Madonna was well on her way to establishing herself as a sexual provocateur by the summer of 1985, but that image got an unexpected boost when both Playboy and Penthouse published nude photos of the Material Girl. The hoopla surrounding the pictures -- taken in 1979 when Madonna did some figure modeling to subsidize her nascent dance career -- did as much to transform her into an international celebrity as her music and media savvy. The implicit lesson wasn't wasted on Madonna either; in 1992 she released Sex, her own book of explicit softcore photos, which, despite scores of negative publicity, helped her sell more than two million copies of her subpar album Erotica.

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