Line #9 NightmareFuel/Madonna


1	[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c8760401f840187bfd5ae5d27ebe070f.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:304: This is from the video for a song called "Bedtime Story". You probably already know the irony.]]
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4	You don't become the Queen of Pop without causing some nightmares along the way.
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6	!! Examples:
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8	''Music/LikeAPrayer''
9	* From Act of Contrition: I resolve, I reserve. I have a reservation... [[BerserkButton I HAVE a reservation]]... [[JumpScare WHADDYA MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER????]]
10	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40BtRy4NbIc "Till Death Do Us Part"]] is a relatively [[LyricalDissonance upbeat song about an abusive relationship]]. The song details toward the end how the woman in the song says she'll leave the relationship even though she knows she'll return with the chorus lyrics at first both being sung by Madonna in a higher voice while she also speaks the lines in a lower monotone voice. When she gets to the bit about not actually leaving her husband the signing and instrumentation completely drops out with Madonna uttering the title in the [[CreepyMonotone creepiest way possible]].
11	** You also quite abruptly hear the [[HellIsThatNoise sound of something shattering very loudly.]]
12	** Made even worse if you want to add [[RealitySubtext Reality Subtext]] with Madonna's love life
13	* The video for "Oh Father" portrays an emotional conflict between a young daughter and her father after the death of the child's mother. At the mother's wake, the little girl leans down into her mother's coffin as if on the verge of kissing her for the final time, only to stop in horror when she sees her mother's MouthStitchedShut. This visual has been described as one of the most disturbing moments in the history of mainstream music videos. It becomes even more so upon learning that it is based on one of Madonna's real childhood memories of her mother's wake.
14	** The refrain of the chorus is sung [[CreepyChildrenSinging by a pair of stone cherubs in a snowy graveyard]]. The faces of real children have been CG'd onto the statues in a decidedly unsettling effect.
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16	''Music/{{Erotica}}''
17	* Erotica has some of this. Some critics found the title track, which blurs the line between arousing and creepy, scary and then there is the song "Thief of Hearts" in which Madonna is threatening an unknown woman with violence for cheating with her guy. It's inter cut with glass breaking and breathy threats from Madonna.
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19	''Music/BedtimeStories''
20	* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRLO56kgsOg video]] for "Bedtime Story", which is also a SurrealMusicVideo. Most notably, a scene near the end that features Madonna with ''mouths for eyes'' (think [[ComicBook/TheSandman The Corinthian]]) and an eye where her mouth should be.
21	** Even without the creepy video, the song itself is definitely unsettling. It's a dark techno track with low pitched vocals and particularly disturbing lyrics that sound like they're about a woman being DrivenToSuicide. The constant repeats of "Let's get unconscious..." don't help much.
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24	''Music/RayOfLight''
25	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOprxsklmk "Mer Girl"]] is an extremely creepy track at the end of the album, with sinister minimal instrumentation and equally sinister lyrics. It was said that there was an eerie silence after Madonna recorded the vocals for the song.
26	--> And I smelt her burning flesh, her rotting bones, her decay. I ran and I ran. I'm still running away...
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28	''[[Music/MusicAlbum Music]]''
29	* The video for "What it Feels Like For A Girl". A woman (played by Madonna) who has clearly been abused gets ready for what appears at first to be a night on the town. Then she goes and picks up an old lady from a retirement home, drives at full speed with her in shotgun, buys some food, then it gets more violent: She distracts a couple of guys and has them chase her to the point where she causes them to crash into another car. Then she air-guns at a cop, and speeds again, purposefully into a lamp-post, killing both her and the old lady on purpose. And all this is done to an upbeat techno remix of the song. Hardly a wonder the video got banned from being played in the daytime.
30	* Though it was never released (and not even leaked as a demo) "The Funny Song"/"Oh Dear Daddy" is fucking creepy. Madonna preformed it on her Drowned World Tour during her country portion. The song's story is basically Madonna comes home from buying her dad a cigar, only to find him shot dead, and she's says doesn't care because "brought out the worst in me". It gets worse when Madonna ''barbecues and eats her father's body '' after his funereal and says she would have killed him if she could justifying it by saying "that everything he did was bad".
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32	''Music/AmericanLife''
33	* The original video for "American Life" featured a Fashion show of soldiers and scared children having their photos taken, with cuts to Madonna and other woman in the restroom acting like they are preparing for battle. A solider even shown without legs and the audience doesn't even react. While the merit of the actual song is really divisive and the video is over the top in places, it's not to be disturbed when it ends with Madonna firing water at the press and showing really war footage and victims WITH SOUND.
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35	''MDNA''
36	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtkJROP36Dg "Gang Bang"]]. Madonna singing in a low pitch voice? Check. Dark, ominous electro thumping music? Check. Lyrics about murdering one's lover? Check. Terrifying dubstep breakdown? Check. Madonna shouting "Drive, bitch!" several times? Check. Is there a Nightmare Fuel jackpot? And the ending. "If you're gonna act like a bitch..." (gunshot) "Then you're gonna DIE LIKE A BITCH!!!" (double gunshot, tires screech)
37	** It should be noted that this was her first studio release after her marriage to Guy Ritchie ended quite badly. WELCOME TO MADONNA'S MIND.
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39	''Rebel Heart''

Context NightmareFuel / Madonna