8 Musicians Who Were Busted For Exposing Themselves On Stage

Anyone alive during 2004 probably found it nearly impossible to escape the controversy surrounding Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl halftime performance, when a supposed “wardrobe malfunction” exposed the pop icon’s right breast on national television, in front of what was then the largest viewing audience in Super Bowl history.

Even though it lasted for less than a full second, the fallout from the controversy was substantial. The incident was termed “Nipplegate” The FCC received more than 540,000 complaints from outraged viewers, MTV was banned from producing future halftime segments, and CBS was hit with a $550,000 fine.

Jackson was subsequently blacklisted from MTV and VH1, as well as all radio stations under parent company Viacom’s umbrella. The boycotting spread like wildfire, with the legendary pop star being uninvited from the Grammys, while Justin Timberlake used his time at the awards ceremony to issue an apology for his involvement. Not surprisingly, her album Damita Jo, released just five weeks after “the incident” became her lowest selling album to date, and Jackson disappeared from the spotlight for almost a decade.

The one silver lining to come out of all this? The idea for YouTube came from not being able to easily find a clip of the wardrobe malfunction online.