Obviously! Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" on MTV in 1984. It was the kind of controversial performance that would be considered a “height of career” for most artists. But Madonna, to me, came to full crowning glory in the '90s. It was in 1992 that she wrote SEX, which accompanied her fifth album, Erotica. This was arguably a height -- at least in my sex writer mind-- and she was 33.
According to Wiki, “Warner Bros. Records and Time Warner executives were reluctant to allow Madonna to create such a book, and although they eventually gave her permission, they remained greatly opposed to the idea.”
Because her record company was trying to put restrictions on her, she founded Maverick, her own multimedia entertainment company, and ended up retaining full creative control. Let me break it down for you: Madonna had creative control in promoting her version of sexuality. This was her artistic vision, though, of course, this was also about her making a lot of money.
Fun fact: Warner Bros made Madonna promise there would be no images in her book depicting “children, religious imagery and bestiality.” However, since she ended up with the creative ball in her court, Madonna included religious imagery as well as one that appears to include an act of bestiality but according to Wiki is an optical illusion. “A photo of her kneeling on the ground with a dog underneath her on its back, creating the impression that she is straddling the animal while it is giving her oral sex. However, should one look closely at the photograph, one will see that Madonna is not straddling the dog's head at all, but rather kneeling on both knees beside the dog.“ Thanks Wikipedians.
