So there's been a lot of discussion on here lately about pop girls taking risks. I'm curious to hear what you all think in terms of what the riskiest pop girl eras are (i.e.: Erotica, LOUD, The Fame, etc.). Take into consideration public image before and during the era, change in individual musical style before and during the era, how their sound compares to what was popular at the time, marketing strategies/promotion, lyrical content, music videos, performances, etc. All pop girl eras are up for consideration, including (but not limited to): Madonna, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Aaliyah, Beyoncé, Rihanna, ADELE, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ciara, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Xtina and any others I may have forgotten.

~Also please provide a justification for the era(s) you chose.

BANGERZ

Born This Way

American Life and it's not even close.

Obviously Erotica. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional.

BEYONCÉ

PRISM and Like A Prayer were very risky too.

BEYONCE was the biggest risk.

ARTPOP.

Erotica

The Fame / Monster
Born This Way
ARTPOP

Who else but the Risk-taker of our generation

talk that talk era

Definitely Erotica. Not even a Madonna stan, but what other pop star period would release a sex driven album and a semi-****ographic book titled "Sex"?

Of all time? Erotica. She risked her whole career for that era.

Bangerz, beyonce, GGGB, Talk that talk

Erotica the album isn't as sexual as people think it is. But the title of the album, combined with the video for the title track and the SEX book especially had people thinking she had gone waaaay to far in stirring up controversy.

Janet's label didn't want her to release The Velvet Rope at all. They feared it would alienate her fans. The subject matter is much heavier than what one would expect from a pop star.

American Life came at a time when patriotism was valued above all else. Such a blatant attack on the president of her country at the time was really ballsy. She never did recover on American radio.

Femme Fatale obviously no one knew how ppl would react to dubstep

BTW was riskier than Erotica.

BEYONCE was not risky. She literally had some of the biggest media hype of 2013, multiple huge endorsements, the best directors in the business, the best producers, and all that iTunes attention. And its about sex. Sooo risky.