"Express Yourself" is an upbeat dance-pop and deep funk song that features instrumentation from percussion, handclaps and drum beats, while the chorus is backed by the sound of a horn section.

[7] As Madonna considered her alternatives, producers Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray had individually begun to tinker with various instrumental tracks and musical ideas to present to her for consideration.

[6] "Express Yourself" was the first song that Madonna and Bray collaborated on for Like a Prayer, co-written and co-produced as a tribute to American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone.

J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Madonna: An Intimate Biography called the song a "funky dance anthem" and reacted positively to its message of a "female call-to-arms in communication and self-respect.

"[15] Stephen Holden of The New York Times observed that Madonna repudiated the philosophy of her previous single "Material Girl" (1985) in "Express Yourself", which he described as "a 30-year-old's view of life unshadowed by rebellion and lingering lapsed Catholic pain.

[18] Authors Allen Metz and Carol Benson noted in their essays on Madonna, how she decimated "patriarchal, racist and capitalist constructions", by the way she pronounced the word "self" in "Express Yourself".

"[20] O'Brien was impressed with the song, and gave a detailed review: "Express Yourself" is a feminist call to arms, complete with muscular brass-playing and soulful voice.

In parts Cosmo-woman, girl-talk, and swinging dance track, it presages the deliciously declarative stance of "Vogue" and shows Madonna moving from introspective to survivalist mode.

[24] Rolling Stone's J. D. Considine called "Express Yourself" an unabashed groove tune and felt that it seemed "smart and sassy, right down to Madonna's soul-style testimony on the intro: 'Come on, girls, do you believe in love?

He added that the song "turned Madonna's 'Material Girl' image on its head, denouncing material things for a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t."[27] Tom Doyle from Smash Hits named it Single of the Fortnight and "by far the most gutsy and brash record she's made" since "Papa Don't Preach".

[52] It was produced by Gregg Fienberg, under Propaganda Films, with editing by Scott Chestnut, principal photography by Mark Plummer, and Vance Lorenzini as the production designer.

[57] Madonna mentioned jokingly in a 1990 BBC Television interview on the program Omnibus, that the main theme of the video and the cat metaphor represented that "Pussy rules the world".

Madonna, wearing black lingerie, appears on the back of a statue of a phoenix which symbolizes rebirth and utters the line: "Come on girls, do you believe in love?"

Authors Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens commented that "the video portrayed the deconstructive gender-bending approach associated with free play and self-reflexivity of images in postmodernism."

"[60] Allen Metz felt that the scenes of Madonna grabbing her crotch and dancing were reminiscent of "Michael Jackson's androgynous imitation of phallic masculinity."

[61] Michelle Gibson and Deborah Townsend Meem, authors of Femme/Butch, commended the video for showing a shift in power between the sexes, declaring that "Madonna assertively claimed all possible gender space like Marlene Dietrich.

Batchelor explained that the scenes of Madonna performing alone in her room and atop the stairs suggested that she was the object of the gaze, however it seemed to them that she was mocking the movement of the men below.

"[67] In her book Culture and Power, María José Coperiás Aguilar pointed out the video for its chaotic texture through the rapid editing of the multiple shots that constituted it.

The sudden and continuous changes of camera angles, scenes and the distance and mood seemed to produce an "apparently incoherent combination of images that offered no stable anchor to provide the whole with a definitive interpretation", she added.

[68] Caryn James from The New York Times added that "asked about the video, [Madonna] made a distinction that any honest feminist would respect, however politically incorrect it may seem.

[14] As feminist author Susan Bordo pointed out, "it is the postmodern nature of the video that has most entranced academic critics, and its various ways of constituting identities that refuse stability, that remain fluid, that resist definition.

[75] Later she removed the coat to reveal her bustier, and together with her backup singers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory, performed a dance routine called voguing.

Inglis explained that since Madonna's performance was striking primarily as a high-energy, provocatively choreographed, dance production number, it went on to highlight the 'TV' part of MTV, and in a way heralded her and the network as a cultural arbiter.

[81] Accompanied by her two female dancers dressed in a similar attire, Madonna did a straightforward vocal rendition of the track, and an elaborate choreography, which included voguing, humping, simulated masturbation and momentary storage of the performers' microphone inside their bras.

Afterwards, Madonna descended from the ceiling on a giant disco ball, wearing a blond afro wig, 1970's style halters and royal blue bell-bottom pants.

[91] Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that the song was contravened as cynical, when Madonna sang the line, "What you need is a big, strong hand/To lift you to your higher ground", and raised a rifle above her head.

[104] On November 7, 2016, Madonna performed the song as part of an impromptu acoustic concert at Washington Square Park in support of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

María José Coperiás Aguilar opined that the release of the song was in context of the anti-feminist or the "backlash" ideology dominant in the U.S., since the rise of the "New Right" in the 1980s and the government of Ronald Reagan and George H. W.

The title, Aguilar noted, seemed to raise the question of the urgency of a feminine voice to develop and emerge—a concern that recalled the tradition of French feminists like Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray.

"[117] Gaga herself addressed the comparisons on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, explaining that she had received an e-mail from Madonna's representatives, who had mentioned their support for "Born This Way".