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Ray Of Light 15th Anniversary Thread

cosmic_system

By cosmic_system
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nick00 Rising Star

nick00

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Is it me or are some people having difficulty believing fifteen years have already gone by? I wish time would not go by so quickly!

I still can't believe Madonna is turning 55 this year because I remember like it was yesterday that she turned 40.

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Kurt420 Proficient

Kurt420

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Is it me or are some people having difficulty believing fifteen years have already gone by? I wish time would not go by so quickly!

I still can't believe Madonna is turning 55 this year because I remember like it was yesterday that she turned 40.

No, you're not the only one! It's insane to me that 1998 was 15 years ago. I remember looking at many of the pics in this thread back then and thinking how she looked so much older and now looking at the same pics, she looks so young. :( I still think of ROL as "new Madonna" but really......it's been the same length of time from ROL til now as it was from her first album til ROL!

I don't know if anybody here remembers Peaches Records & Tapes, but that's where I got my ROL CD on March 3, 1998. I was a senior in high school, I left school early that day and immediately rushed to Peaches to pick it up. Honestly, I was pretty much a pop faggot back then, I hadn't been exposed to a lot of electronica so listening to ROL for the first time....particularly the first time listening to that bridge in DW/SFL and the title track was truly amazing. I can remember being shocked by the strength of her vocals, the fact that she used so much guitar and I never thought she would do anything as haunting and downright creepy as Mer Girl. Everything just gelled together so perfectly with this era.

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CMoody Community Regular

CMoody

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No, you're not the only one! It's insane to me that 1998 was 15 years ago. I remember looking at many of the pics in this thread back then and thinking how she looked so much older and now looking at the same pics, she looks so young. :( I still think of ROL as "new Madonna" but really......it's been the same length of time from ROL til now as it was from her first album til ROL!

I don't know if anybody here remembers Peaches Records & Tapes, but that's where I got my ROL CD on March 3, 1998. I was a senior in high school, I left school early that day and immediately rushed to Peaches to pick it up. Honestly, I was pretty much a pop faggot back then, I hadn't been exposed to a lot of electronica so listening to ROL for the first time....particularly the first time listening to that bridge in DW/SFL and the title track was truly amazing. I can remember being shocked by the strength of her vocals, the fact that she used so much guitar and I never thought she would do anything as haunting and downright creepy as Mer Girl. Everything just gelled together so perfectly with this era.

This is exactly how I think of it. I was 15 and just starting my M obsession, I started paying attention around Evita and became obsessed just before the ROL era kicked into full swing. She was 15 years into her career, considered an icon and legend, she seemed so mature and grown up. It is astonishing that ANOTHER 15 years has passed, and M is back to her raunchy ways. Had someone told me in 1998 that Madonna would be over 50 and singing a waltz version of Like a Virgin in her bra and panties atop a piano I would have never believed it. To this day, every March 3, I think of it as ROL day (TNBT was released on March 3, 2000....but we ignore that...lol). The era was so magical and epic in every way possible.

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Guest Moonbeam

Guest Moonbeam

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This album was an important one for me - I finished high school in 1998 and finally felt free to make my own future. I took two road trips that year and Ray of Light was THE soundtrack. It always makes me feel hopeful and ready to take on whatever challenges lay ahead.

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svperstar Rising Star

svperstar

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Edward Rusell..... :nocomment: That man originates in this community LONG before it was MadonnaNation.

ROL stands as the most excited I ever was for Madonna as a recording artist. It was BEYOND what I ever expected her to do. Liberating. Celebratory. Deep. Introspective. And fucking groundbreaking. NOTHING sounded like it when it came out.

Most don't say, but between this and "Music" it really is the reason why electronic music became such a staple to the pop genre.

But as always, the queen did it first. :fag:

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MPowered Community Regular

MPowered

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Edward Rusell..... :nocomment: That man originates in this community LONG before it was MadonnaNation.

ROL stands as the most excited I ever was for Madonna as a recording artist. It was BEYOND what I ever expected her to do. Liberating. Celebratory. Deep. Introspective. And fucking groundbreaking. NOTHING sounded like it when it came out.

Most don't say, but between this and "Music" it really is the reason why electronic music became such a staple to the pop genre.

But as always, the queen did it first. :fag:

Can you tell us more? ;)

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Mensch Proficient

Mensch

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Such a brilliant and innovative album. I remember going to buy Ray of light and walking into the record store. Ray of light itself was playing on the sound system as they were promoting it in the store. Just hearing the beginning of the song and how it suddenly exploded into this wild sound was incredible.

