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Ahhh… to be a rock star. Imagine how great life would be if you had the opportunity to travel around the world performing music for thousands of people? Sounds grand doesn’t it?

Now, think about your most embarrassing moment… perhaps falling down a flight of stairs or a night that included a few too many drinks… sound familiar? Now imagine if those moments were not only caught on camera but also exposed to the entire world? Hmm… being a rock star doesn’t sound too grand anymore, does it?

Unfortunately, no videos exist of Fergie wetting her pants on stage or Milli Vanilli getting busted lip-syncing, however I did manage to come up with a few others that will leave you with both hysterical laughter and gratitude that maybe, just maybe, being a rock star isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Kris Novoselic: VMA Concussion
Remember how cool it was in the 90’s when all the grunge rock stars would trash their equipment on stage? Crowds went wild every time Kurt Cobain smashed his electric guitar into a million pieces and threw his amps across the stage. Well, when you throw your bass up in the air and it proceeds to land on your head, thus resulting in a self-inflicted concussion, it’s really not so cool anymore. Watch at about 4:01 in this video as Kris Novoselic’s bass guitar comes crashing down on him during the 1992 VMA performance, causing him to stumble off stage while the rest of the band is completely oblivious.

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Beyonce Knowles: The Fall
One word sums up this video: Ouch. The combination of stilettos and stairs led to an unfortunate outcome for Beyonce. You can feel a great amount of sympathy for her while watching this, simply because this could happen to anyone. The best part is that after tumbling head first down the stairs, she gets right back up like a champ and continues performing. Way to go Beyonce.

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Eddie Vedder: Seventh Inning Intoxication
On the Fourth of July in 1998, Eddie Vedder leads the Chicago Cubs’ in a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Much to the surprise of the audience, the heavily intoxicated Pearl Jam frontman changes the lyrics to “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks” to “Buy me some penis and crack.”

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Britney Spears: VMA Disaster
What in the world happened to Britney Spears? Back when she first became a huge star, this girl could dance circles around any performer. Now, several drug experimentations later, it seems as though Britney’s idea of a stellar performance is swaying her hips back and forth with a dazed and confused look in her eye.

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Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake: Wardrobe Malfunction
Everyone knows the infamous Jackson and Timberlake nipple exposure story but let’s recap, shall we? At the end of the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, Justin Timberlake joins Janet Jackson onstage to perform his hit single “Rock Your Body,” and as Justin delivers his final line, “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” he tears off a portion of Jackson’s outfit, exposing her naked breast to over 100 million people worldwide. MTV producers later apologized claiming that the nudity was accidental, and although I’m sure millions of parents were outraged, it’s sort of comical, isn’t it?

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Ashlee Simpson: SNL Mime
Here is yet another great moment that goes down as on of the most humiliating moments in celebrity history: when Ashlee Simpson got busted lip-synching “Pieces of Me” on Saturday Night Live. No matter how many times you’ve seen this video, it will still make you cringe every time. Once the vocals kick in a few moments too early, Ashlee proceeds to dance around in an awkward jig while her vocals continue playing in the background, but (*shock*) her lips aren’t moving! The best is when the commercial break kicks in and they come back to Ashlee’s lame explanation “I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song!” It’s okay Ashlee, we all know you can’t sing nearly as well as your sister.

video url: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/828/

Milli Vanilli: Their whole career
Editor’s Note: Due to overwhelming feedback, we have decided to add Milli Vanilli to this list, as their entire career was an embarrassing music moment.

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What are your thoughts on this? Did we leave anything out?


Add a Comment
COMMENTS (49)
Desiree said:

Great list. The Britney one makes me laugh everytime lol.

oOFooi said:

Cool. Mostly are funny. :)
Hopefully it will not happen to me. :)

[...] The Most Embarrassing Music Moments Caught on Tape! The best malfunctions are Kris Novoselic’s and Eddie Vedder’s… ‘Buy me some penis and crack’! Ha! [...]

It’s tripping on the stairs at Graduation…it always happens to someone! Make sure it doesn’t happen in life!

Yeah, these where pretty embarrasing but not that bad.

Spike-X said:

Bruce Springsteen’s rehearsal session for the Dancing In The Dark video is more embarrassing than all of these combined.

And I say that as a fan of Springsteen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUHQWNsnU8s

steve said:

yup, you missed one out ;)
there’s an unbelievably teeth-grindingly bad vid on youtube of Van Halen playing “Jump” (I think)

the keyboard intro is running off a DAT or something, and it sounds like there has been a 44.1khz / 48khz mixup somewhere, because it’s playing a few semitones out of tune. so when the rest of the band comes in, they’re in totally the “wrong” key.

sorry, at work so can’t go searching for it.

Marc Savoy said:

I went back over your submissions several times to make sure you,in fact,did not post what has got to be IMHO even worse than any of those you’ve mentioned.

I’ve seen it numerous times, the VH1 documentary on “Milli Vanilli”, the scene in which the LP that was playing while they were lip-synching during a concert got stuck in a groove on the vinyl LP, otherwise known as a broken record, in which it replayed the 2-3 second segment over and over and over again,

Milli and Vanilli are seen on tape frantically trying to locate the damn record-player in getting it to stop to no avail for several minutes. The narrator made an extremely insightful observation to say that at the time no one in the audience really understood the epochal event that was unraveling right before their very eyes.

