10 Musicians Whose Careers Were Destroyed By Just One Album
2. Madonna — American Life
Like A Prayer singer/ pop superstar Madonna has by now survived countless attempts at career suicide, and the reliably odd pop icon turned bad actor turned worse director is always cooking up something sure to divide fans.
But there was a time when a new album from Madonna meant the likelihood of some truly inspired pop classics thanks to a successful string of records including Like A Prayer, the self-titled Madonna, and 1992's controversial Erotic.
Then came American Life, a 2003 release which was... Something else.
The material girl had something to say post 9/11, and she was certain that rapping over folk music/ electronica mash ups was the way to go about it.
Over a decade later, it’s not really clear what the singer wanted to say about American culture and society beyond a “consumerism is bad” message delivered with all the subtlety and grace of an Adbusters omnibus to the face.
Meanwhile, the singer's decision to include references to soldiers and war in the album's accompanying videography without actually explicitly condemning the then-recent invasion of Iraq marked the work out as particularly clueless and embarrassing during an intensely divided cultural moment.