The purpose of the album was to highlight a softer side to Madonna's character, in contrast to the more outrageous, sexual persona from her previous album, Erotica. In many ways, Madonna sought to repair some of the damage she had done to her public image through this album.
While certainly the album is stylistically more mainstream than its predecessor and less controversial in terms of its lyrical content, it includes perhaps some of Madonna's most confrontational work. Indeed, the song "Human Nature" appears to be a scathing commentary directed towards the media for its treatment of her during the Erotica, Sex book controversy with lyrics like "Did I say something wrong? Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex". Indeed, Madonna has stated that this period of her life was designed as a vengeance period for all the people who were trying to invade in her private life, and that once it was all out in the open, she hoped that they would stop and focus on her music.