Now that has got to THE definitive, most embarrassing music moment caught on tape, EVER

Cates said:

Good list, but I have to agree with Marc Savoy, I’ve seen the “Milli Vanilli” episode as well; definately has to be THE most embarassing music moment caught on tape.

mike said:

@ Marc Savoy. Agreed Milli was a biggie, this one is perhaps funnier and more embarrassing in that it combines both a lip synch expose and a fall off stage moment in one fell swoop. Obviously it’s a nobody otherwise it would have been listed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODFADDxxx6A

Jim Jones said:

LOL, thats crazy. I been a drummer for 20+ years and I can tell you it happens sometimes. We are only human!

JT
http://www.anondo.alturl.com

siva said:

Tim Commerford from Rage against the machine acted like a dick by climbing up on the stage scaffolding and shaking the whole VMA set in protest.

elias said:

Brian Wilson’s “Good Vibrations” on SNL. Worst. Performance. Ever.

Serena said:

Great post! I remembered all of the moments except for the Eddie Vedder one. After watching that I cracked up.

Nice collection of the moments.Such things are natural to happen.

youfaull said:

fail all the videos dony work

FAIL

No Milli Vanilli no care

[...] you read that correctly, JAMSBIO compiled their list of embarassing music moments.  I guess being a rockstar isn’t all [...]

Chris said:

I think Cobain’s haircut was more embarrassing than the bass incident.

[...] What are the 10 most embarrassing music moments caught on tape? Includes Britney at the VMAs. But no sign of the baby dangling incident! [absolute [...]

Jennifer Williams said:

Ha ha ha, the Eddie Vedder one was a very funny embarrassing moment. Nice post!

[...] Link: Most Embarrassing Music Moments Caught on Tape [...]

Joel said:

Not only does Beyonce have an embarrassing moment (actually she’s had moe than one incident on stage) but her former group members Michelle and Kelly do as well. I believe Michelle’s was when she fell on stage during a 106 n Park performance of their song “Soldier”, and Kelley’s was when she fainted live at another performance.

Joe said:

Milli Vanilli should be given back their Grammies.

They were groundbreakers to all the brits, ashlees, and “artists” unable to perform outside the recording studio.

sara said:

What do you have against celebs let them be. What if they put embarassing oments of you on youtube i bet you would not like it.

Pickle said:

Actually, the “drug experimentations” you were talking about with Brittney wasn’t her fault. It was her psycho manager that kept drugging her up. So he whole downfall wasn’t even her fault. Now she’s doing better, now that she fired the jerk.

matilda snelfrockey said:

still can’t figure the “wardrobe malfunction” claim with janet and justin–he YANKED OFF a piece of her “wardrobe”–it’s not like it fell off. i was watching the halftime show when it happened (like millions of others) and justin gave a “pre-yank” before the actual yank. don’t see how that was accidental. stupid.

Reer said:

I SWEAR that Milli Vanilli show in Bristol Conneticut was taped! Please let me know if anyone finds it.

Girl you know its.. girl you know its.. girl you know its…!

atom said:

Um. . . Amy Winehouse? Hello?

FUGU said:

you guys are so baaaaad!! The poor creatures!!! they are only earning a few millions to do it… they are allowed some crashes sometimes…

Propecia said:

LOL yeah, Amy Winehouse is kind of a trainwreck too, but good list!

Said said:

Amy Winehouse and Vanilla Ice.

design said:

Just one word: OOOOPS!

Jay said:

After the fall, the beat goes on!

LadyM said:

But the Vedder moment wasn’t embarrassing! it was freakin classic! no self respecting rock star would be embarrassed by that!

Ryan said:

You should add the Ashlee Simpson performance after the SNL fiasco where she actually tried to sing and got booed off stage. I think it was the halftime show at the Orange Bowl if memory serves me right.

Ryan G said:

Haha, Ashlee’s jig and lame excuse are hilarious.

fancy said:

Here’s Van Halen playing Jump where the synth was out of tune (wrong sample rate) which made it impossible for the musicians to change keys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjx_GjyXCs4

Sun said:

We all fall now and then, but Beyonce did it with the most class.

chunkahash said:

Michael Jackson is more embarrassing than all these people

Liz said:

My favorite band has had quite a few embarrassing moments. Like when the guitarist was playing on stage, turned around and smacked headfirst into a wall. Or when the bassist climbed up on an amp, then tumbled out of sight.
Or when the singer was headbanging and then he got slower and slower and then dropped to the ground. The band played almost the entire song before a roadie ran out and carried him offstage. Even then, the drummer almost didn’t notice.

Or, again, the singer was headbanging with his foot up on a platform, but the platform rocked and he fell and hit his head. He lay on his back for a minute, then a roadie helped him sit up, he threw up in a bucket, stood up, stumbled sideways across the stage, was pushed back in the right direction, and clung to his platform to stay upright while he finished the set. (He was rushed to the hospital with a concussion immediately afterward.)

Ashley said:

Panic! At the Disco’s MTV performance of “I Write Sins, Not Tragedies.”

For the vocals alone.

free said:

Beyonce ate those stairs

qqq said:

katy perry mexico 2008

Seanithan said:

I didn’t realize dangling a baby was a “music moment”

wez said:

Here we can see the whole Celine Dion’s family looking dumb on tv…
It’s not because you’re popular we need to hear your brothers and sisters sings or your mom cooking on tv….

wez said:

Joel said:

Hahaha!
Love the Ashlee Simpson one!
Her band starts/keeps playing after hse jigs off! xD



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