Ray of Light
Madonna
1998
On her critical magnum opus, Madonna finds herself as a new mom, while having to balance the changing of guard in a pop world she’s struggling to hold onto. Through crazy electronica discord, she realizes the true meaning of her existence, while reinventing contemporary pop as we hear it today.
Electronica/Ambient/Electro-pop
BY HARPSICHORD
OCTOBER 9, 2023
To kick off the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna had done something unusual as the opening act. She stood on stage for under two minutes, in one spot, as women dressed up in Buddhist and Hindu garb danced around her. She didn’t lick a microphone. She didn’t wither around in a wedding dress and a boy toy belt. Instead she wore a floor length black dress that covered just about everything, and stood in one place, nearly subdued. She just stood there and sang...
Tranquil Madonna?
Thee Madonna just stood there.
As she sang the hymns of Ray of Light’s deep cut “Shanti/Ashtangi,” the audience didn’t clap or dance. They had no room or motive to. All they could do is nod their heads in a trance. Like expressed before, this had been unusual for a star that is known to bring spectacle. Especially considering that would be the way the entire award show would open up.
But there stands Madonna, in her minimalist groove, changing her vocal tones as the bass starts to kick up slightly– more and more. The audience starts to get louder because there is obviously a build up at this point. Many of them probably don’t realize that she’s singing a Hindu Sanskrit prayer– one that Madonna mentioned is about her own enlightenment. It’s a song dedicated to yoga, which she started practicing after giving birth to her daughter Lourdes less than two years prior to Ray of Light’s release.
Suddenly she turns away, and the crowd finds the ammo to cheer. An electric guitar starts playing, and on the stage walks Lenny Kravitz with the first chords of the title track. The lights start flickering, and hands begin clapping in the air as a full on rave takes place on centerstage. Still, with all of that, Madonna is mostly tame and calm. Nothing provocative about a white tank and black pants. Even when she tries to bend down in front of Kravitz’s face, he turns around, and they’re back to back.
At the end of the night, Madonna would collect the trophy for Video of the Year, as well as those for five more categories.
As an album in her extensive catalog, Ray of Light is Madonna’s most critically acclaimed. There is little time for antics on the hour-long LP, except for in the electronica production. Released 15 years into her career, Madonna was in a new stage of life. She became a mother and was 39-years-old upon its release. The generation of younger consumers could have easily aged her out at that point. After all, the solo arrivals of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were just a year away. The singer had to once again reinvent herself, while taking into consideration what audiences probably expected of her. Somehow, she was able to balance tame maturity with exhilaration. Ray of Light marked a rebirth of sorts.
Madonna accepts her Video Music Award for Video of the Year at the 1998 MTV VMAs, for “Ray of Light.” Click the image to watch the acceptance speech.
Opening up the album, “Drowned World/Substitute for Love” starts with wind chimes and ambient music gradually building for 40 seconds. A sample of poet Rod McKuen saying “you see” happens before Madonna sings the LP’s first words. “I traded fame for love, without a second thought,” she admits. Just like much of the album, she’s introspective, discussing the new stage of her celebrity, maternal love, and her existence in the universe.
Although Ray of Light is classified as electronica and ambient, much of its backbone exists in rock-n-roll music, particularly its usage of the electric guitar. Songs such as “Swim” and even “Drowned” have that main component, akin to the work of Jimi Hendrix. Somehow these songs make it seem as though Madonna is actually swimming through space during her journey. At the time of the album’s release, grunge enraptured the audience of the ‘90s. During the ‘98-’99 award season, Madonna was up against bands like Garbage, who prevailed in this sound– and with angsty female vocalists, such as Shirley Manson nonetheless. Madonna’s place in rock music shouldn’t be slept on, as we can hear in 1989’s Like a Prayer, so it comes across naturally when Madonna channels that energy. That’s best exhibited in “Candy Perfume Girl.”
Just the third track in, and the album’s titular song beams and glows. It’s chaotic as Madonna shouts “She's got herself a little piece of heaven.” At this point she’s progressed from “looking for a home” in “crowded rooms” in “Drowned” to now exclaiming “and I feel like I just got home!” Madonna’s mission of reinventing herself subsides a bit, as she starts to enter more familiar musical territory. “Skin” has the seductive quality of her earlier ‘90’s work, albeit with the base of energetic electronica. “Skin” plays like a musical cyber commentary– at a time when the internet was becoming a new phenomenon. As Madonna nearly orgasms on the track, urging “put your hand on my skin” and “kiss me, I’m dying,” it sounds as if data is loading on a hovercraft. By the track’s end, she chants “I’m not like this all the time,” as if it is a release of ecstasy.
