s got herself a little piece of heaven…”

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thejaytheory@reddit

gif

And it feels like I just got home......

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Mr_SunnyBones@reddit

What will blow you mind is its basically a cover of a 1970s song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ5OtnBdcWw

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thejaytheory@reddit

Wow, yeah, my mind is blown indeed!

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bootyhole-romancer@reddit

Damn, so that's why the lyrics felt so out of place in Madonna's version

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Ricky_Rollin@reddit

I was feeling the same way when I first heard her use Zephyr. I was like “ok, she dropping acid now and listening to Floyd, I can dig that”.

Now it all makes sense.

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sky-lake@reddit

WTF!???? I was a huge fan of hers back then and had no clue this was a cover! I love this original version, thanks for posting this, I'm so pleasantly surprised with this.

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Moloth@reddit

And Steve Howe, from YES, played guitar on it??

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ChrissiMinxx@reddit

The beginning of that song sounds like No Doubt’s Song Ex-Girlfriend.

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ExistentialDreadnot@reddit

Huh, I felt the same way about "How Bizarre." Or "Fly," by that band I can't remember.

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bootyhole-romancer@reddit

How Bizarre is a bop

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thejaytheory@reddit

Wanna know the rest, hey buy the rights

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medusa_crowley@reddit

Sugar Ray?

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ExistentialDreadnot@reddit

That’s the one.

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badgey-pudds@reddit

OMC?

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ChromeDestiny@reddit

I thought at the time Madonna is looking and sounding very mature, good for her. Then the last 25 years of her career happened.

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thejaytheory@reddit

Yeah, this was my favorite era of Madonna.

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sweat-it-all-out@reddit

Hey....but Confessions was golden.

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mom_bombadill@reddit

My hot take: Rebel Heart was a fantastic album also

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calle04x@reddit

I loved it. One of her most personal, vulnerable albums.

Been a while since I listened to the whole album, but think there are only a couple tracks I didn't care for.

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mom_bombadill@reddit

Yeah almost no skips. I loooove Messiah and Ghost Town

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calle04x@reddit

Yes, both of those are so good. I think Rebel Heart is my favorite. I was hard on Body Shop for a bit, but it grew on me. Solid "B side" (had to check which sub I'm in before I pulled that phrase out lol).

I understand why people are hard on Madonna—she can be a lot. I stopped listening for maybe a decade and a friend reintroduced me to her, and I've been impressed. Her music is varied, draws from different world music, and I think even within her limited vocal range, she has some interesting melodies.

And the production value on her albums is incredible. I listened to Madame X on nice headphones instead of my regular crap bluetooth speaker and heard sooo much more nuance and detail.

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calle04x@reddit

Yes, both of those are so good. I think Rebel Heart is my favorite. I was hard on Body Shop for a bit, but it grew on me. Solid "B side" (had to check which sub I'm in before I pulled that phrase out lol).

I understand why people are hard on Madonna—she can be a lot. I stopped listening for maybe a decade and a friend reintroduced me to her, and I've been impressed. Her music is varied, draws from different world music, and I think even within her limited vocal range, she has some interesting melodies.

And the production value on her albums is incredible. I listened to Madame X on nice headphones instead of my regular crap bluetooth speaker and heard sooo much more nuance and detail.

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FitzInPDX@reddit

If she had cut it in half and kept only the best songs, it would have been amazing. IMO. ;)

(it was leagues ahead of hard candy and mdna, I WILL say that!)

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LolaBleu@reddit

Absolutely one of her best.

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Cube-in-B@reddit

Madonna’s BBL has entered the chat….

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pilates_mama@reddit

I loved that album

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duplicati83@reddit

I often wonder what amazing music she could’ve made if she just aged gracefully instead of basically turning into a botoxed boiled egg that sings in Ebonics.

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thejaytheory@reddit

Ray Of Light the album is one of my favorites, really encapsulates that era for me.

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lecoqmako@reddit

There was a lot of optimistic music to the opposition of grunge, and all us ladies were wearing that Clinique Happy perfume everywhere.

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judgeridesagain@reddit

Just a reminder that before they started blaming everything on millenials, we were the Chosen Generation: a studious, less promiscuous, more religious and traditional antidote to Gen X Slackers.

Then 9/11, Iraq War, Great Recession, and all the rest happened

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sky-lake@reddit

Oh my god how could I forget that orange bottle -wasn't it unisex? Or maybe they had a mens version, I remember a lot guys wearing it too.

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sastrid@reddit

That was CK1, which is what I wore for far, far too long.

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sky-lake@reddit

Oh I had that one too! I just looked it up, they actually made a Happy "for men", it did smell really good!

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Main-Ad3654@reddit

I still do! I guess Clinique will be our generation’s version of what White Diamonds is for our moms and grandmas.

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Blaze_556@reddit

And then 9-11 ruined it all.

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calle04x@reddit

The last, and perhaps only time, I ever felt like I lived in the United States.

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HomsarWasRight@reddit

I think it would have been something else if not that. I think it was a bit of a thin optimistic layer hiding all the system issues.

Think about all the people who wish we could go back to a the “post-racial” America of the 90’s. It was never post-racial. Most people just chose to ignore all the injustice so they could pretend.

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Ricky_Rollin@reddit

I battle with these thoughts a lot. It does seem like we were always headed to this but idk, 9/11 really changed the feel of everything. It kinda ripped the veil we all had on and I know one could argue that it was just that: a veil. But as they say, ignorance is bliss.

The war drum beats, and the world beats with it.

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fjulpe@reddit

Loket!

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ijustsailedaway@reddit

To me this song heralded the beginning of the end for Madonna's music.

