1992 also saw the release of her erotic book, Sex. Adult in nature, it featured Madonna as the centerpiece of photographs depicting various sexual fantasies and acts (including lesbianism, anal sex and sadomasochism). The book was bound in sheet metal and mylar, and came with a CD single of the song 'Erotic' (a remix of her new single 'Erotica' with different lyrics), which was packaged to look like a giant condom.
She released her next album, Erotica, in the same year. She co-wrote and produced this record mostly with the legendary Shep Pettibone. Almost a companion piece to the book, it featured bold sexual anthems that made no attempt to disguise their star's appetite for erotic fantasy and role-playing. The album spawned a number of top ten hits, including 'Erotica' (which became the highest-debuting (#2) single in the history of the Hot 100 Airplay Chart) and 'Deeper And Deeper'. Outside of America 'Fever' and 'Bye Bye Baby' were also hits, while domestically 'Rain' and 'Bad Girl' went on to achieve modest chart success.
The music videos from Erotica were groundbreaking in a number of ways. Two different treatments of the title video were released: an 'uncut' European version which featured graphic nudity and overt depiction of sexual acts, and a censored American version, which contained more suggestive, rapidly changing images, edited in such a way that the most risqué scenes were obscured or omitted. Despite this, even the expurgated version of the video was deemed too raunchy for America in 1992. Though the song was a huge hit, the video only aired a total of three times on MTV, always after midnight, and always preceded by a warning (issued by Kurt Loder) that viewers should change the channel if S&M and homosexuality were not to their taste.
At present, the censored version of the 'Erotica' video has been unbanned by MTV and VH1, and has been aired in its entirety several times on VH1 and MTV2 within the past 5 or 6 years, not always late at night or early in the morning. Indeed, since 2000, MTV2 has broadcast the video several times in the middle of the afternoon, during Madonna-related special programming, as occurred around the time of the 2003 release of her American Life album.The 'Rain' video, one of the first directed by Mark Romanek, was notable for its frame-by-frame colorization of black and white stock, a painstaking process which lent it a highly stylized appearance.
The 'Fever' video, one of Stephane Sednaoui's first, was also well-received, and the video for 'Bad Girl', which featured Christopher Walken as an angel, told a disturbing tale of a woman whose lifestyle leads to her murder.Reviews of the book and album were, for the most part, unsympathetic, with many critics lambasting the 'aging' provocatrice for her 'tasteless' use of sexuality to 'shift units'. Nevertheless, despite the press brickbats, the book became an instant bestseller and the album went on to sell more than five million copies worldwide (less than previous albums, but still a huge hit by anyone else's standards).
The Madonna 'industry' appeared to go into overdrive in 1993 when she appeared in a number of film roles. Body of Evidence was regarded by many commentators as an exercise in soft-core pornography, with Madonna portraying a woman accused of killing her lover by means of sexual intercourse. The film contained copious nudity and graphic sex scenes.
Dangerous Game was similar in plot and content. Madonna would later comment that this entire period of her life was designed to give the world every single morsel of what they seemed to be demanding in their invasion of her private life. She hoped that once it was all out in the open, people could settle down and focus on her work.1993 also saw single release of the obscure single 'Get Over' by actor/model Nick Scotti which was written by Madonna and Stephen Bray. It was used in the 1992 Sountrack for the film Nothing But Trouble. It was a minor US dance hit and was produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone. She also made a prominent appearance on the backing vocals.