The midsection of Ray of Light is fast-paced. A cyber world loading up into a cosmopolitan metro. It embodies the lightning fast pace of New York City, as displayed by the blurred imagery in the “Ray of Light” music video. “Nothing Really Matters” takes a few cues from bands such as Erasure, playing on the Italo-dance movement that had the ‘90’s club scene mesmerized. Satellites glimmer in techno sensibilities, as Madonna assesses her career– particularly the days where she was judged for her provocative behavior. “Sky Fits Heaven” continues the traveling motif, but this go round the electronica clashes against the grunge. That brings the album to the central moment of “Shanti/Ashtangi,” where the LP grounds itself back, and realigns.
The ending of Ray of Light is mellow. It’s the come down from the thrill and fast pace of the beginning 40 minutes (or so). In the history of Madonna buffs, “Frozen” happens to be the No. 1 song that got away. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Frozen” has a very dramatic vocal presence, full of an instrumental that incorporates synthesizers and strings. Madonna’s soprano octaves lower whenever she sings the “when your heart’s not open” punchline to a sudden crashing of drums. She jumps back into her soprano just for “when your heart’s not open” and the drums to start again. Tranquil in style, and hypnotic in tone, the “mmm-mmmm-mmmm” parts enhance that feeling.
Many have cited how “if I could melt your heart” and “you hold the key” is a self-reference to her 1986 hit, “Open Your Heart.” But if examining the orchestra drama of “Frozen” a bit closer, it eerily reminds listeners of the work she did in the Evita film– her critically-acclaimed starring role in 1996. “The Power of Good-Bye” plays off the previous track, stating “your heart is not open, so I must go.” Again, we’re receiving the musical energy shadowed in Evita. “The Power of Good-Bye” feels like fodder for adult contemporary radio, and although it is electronica at its core, parts of it remind listeners of the softness possessed on her 1986 album, True Blue.
True Blue seems to be an integral inspiration for Madonna on this album– even if she’s never admitted so. That album had some Latin inspired production on tracks such as “La Isla Bonita.” On Ray of Light’s “To Have Not To Hold,” the electronica is balanced out by a bossa nova groove. It’s swanky and sophisticated, opening up the depths of versatility driving the album to its critical acclaim stature.
By the final two tracks of Ray of Light, the journey comes to a close and rounds itself out. “Little Star” is one of the best dedications to a child a pop mother has ever done before. She sings to Lourdes, “Never forget who you are” before whispering “Little Star” and “Butterfly.” It’s heartwarming and earnest with its lullaby nature– truly cementing the theme of growing through maternity. Finally, “Mer Girl” starts with a disturbed SOS-like signal, as if Madonna has traveled down a time-warped continuum. It cycles back into the themes of “Drowned,” as the quest is complete. Madonna confesses, “I ran and I ran” and by the song’s end, as the winds calm down she admits, “I’m still running away.”
The Genius explanation for “Mer Girl” says the following: “The title ‘Mer Girl’ is a term coined by Madonna. The word ‘Mer’ is French, and means ‘of the sea,’ and this word-root is most common in the word “mermaid.” Therefore, the phrase ‘Mer-girl’ is agreed to mean ‘an immature mermaid.’” That analysis would go on to say that while Ray of Light heavily discusses rebirth and the entrance of new life through maternity, there is an element of mortality. At a concert in 2016, Madonna revealed that the making of this song came after encountering her mother’s grave.
Ray of Light is unique, because we witness Madonna on a shallow quest to expunge herself from how society has always perceived her as a troublemaking harlot. With giving birth to Lourdes, her role in Hollywood as a more serious actress, and the changing of the music guard, Madonna probably felt much pressure to become “older” and more “respectable.” But as we experience along with her on Ray of Light– as she’s drowning herself in the hyper sounds of electronica and grunge– she has to accept who she is, because life happens to be too short, and one day the actual human existence of oneself will vanish quicker than a Ray of Light.
“Skin” for being catchy, exhilarating, and a best representation of how Madonna’s sound matured at that time.
“Frozen” for being a classic amongst Madonna’s discography and for being an easy listen with the dramatic urgency that makes her music stand apart.
“Little Star” for being a tear-jerking dedication to the most important person of her world at that specific moment.
Key Tracks
It’s Madonna’s best critical effort for a reason. Fun. Versatile. No Skips. Relistenable. Conceptual. Innovative. Imitated. Informative. With a life lesson at the very end.