Madonna's album began as an "invigorating and joyous" experience, but quickly evolved into "something quite crazy".
The 56-year-old singer released her 13th studio record Rebel Heart today. It came out earlier than originally planned after 13 unfinished demos were leaked online, which she described as "artistic rape".
She's since been in a rush to wrap up the record and is still struggling to bounce back from the unauthorised release. Now she's shared her opinion on how the internet plays a detrimental part in the music industry nowadays.
“I intended to think about things, choose things more slowly - the whole process. Then I got forced into putting everything out, and now I’m trying to catch up with myself," she explained to the New York Times.
“What started out as an invigorating, life-enhancing, joyous experience evolved into something quite crazy. A strange artistic process, but a sign of the times. We’re all digital, we’re all vulnerable and everything’s instant - so instant. Instant success and instant failure. Instant discovery, instant destruction, instant construction. It’s as splendid and wonderful as it is devastating. Honestly, to me it’s the death of being an artist in many ways.”
Madonna first had the idea to release the album with two distinct halves, but in the end she put all the songs together so the moods are mixed.
“One aspect was going to be a representation of the more rebellious, provocateur side of me,” she added. “And the other side was going to be the more romantic, vulnerable side.”
Most recently attention has turned to Madonna's fall at the BRITs in London, UK, last month during her performance of Living for Love. The routine was meant to see one of her dancers pull off her cape but upon realising it was tied too tightly, the star toppled backwards down a set of stairs and suffered whiplash.
At first she didn't feel anything as she had so much "adrenaline pumping" and she admits that if she wasn't in such good shape she would have had a lot more damage.
