Where Is My Mind? - Notoriously Bad or Notoriously Good?

Miley: notoriously underdressed and boring.

 Notorious: Bad Or Good?

by Jo Michelmore

Look, here's the thing. It was a few weeks ago now and while it was kind of amusing at the time, the Miley twerking VMA thing? Boooring. Every now and then I turn on a commercial radio station in the car and there it is again, someone talking about Miley. So she stuck her tongue out? So she wore very few clothes, it's not like she's the first pop star to do that. Whatever. At the gig I went to last week, even Amanda Palmer spoke about her. It took some impressive(?) marketing to come up with the whole VMA routine and it's going to take some impressive marketing to shake the whole VMA routine. However, one of the good things about the whole Miley thing is that it's had people talking about pop music and that can't be a bad thing, right? It's also had people talking about other pop stars and the controversial things they've got up to and since we left on Notorious B.I.G. last week, I thought we should look at some other notorious moments in music this week, sometimes good, sometimes bad...

Britney, Madonna. Christina (and Missy Elliot was there too!)

This one is hilarious. You can't tell me no one saw this coming when it happened? It was so ridiculous and while Madonna is notorious for all sorts of things, this incident was perfect marketing at the time for her single at the time 'Hollywood'. You know what I find more controversial about this? No one seems to get upset Madonna kissed Christina as well and you know what else? Missy Elliot was there! Missy was there! No one ever remembers that bit. Notoriously: good.

Courtney Love vs Madonna

This was just bizarre, in the way Courtney Love was best. Madonna is in the middle of an interview, looking all pretty like Madonna does, then Courtney interrupted by throwing her compact at Madonna and things got weird. Old Courtney, notorious was her middle name for a few minutes there and I kind of loved it. This was just bizarre and awkward TV and it was ultimately really, really weird. If you have a spare seven minutes to waste, press play and watch the mess, go for it. Notoriously: good.

Kurt Cobain, just in general

Of course, you can't mention Courtney without mentioning Kurt and he created his fair share of notoriety in his day. Notoriously miserable and slightly painful to work with, I guess they're the things that make great rock stars. After all, I can't imagine a go-getting, energetic and happy rock star writing 'Come As You Are', right? Do you hear him at the start of this? "Can we get on with this, we're like an hour late". Well, you're probably an hour late 'cause you were busy being notoriously difficult, Kurt. R.I.P. Notoriously: good.

Ozzy Osborne and the ants

So, if you're going to talk about rock stars and their notoriety, then you've got to mention Ozzy, who is most famous for biting the head off an animal on stage (a bat? chicken? I can't remember, just go with me) but my favourite story is about him being so intoxicated he challenged another rock star (someone from Aerosmith? Motley Crue? I can't remember, just go with me) to an intoxication challenge, to see who would be 'most extreme' with their substance. Ozzy took things one step further than rock had probably ever been, snorting ants. 'Crazy Train'? Yes, he's on it and he ain't ever getting off. Notoriously: bad.

L7

Speaking of weird stage antics and the crazy train, that brings me to L7, who were notorious for all sorts of horrible things, probably the most famous being the tampon throwing incident at Reading in 1992. I don't need to say much more about that, do I? The name of the incident should say it all. I'll just say it belonged to a member of the band and it had been used. Notorious for being gross? Yes, hello L7. Notoriously: bad.

Haim

Let's go from a notoriously bad girl group and finish on one that hasn't had time to be notorious yet. This is where is MY mind, so I get to do that. This is a girl band I'm liking more and more and hoping they end up doing something controversial that will make them notoriously: good. Whose to say? I just wanted an excuse to listen to this song again.