Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions
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* [[Sex Pistols|The Sex Pistols]] are mostly known for trying to play "God Save The Queen" from a barge during the Queen's Jubilee after being prohibited from playing the song on land. Much of the [[No Such Thing as Bad Publicity|bad press was intentional.]]
* The 1944 song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was initially a Christmas staple due to its winter setting, only for some modern audiences to view it as [[Values Dissonance|trivialising date rape]]. Said negative reaction was however criticised as an example of [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]], and public consensus has it that the song shouldn't be banned for its (alleged) content.
* A number of songs gained notoriety for this due to their [[Backmasking|purported backwards messages]]. An often-cited example of this was [[Led Zeppelin]]'s "Stairway to Heaven", [[The Eagles]]' "Hotel California" and more recently "Asereje" by [[Las Ketchup]], alleged by conservative Christian groups to have sinister satanic messages when played backwards. Some artists actually do this deliberately either to satirise the moral panic as in the case of [["Weird Al" Yankovic]], or as an [[Easter Egg]].
** An early example of the latter comes from [[Styx]]'s 1983 album ''[[Kilroy Was Here (album)|Kilroy Was Here]]'', which advertised that it had back-masked "messages" in its songs -- things like the motto off the Great Seal of the United States.
* Discussion of [[Michael Jackson]]'s life and career wouldn't be complete without the tabloid headlines ascribed to him such as his plastic surgeries and skin bleaching, eccentric habits like his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, unfounded rumours of him sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, and of course the [[Paedo Hunt|child molestation]] accusations peppered towards him. Perception of him softened when he died in 2009, with the ''very same media'' who made a [[Butt Monkey]] of him now revering Jackson as a pop icon and trendsetter. The 2019 documentary ''Leaving Neverland'' brought back the paedophiliac accusations against him however, though this was arguably overshadowed with the likes of R. Kelly and the larger #MeToo movement.
* [[Milli Vanilli]] became better known for the lip-syncing scandal they got caught up with, which utterly destroyed any and all hope for them to make a comeback. The ensuing controversy took its toll on Rob Pilatus, who turned to drugs and crime as a result of mounting pressure from all the negative press they got after they were exposed as frauds and their Grammy was withdrawn.
* [[R. Kelly]]'s career was wiped out overnight after reports surfaced of him running a sex cult and engaging in inappropriate affairs with underage girls. Many of Kelly's collaborators such as [[Lady Gaga]], [[Jay-Z]] and [[Céline Dion]] [[Old Shame|wanted nothing to do with him]], and RCA Records dropped him publicly.
* The 2014 [[U2]] album ''Songs of Innocence'' gained notoriety for its pervasive distribution method wherein it found its way onto every Apple device users' iTunes libraries without their consent.
* [[Soulja Boy]]'s "Crank Dat" may have been regarded by most as a pathetic, forgettable example of the so-called "ringtone rap" fad of the late 2000s, but he is now better remembered as that washed-up rapper who tried to make it big into the video game industry by re-selling bargain-bin gadgets such as [[Shoddy Knockoff Product|Chinese video game consoles]] bundled with [[Digital Piracy Is Evil|pirated ROMs]] at grossly inflated prices. Not helping matters was when he responded to criticism in the least civilised way possible typical of rappers "from the hood", and when he contended that he was criticised [[Playing the Victim Card|for being black]] even though most of the complaints were focused on the dubious legality of the gadgets he was selling and had nothing to do with his ethnicity ''at all'' (unless you count those far-right trolls who [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|take the mick out of him for all the wrong reasons]]). The SouljaGame website now redirects to [[Nintendo]]'s website, likely done by Nintendo as an extralegal action.
* [[Richard Wagner]] was a influential and innovative composer of the Romantic era, but he was also a virulent anti-Semite which led to [[Adolf Hitler]] and his [[Sarcasm Mode|merry band]] of [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]] adoring his compositions and promoting it over what they perceive as degenerate ''"Negermusik"''. To this day, performing his music in Israel would land you in hot water.
* [[Scorpions]]' "Virgin Killer" gained notoriety as that one album which put [[Wikipedia]] on hot water due to the album cover containing an image of a naked prepubescent girl (the genitals were censored though, [[Squick|but still]]...). The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation blacklisted the image as child pornography, but said ban only served to pique the curiosity of those who risked their reputation [[Streisand Effect|just to know what all the fuss was about]]. The IWF lifted the ban three days later, likely as the image was used for ''scholarly purposes'' to comment on the controversy rather than to attract paedophiles or condone the practice of erotica involving minors (In a similar manner to this wiki, Wikipedia has a no-censorship policy citing [[wikipedia:Academic freedom|academic freedom]] among other things. Of course, they would not in any way encourage people to engage in or acquire illegal pornography.).
** Similar controversy arose with [[Nirvana]]'s "Nevermind", when record stores refused to carry it due to its portrayal of a naked baby. Nirvana compromised and put a sticker that read "If you're offended by this, you must be a [[Paedo Hunt|closet pedophile]]" over the genitals.
* "You're Pitiful" by [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] got embroiled in a somewhat minor controversy when Atlantic Records persistently refused to grant permission for Yankovic to parody James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", believing that the parody might create the impression of Blunt as a "[[One-Hit Wonder|one-hit wonder]]". Yankovic isn't actually legally obliged to seek permission as per ''Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.'', instead doing so out of principle to avoid any feuds with record labels or the original artist. The ensuing controversy led Yankovic to release "You're Pitiful" as a free MP3 download on his MySpace page, which fan sites mirrored and made a semi-official cover art of, based directly on the artwork for the original song. Still needing a lead parody for ''Straight Outta' Lynwood'', Weird Al recorded [[Chamillionaire]] parody "White & Nerdy", which went on to be Yankovic's most popular song, and his first top 10 Billboard hit.
* It's hard to think about Mexican-American pop singer [[Selena]] (full name Selena Quintanilla-Pérez) without bringing up her untimely death in the hands of her assistant [[Loony Fan|Yolanda Saldívar]], with whom she had a falling out over Saldívar's underhanded control over the singer's business ventures. On the morning of March 31, 1995, Saldívar shot and killed Selena after a financial dispute, her death later compared to the likes of [[John F. Kennedy]], [[John Lennon]] and [[Elvis Presley]] in terms of cultural impact. [[Jennifer Lopez]]'s portrayal of Selena in the [[Selena (film)|1997 biopic]] is considered to be her breakout role, and [[Selena Gomez]] owes much of her influence to Quintanilla, with Gomez herself being [[Named After Somebody Famous|named after the singer]].
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