BEFORE: Janet Jackson broke out as a fiesty girl (usually dressed in loose fitting clothes) who insisted “let’s wait awhile” in the bedroom.
AFTER: Jackson got a lot nastier as she entered the 90s, candidly singing about bondage, threesomes and even simulating orgasms on records.
BEFORE: When she first came out Britney Spears carefully played up a sweet, virginal persona while slyly hinting at more adult themes in her songs.
AFTER: Spears has had numerous public meltdowns since her early-2000s peak but none was more infamous than her umbrella wielding, shaved head appearance in 2007.
BEFORE: Mariah Carey was a squeaky clean pop queen when she emerged in the early 90s. The emphasis was almost always on her amazing voice.
AFTER: But following her high-profile break up with music industry bigwig Tommy Mottola she started getting a lot more naked and more bonkers. Remember her TRL striptease?
BEFORE: In her heyday, Whitney Houston was America’s sweetheart and one of the most popular recording artists in history.
AFTER: Unfortunately Houston squandered a lot of good will with a tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown and numerous drug-related disasters in recent years.
BEFORE: Keri Hilson established herself as a writer under Timbaland’s tutelage and had some nice, mainstream R&B hits.
AFTER: Few of Hilson’s fans could have anticipated the raunchy turn her music took with the graphic song/video “I Love the Way You Love Me”. The f-word filled chorus certainly turned a few heads.
BEFORE: One of the biggest stars to ever come off the Disney assembly line, Miley Cyrus (and her alter ego Hannah Montana) were the epitome of wholesome.
AFTER: Getting caught on camera using drugs and appearing on the Teen Choice Awards with what some considered a ‘stripper pole’ shook up people’s perceptions of this young star.
BEFORE: As a member of Destiny’s Child, Kelly Rowland was a total sweetheart, struggling to emerge from her heavily hyped bandmate Beyoncé’s shadow.
AFTER: With her sexy and suggestive blockbuster song “Motivation”, Rowland not only stepped into the spotlight but she also proved she was a bit of a bad girl too.
Rihanna has been under fire all week for her new music video “We Found Love”, in which she appears topless. However, Rihanna is far from the first pop starlet to lose their innocence over the course of a career. Here are some before and afters — from Mariah to Whitney to Britney to Janet. These stars have made good by being bad.