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RhubarbGoldberg@reddit

Okay, firstly, why did my brain store all the lyrics to this song?! I shocked myself when I hit play and my brain absolutely knew Zephyr in the night skyyyyyyy I wonder wtf.

Second, I had no appreciation for this video at the time but seeing it now, I love it.

Finally, I remember at the time thinking of this Madonna as old, out of touch, embarrassing, and weird. Now, with 2024 eyes, this Madonna looks healthy and young and super vanilla. Wtf.

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Ricky_Rollin@reddit

Man, I had all these thoughts as well! Crazy how back then I said she wasn’t fly anymore.

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draculasbloodtype@reddit

But... those lyrics are wrong? It's Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder

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RhubarbGoldberg@reddit

That's it, by the time I went to type it, I knew I'd flipped something with the word night, but it was late and I was high and I was still reeling from realizing late 90s Madonna was way more normal than it felt like at the time.

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Habbersett-Scrapple@reddit

Jamiroquai warned us

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IowaJammer@reddit

I wasn't listening, I was distracted by the moving couch.

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nvmls@reddit

I hate this song because at the time I lived with a good friend who would blast it while he took a shower every morning, two hours before I had to get up.

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HollyCalamity@reddit

I thought Britney and The Spice Girls etc killed everything good I loved about the gritty 90s.

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PhoneJazz@reddit

To me, 1995 was the year the music died. That’s when the pendulum swung back from gritty rock to mindless pop music (and it wasn’t as good as the pop from the 80s/early 90s imo).

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HollyCalamity@reddit

I feel you. Kurt Cobain was our Buddy Holly, or whatever. Nevermind.

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mom_bombadill@reddit

I read once that that was when there was a big pop radio conglomeration/monopoly? Like the explosion of bubblegum pop music was partially due to this monopoly of American radio station ownership that happened at the time?

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captainmidday@reddit

Interesting. I remember having a very similar reaction. What fools we were.

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QA_Confidential@reddit

This might be an unpopular opinion, but between this and 'big beat,' it became clear to me that electronic music was no longer a niche and was on the verge of being heavily influenced—or co-opted—by mainstream artists who I never really enjoyed.

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thrust-johnson@reddit

It was ska that did it

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HomsarWasRight@reddit

Man, did we love timelapse video.

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sky-lake@reddit

The other one we loved was the fisheye lens with the singer in flashy metallic outfits!

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brokenB42morrow@reddit

She wanted the prodigy to produce her album, but they said no. Instead, I believe she got Orbital.

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sky-lake@reddit

Oh it was actually William Orbit, but I don't know if he was ever in Orbital or just has a similar stage name.

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ezk3626@reddit

Funny story, I was talking to a coworker about the song. I was very impressed that Madonna had done it again but said "I just don't get the line 'And I feel like I just got home.' What do you think that means?"

She says "You know, when you get home after a long day. You feel safe and comfortable, right?"

I did not answer but proceeded to continue being sad. I didn't receive the sunny optimism of the late 1990's.

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ChrissiMinxx@reddit

Yeah the beginning of the 90s was sunny and the end was too, but 1994-1998 was gritty and jaded and everything sucked. At least that’s what it was like where I grew up.

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sky-lake@reddit

Yeah I was a teen at the time and I think you got the year range right for that energy. For me it was 94 to late 97 where everything sucked, everything was lame, flashy clothes were lame, worn out drab colours were cool, etc. Honestly looking back I feel like it was exhausting to maintain that energy for 3-4 years. I feel like 98 was a big shift, where things were a bit more colourful and fun again.

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airlew@reddit

I thought the song was a waterd down and completely derivative take on the electronicia music I'd already been listening to for five years before this song came out.

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sky-lake@reddit

Yeah my older siblings were into electronica starting from the early 90s uk techno scene, even though I love the album (I was a big Madonna fan) I did feel like it was a sort of "basic" take on electronica. Like the squealing 303-like synth felt like a pre-set and a bit too "on the nose".

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ChrissiMinxx@reddit

Yes. But I somehow also still liked this song lol

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bootyhole-romancer@reddit

Agreed. Might get downvoted but this song was lame straight out the gate

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venicerocco@reddit

Imagine hearing back then that Roseanne would be hotter than Madonna in 2024

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tuwts@reddit

I heard this today and was transported to 1999. I got bummed.

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jessewest84@reddit

Yeah. But grunge. It was all dirt rain pain and death.

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BadstoneMusic@reddit

Madonna can thank William Orbit for that album

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UrAverageDegenerit@reddit

I really thought I was the only one who thought this.

The song is great and the video captures so much of the life and feel of what things were like before the millennium/911 (everything changed forever after 9/11)

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Speedking2281@reddit

The time when internet existed, but before smartphones ruined our sense of community, social contracts, and everything else, was peak civilization.

\~1997-2008 was a great time to be alive.

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ConnieLingus24@reddit

This song is still on my workout mix.

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vulgarvinyasa2@reddit

I was an extra in the music video!!

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Fit-Accountant-157@reddit

She jumped on a wave of other drum and bass/electronica bands I was really into at the time. I remember feeling annoyed about that. But I can't deny this was a good album.

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sweat-it-all-out@reddit

That album is very cohesive and has a melocholy unique feeling to it. I actually think the title track sort of doesn't fit but was pop radio friendly.

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detourne@reddit

Its funny, I see this video as a cacauphonous nightmare of overconsumption... which is following suit for the 'material girl'. It's both optimisitc and critical i think, especially with how much this song cribs from acts like the Chemical Brothers and Dee-Lite.

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