Thanks Mattress for all the stuff on Ray of light you have been posting in this thread. You always post great pictures, interviews and information.

Her greatest album, along with Purple Rain the greatest album of all time.

This was the first Madonna album I was old enough to buy on the day it was released. I was quite young and I rode my push bike to the store and bought it with my pocket money I'd been saving in anticipation :lol:/>

I remember the hype leading up to it. I was already reading daily updates online on that Madonna digest/discussion or whatever it was that used to clog up my parents email inbox. I remember 'Candy Perfume Girl' getting played at some fashion thing or something and people discussing it. The lyrics of Little Star being printed and people saying "What is this shit?" :lol:/> Then I remember the 1st version everyone heard of Frozen was actually the Stereo MC's remix, it was played on some radio show that I streamed online on that shitty realaudio player or whatever it was. I wasn't so sure about it actually. (I love that mix now obviously.) Then I remember waiting by the radio for 'Frozen' to get played for the 1st time, cassette ready and armed. All Saints 'Never Ever' came on and my sister's boyfriends mother said "Is that her? It sounds like it." *barf*

Then the real deal came on and her voice just blew me away. The song was magical. So haunting, so unique. And of course I bought the CD single, the remixes were amazing and the video was INCREDIBLE.

There was also alot of hype around the song 'Ray of Light' and her "operatic voice" in it. I heard a sample of that next and was all "whoa." Then I heard samples of every song online shortly before its release. The songs that excited me most were Nothing Really Matters, The Power of Goodbye and Sky Fits Heaven.

I remember putting the disc in my CD player beyond excited. Then hearing those swirls of Drowned World at the start. All those electronic bleeps on that album, it was like being transported to a whole new world. I'd lay there with my headphones on listening to it every night. It was just the greatest thing I'd ever heard. It was a revelation to me :lol:/> (Keep in mind I was very young and had only really heard mainstream pop music before.) I remember having a similar experience with Janet's Velvet Rope, but of course, Ray of Light blew that out of the water.

And this album was very special to me too because I became very sick in 1998 not long after its release and this album really saw me through all that. It's a life changing album.

I have often thought that, and it gets weirder when you consider things like Confessions, the fourth album in that series then, was this big change with a reflexive look at 70s music and lots of introspective lyrics yet solid pop hooks, written with her tours' musical director, Hard Candy was this dance-ish album about relationships with two producers who sort of fulfill each other, marketed with an aggresive sexuality, MDNA is this higgledypiggledy mess packed with great tracks but no real solid style. I've always found those parallels to LaP, Erotica and BS fascinating, and it just keeps leading me to wonder, are we in for another huge reinvention next time around?

as said already many times over, throughout ROL era, she never put a foot wrong. the music, video's, imagery, performances, artwork, even the font dammit! Everything seemed perfectly in symmetry with the album, and it was great to have a Madonna record so universally critically acclaimed. i remember listening to it for the first time, and i just sat in awe for the whole hour from start to finish.

i hope we dont have to wait ten years for a 'remastered deluxe' version of ROL. I go weak at the knees just thinking about CD2 [unreleased tracks/demos/mixes].

A truly brilliant time to be a Madonna fan... i hope she forgoes being #1 of the 'highest tour earners' list this year and takes some time again to make a record of the stature and sheer brilliance of Ray Of Light.

I love all these stories and I agree that I hope her next reinvention is as brilliant as Ray of Light.

When the album came out, I remember distinctly putting the cassette in and telling my brother "ok I heard this album was very different so let's see if we'll like it..."

Nothing can describe how quickly I was entranced. None of her other albums ever grabbed me so fast and so strongly. ROL is my favorite Madonna album. It put a perspective on my spirituality and understanding of the way I wanted to live my life.

I also remember my father leaving the car to go to the store, and I would blast Ray of Light when they would play it on Z100 and I would hope they would give it again, completely ignoring the other songs until it was replayed.

I'm going to go order the vinyl now. It's time.

Every video, Her image was tdf, the songs were perfect. Drowned World is one of her best songs, hands down. Easily top 3 of her best records.

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pasqual Community Regular

pasqual

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ROL came after long silence. It was really great break threw. I remember people start to give her credids in more underground places. It was fabilous to see how pop icon like madonna was aired in alternative clubs that avoid mainstream music. Also we mustnt forget all those magnificant remixes that we ve got.

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