Bedtime Story (Madonna Song) - Musical Composition and Lyrics

Musical Composition and Lyrics

"Bedtime Story" is an electronic song, which, according to sheet music published by Musicnotes.com of Alfred Publishing Co. Inc, is written in the key of G minor and has a moderate tempo of 108 beats per minute. The song is a notable departure from Madonna's previous works and the other songs from the album, which are more R&B and new jack swing-driven; unlike Madonna's more up-tempo, melodic work, the song is slower and has less of a net melody, and also contains a complex rhythmic structure; it also places much emphasis on atmospheric qualities, containing an ambient-influenced tone. The track, furthermore, contains a "pulsating" and a "deep, bubbling" house beat which has drawn stylistic comparisons to acid house music, a "skeletal" synth arrangement, influences of trance, more specifically, minimal trance, as well as techno tendencies. The song's instrumentation, on the other hand, is synthesized, consisting of drum machine, loops, organs, strings, gurgles, handclaps, as well as a digitally-altered "homophonic" choir. The lyrics are a hymn to the joys of unconsciousness and a rejection of the supposed constraints of reason and language, hence the line "Words are useless, especially sentences, They don't stand for anything, How could they explain how I feel?" The song is linked to the ending of the previous album track, "Sanctuary", and starts with its chords. After this, the skeletal synth arrangement begins, over which the singer can be heard groaning. This is followed by sound of the drum machine and machine handclap. Madonna sings the song in a subdued, speak-sing manner, with the line "Today is the last day I am using words". In the song, Madonna sings certain lines in a hypnotic style. The ending of the track has a pulsating beat and a mix of the lead synth, with Madonna's voice whimpering and uttering "Ha-ha-aahs". It ends abruptly saying "And all that you every learned, try to forget, I'll never explain again" making the listener believe that it was all the part of a dream.

According to Victor Amaro Vicente in his book The aesthetics of motion in musics for the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi, the song’s music bears many resemblances to new age-era music and different forms of Sufi-inspired music; its slow atmospheric qualities have drawn comparison to "Mevlevi-Sufi Relaxation"; the song's intricate rhythmic structure has also drawn comparison to the zikr ceremony; the song's "steady and continuous rhythmic loop is suggestive of zikr". Björk, one of the song's writers, has been credited for giving the song its particular style. According to Marius De Vries as recorded by Lucy O'Brien in her book Madonna: Like an Icon, one of the song's writers, the track's architecture is "distinctly Björkian" and the Icelandic singer "has such a particular and idiosyncratic approach to the construction of lyrics and phrasing". In a chapter of Music and technoculture written by Charity Marsh and Melissa West, it is stated that one can hear the influence of Björk in Madonna’s vocals during the song.

Lyrically, despite being a song about a trip to the unconscious, scholars have noticed subtexts within the song's meaning. Postmodern and new age themes seem to have been explored within the song's lyrics, especially with regards to their incapability of articulating the concept of the truth, as well as the song's theme of meditation and relax. Islamic mystic and sexual themes have also been noted within the song's lyrics. According to Vicente, the "clichéd references to "honey", "longing" and "yearning", and even the sexual connotations of being "wet" on the inside" relate not to "secular" love, yet to "ecstatic" Sufi poetry. The song's lyrical themes contrast from those of her previous work, which was overtly sexual and based on erotic love; on the other hand, they explore concepts of movement which are "central" to Sufi philosophy, such as "leaving" and "going out". According to Vincente, these "subtly" allude to "achieving fana through sema (getting "lost" and "leaving logic and reason to the arms of unconsciousness")".