Musicians can be on top of the charts one day and in the tabloid headlines the next.
When they make mistakes, they aren't always given second chances by the public.
Here are some musicians who ruined their careers in a matter of seconds.
Lil Wayne is certainly a wordsmith in his lyrics, but in 2013 he may have gone just
a little too far with one of his turns of phrase.
On the remix to the Future song "Karate Chop," he compared his performance doing a lewd act
to the beating of Emmett Till.
Wayne earned plenty of ire for this line.
Till was an African-American boy who was killed after being accused of whistling at a white
woman in 1955 when he was just 14.
In a lengthy apology, the rapper responded,
"I have tremendous respect for those who paved the way for the liberty and opportunities
that African-Americans currently enjoy.
As a business owner who employs several African-American employees and gives philanthropically to organizations
that help youth to pursue their dreams my ultimate intention is to uplift rather than
degrade our community."
Wayne also promised not to perform the song and support the record label's decision to
remove the song from the airwaves.
In 2013, the music world was Miguel's oyster.
He was the new kid on the block with the megahit song "Adorn."
But with so much hype surrounding him, he might've gotten a little too cocky.
While he was performing "Adorn" at the Billboard Music Awards, he attempted to jump over a
pit of fans from one stage to another.
Unfortunately, he failed to make it fully across as he crash landed on some fans.
An audience member named Khyati Shah claimed that she was kicked in the head during the
fall and suffered cognitive difficulties as a result.
"That night of, and the day after, I was-"
"You looked mortified."
"I was definitely, like, worried about the girl.
More than anything, worried about the girl."
It was also claimed that Shah suffered from memory loss and wasn't able to sit for her
final exams.
Her attorney threatened to sue Miguel, who at the time didn't give any monetary help
toward medical bills.
Two years later, a second injured fan, Cindy Tsai, sued the singer and the MGM Grand Hotel,
where the event took place.
She asked for payment of medical bills and lost wages.
Since the infamous leg drop, Miguel's performances have been much tamer, and there's also been
less chatter about his career.
There will never be another Super Bowl halftime show like the one in 2004.
That year, Janet Jackson teamed up with Justin Timberlake and others in what was supposed
to be a high-energy, family-friendly performance.
But at the end of the show, Timberlake reached across Jackson's bustier and ripped off the
top portion, exposing part of her breast.
The incident came to be known as "Nipplegate."
The outcry was almost immediate, as more than 540,000 viewers contacted the Federal Communications
Commission to file complaints.
The NFL issued an apology that read in part,
"We were extremely disappointed by elements of the MTV-produced halftime show."
Weeks later, Jackson appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and dodged questions
about the incident.
By August of that year, The Guinness Book of World Records named "Nipplegate" the most
searched term in internet history.
The FCC then handed down fines totalling $550,000 to CBS.
For the next several years, legal battles and more headlines kept the incident alive
in the media.
While Timberlake has emerged mostly unscathed in the years since, Jackson's career is nowhere
near as high-profile as it was before 2004.
"Do you think people were too hard on you?"
"I think they were.
I think they did put all the emphasis…"
"Mm-hm."
"...on me."
In the era of new wave, Billy Squier proved that rock was still king.
His first two albums, 1981's Don't Say No and 1982's Emotions in Motion, went multi-platinum.
"Rock Me Tonite," the lead single off 1984's Signs of Life, reached number 15 on Billboard's
Hot 100, and his future looked brighter than ever.
However, that all came crashing down when the music video for that song, which was directed
by High School Musical director Kenny Ortega, featured the rocker prancing around in a sleeveless
t-shirt on satin sheets.
Squier fought to keep the cringeworthy video from ever seeing the light of day, but his
record label overruled him.
The 2011 book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution quoted
him as saying,
"The video had a deleterious effect on my career.
The tour before, I was selling out arenas faster than Sinatra, and as soon as that video
came out I was playing to half houses...When I saw the video, my jaw dropped.
It was diabolical.
I looked at it and went, 'What the f--- is this?'"
Squier immediately fired his managers, but that wasn't enough to get his career back
on track.
In a 2001 interview with The Sun, Lee Ryan of the British boy band Blue said,
"Who gives a f--- about New York when elephants are being killed?
They are ignoring animals that are more important.
Animals need saving and that's more important.
This New York thing is being blown out of all proportion."
Without any context, that statement might've only just offended New Yorkers, but Ryan,
who was just 17 at the time, said this a month after the 9/11 attacks.
He quickly went into damage control-mode.
In a statement, he said,
"By now you might have heard about the stupid comments I made the other day to The Sun newspaper.
I just wanted to say to you all how sorry I am, I can't believe I said it.
I didn't even mean it like that and the second I said it I was like 'Oh My God, that isn't
what I meant.'"
Ryan went on to say that the terrorists were "awful" and that he cried his eyes out when
watching the towers collapse, adding,
"I'm not good with words and I get mixed up, but I know what I'm saying when I say I'm sorry."
Alas, despite Ryan's apology, his career ever recovered.
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