Ray of Light: Madonna’s lesson in maturity or gateway for Goop?

Still 20 years on, Madge’s earth mother opus that influenced Adele and Britney, continues to be the template for modern pop

Twenty years in the past this week, Madonna regenerated as a yoga-loving, Kabbalah-following, mysticism-spewing Earth Mom. After 1994’s R&B-flavoured Bedtime Stories album had helped sanitise the model publish Erotica’s S&M, 1998’s Ray of Mild represented a mature – however not boring – transfer into blissful reawakening. The platinum blonde hair of previous was sandier, whereas the look was less Marlene Dietrich and extra Phoebe from Pals.

Like most top-tier Madonna albums, Ray of Mild has had a huge cultural impression. Not solely did the album’s skewed digital pop sound come to outline radio’s instant future – primarily because of its previously little-known UK producer William Orbit happening to work with All Saints, Pink and Blur – it additionally turned the template for pop stars trying to say One thing Essential by way of the prism of their own experience. “I feel a way of duty as a result of my consciousness has been raised and I want to impart the wisdom I've to others,” Madonna advised Spin.