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Ten Most Shocking Artists Since Pop Music Began

madonna

The pop world has been generally inhabited by those of a more controversial and non-conformist persuasion. But even within the realms of the expected rock'n'roll behaviour, some stars have certainly been more shocking than others. Here's our top ten and why...

10. Ozzy Osbourne

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As a former friend of Satan, he developed a penchant for biting the heads off live birds (bats and doves mostly) but perhaps most shocking is that he has married to stay married to Sharon for the past 25 years.

9. Elvis

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Invented rock'n'roll, had it all, ate most of it, buried his parents in the back garden and then died on the toilet with a burger in his mouth...unless you read the Daily Sport newspaper in which case he's stacking shelves in a supermarket near you, right NOW!

8. Lady Gaga

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Rumoured to be a hermaphrodite after pictures revealed what looked like male genitalia under her dress at a UK show. Obsessed with monsters and playgirls and likes wearing suits made from bubbles (not Michael Jackson's bubbles...)

7. David Bowie

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Launched his career by posing as an androgynous supernatural Martian and then allegedly had an affair with Mick Jagger. But if you think that's bad, you should check out Tin Machine...


6. Keith Moon

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The man loved his drink, loved his drugs, would regularly pack explosives into his drum kit and blow himself up during Who concerts. Famously drove a Rolls Royce into a swimming pool...as you do.

5. Prince

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The diminutive purple one changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and spent a not insignificant amount of time walking around with the word "Slave" etched on his cheek. Voted the World's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2006.

4. Michael Jackson

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He said it didn't really matter if you were black or white, which was why he tried both and ended up grey. His best friend was a chimp called Bubbles and he also dangled his baby son out of a three storey hotel room.

3. Britney Spears

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The bubblegum queen of pop had the world at her feet, but then she got it on with Madge on TV, married into trailer trash - twice - and shaved her head. Has never quite been the same since.

2. Madonna

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She knows that scandal equals sales, hence the constant run-ins with the Catholic Church, not to mention her book Sex, the scene with the bottle in her 1990 tour documentary Truth or Dare, randomly trying to adopt African children, and of course for snogging....

1. Keith Richards

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We all know about the Rolling Stones guitarist's voracious appetite for chemicals but snorting his own father's ashes surely puts him in a league of his own.