The album helped maintain Madonna's crown as the ultimate bad girl. She continued to please her current fans, and gained some new ones as she would usually do with each album. The history of the album was as follows: the lead single hit the top of the charts all over the world (including the U.S.); Deeper and Deeper hit # 1 as well; Bad Girl only went on to chart in the top 20; Rain brought the album back to life since it was a top 5 single worldwide (with strong radio support behind it). Bye Bye Baby, therefore, wasn't released as a single because Madge wanted to end the album on a successful note. Again, we are just imagining this in order to prove my point. Follow me so far? Ok, let me continue.

The album, therefore, had a longer chart life due to the success of its singles and its support on radio. I feel that Madonna would've wanted to launch a tour to validate it s success, but she wouldn't have launched it until early 1994 (let's suppose, the Spring of that year), and ended the tour in mid-summer. The tour would've prevented Madonna from being involved in the movie projects of Dangerous Game and With Honors (so, no "I'll Remember" single and no infamous David Letterman appearance).

By the time that the end of her world tour in 1994 rolled around, Madonna would've had no need to record a new album until later that year, or the following (1995). This takes Bedtime Stories (the album) out of the picture for obvious reasons, since Bedtime Stories was launched in the Fall of 1994. During the writing and recording sessions of the new album, I don't think Madonna would've wanted to explore the then-current super sappy R&B music vibe of the U.S. pop scene because her dark/underground club house sound had been previously embraced. This means no collaboration with Babyface ensued, but I feel her interest in working with Nelly Hooper would've still applied because Bjork's sound would have appealed to Madonna no matter what.

Considering she'd just had major success with Shep Pettibone on the Erotica album, and her interest in working with Nelly still makes sense, the new album was a combination of those two main producers. Madonna still had creative differences with Nelly, so the bulk of the album was with Shep once again. The new album would more than likely have been even darker than Erotica. It explored similar themes to Erotica (rejection, sexuality, bitterness, devastation), but in a more extreme way, and the music was more experimental (especially considering the influence of Nelly Hooper) because of it (think of Madonna's interest in the sounds of Massive Attack at the time). I feel the album would've been a fusion of tribal, subtle electronica (along the lines of Bjork's last album), and more experimental underground house music.

Madonna would've still adamantly approached Alan Parker to be in Evita in 1995, but she didn't have her Take A Bow video to showcase what she could potentially accomplish. Would she have gotten the role? Something tells me that no, it wouldn't have happened. It was the combination of Madonna's passionate letter to Alan Parker along with the imagery of the Take A Bow video which helped push Alan to give Madonna that role. When Madonna got the rejection from Alan Parker, I feel this changed the direction of the album. Although she'd already written and recorded the majority of it, the hurt of the rejection drove Madge to go back and re-work some of the tracks, or add some additional tracks. Considering the success of Alanis Morissette that same year, she probably felt incorporating uber-bitterness on the album would go over well. Here comes my point as to why Ray of Light, consequently, fails to exist.

Madonna spent most of 1995 working on a new, darker album and probably released it by the time the Fall of 1995 rolled around. This time, though, the album didn't appeal to the public. It was too cold and distant for them, and Madonna's music was rejected. But, because she didn't have the added weight of the Sex book with the release of the new album, the public was more forgiving. Madonna, therefore, began to rethink her musical direction in the beginning of 1996. This is about the time that Madonna would've discovered she was pregnant. Because the "hardness" of her last album hadn't gone over so well, this new album would've taken a softer, more pop oriented sort of tone (ala Something To Remember). She knew Lourdes was growing inside of her, and it would've made her material more joyful and hopeful. Madonna would've still begun her study of the Kabbalah though. She had philosophical questions since she was about to become a mother, but her spirituality wouldn't have infiltrated the music so much I think. The new material wasn't going to be experimental. The experimental/harder direction had been rejected. Therefore, the new album was going to be creamy and silky---more pop oriented, with heavy concentration on ballad like material.