The Dark Truth About Being A Pop Star In The '90s

When we think of '90s pop music, we remember fads like coordinated dance moves, body glitter, butterfly clips, and lots of baggy clothing. The glamorous lives of the decade's pop stars make it hard to imagine that many of them were met with some dark shades of fame, and even heavier doses of reality. 

The '90s gave birth to an international boy and girl band boom, and many children who starred in The Mickey Mouse Club became teen idols. But from dirty music contract dealings, to body image pressures, to outright abuse, music stars of the '90s learned that the industry wasn't all sugar and spice. 

Record moguls and managers who sought to both financially and psychologically take advantage of the talent they represented sadly succeeded. Sometimes, managers even married the very young stars. Pressures and expectations of fame would often cause mental and emotional breakdowns, some in public. 

It turns out the price of fame is quite high for those who dance and sing their way to the top of the pop charts. Read on to relive the bad, sad, and ugly secret world of the '90s music industry. 

The Spice Girls are still a legendarily successful pop girl band for the ages, with five very distinct members who each had their own personas. The group's debut single, "Wannabe," in 1996 shot to No. 1 in 37 countries, making them instant international superstars. Their first album, Spice, sold 31 million copies. 

Unfortunately, it was later revealed that Melanie Chisholm or Mel C, better known as "Sporty Spice," was bullied and suffered from depression and an eating disorder. She has also stated that she had trouble fitting into the pop star world. Chisholm admits she experienced feelings of guilt and imposter syndrome when the group became mega famous, according to The Telegraph. She also later revealed that one of her fellow Spice Girls was mean to her throughout the group's tenure together. Though she never revealed which group member it was, she told Attitude that "It's been addressed" and that "they were aware of what they'd done" and "apologized" (via TheGamer).

Today, Melanie is in a better place. "I just kind of feel like I can exhale because I don't need to search any more, I just need to embrace all these parts of myself," she told The Mirror. "Like everybody, we are so complex, and there are so many sides to us." 

It's hard to fall in love when you're famous, and it's even harder when you're in the closet. George Michael was about as big a music star as you can get, with 10 hits that reached Billboard's No.1 spot, but his status at the top was challenged one night. 

In 1998, George Michael was forced to come out as a gay man after a controversial incident involving the police and a public bathroom in Beverly Hills. George was busted when he tried to pick up an undercover cop at a well-known spot for gay men to meet. Afterward, he attempted to control the narrative, claiming entrapment. (It had been widely speculated George was gay for years.) He officially came out in an exclusive CNN interview shortly after the arrest. "I honestly think it was a desperate attempt to make the trauma in my life about me, because then, maybe, I could control the outcome," Michael told GQ Magazine. "Up to then, the traumas had been out of control and the outcome always bad." 

George had to go into fighter mode to defend his career after the incident, but it would never be the same. The struggle sounds trivial now, as music stars today can be out in the open about their sexuality without their career taking a hit. If anything, their authenticity is often celebrated, and it becomes part of their artistic appeal. 

One of the most loved and well-known pop singers of the '90s, Whitney Houston, was constantly told she wasn't "black enough" for the R&B community and was groomed early on to appeal to a white audience. According to the Showtime documentary Whitney: Can I Be Me (via HuffPost), her image was a conscious effort by Clive Davis and Arista Records to "bury the New Jersey native's 'hood' upbringing and make her 'classy.'" 

Though many of her hits played on the R&B airwaves, Houston received significant pushback from the Black community at the time. She was booed at the 1989 Soul Train Awards while presenting. Reverend Al Sharpton even labeled her "Whitey" Houston. 

"You're not black enough for them," Houston later said in an interview, recounting the criticism. "You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them." Houston struggled with pleasing both audiences her entire career, and she never perfectly fit into the right box of a "stereotypical black female artist," as written by Brandon Tensley in The Atlantic. She paved the way for future Black pop stars like Beyoncé and Rihanna, who have both spoken out about double standards when it comes to race in the music industry. 

Girl group Destiny's Child shot Beyoncé into the limelight, and she's never left. However, before the group sold hit records, there were two former controversial members. In fact, there was almost never a group to begin with, as Beyoncé threatened to go solo early on.

The original foursome broke out onto the music scene in 1997 with their hit single, "No, No, No," and they swiftly became known for their recurring theme of female empowerment. The ladies were longtime childhood friends and recorded two records together, but LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett soon began claiming unfair treatment, including unequal pay and favoritism toward Beyoncé. The two were kicked out of the group after asking for new management.  

"They had questions about the money they were earning, and they felt they were not getting enough attention both on record and on stage," author J. Randy Taraborrelli writes in his book, "Becoming Beyoncé" (via RadarOnline). "Stop throwing shade at me and Beyonce when the truth is that you're pissed off at Mathew," the author claims Kelly Rowland said to LeToya and LaTavia concerning their manager. After being kicked out without warning, LeToya, only 18, revealed she slept in her car for a time. "During my journey I was staying at people's houses ... I slept in a car in LA while I was making my first album, she told the Independent. 

Only Beyoncé and Kelly remained, and a third group member, Michelle Williams, was added in 1999. 

'90s pop star and The Voice co-host Christina Aguilera began working when she was seven years old and later admitted that she "felt guilty" when she wasn't working. "It's been embedded in me since I was little — you're shamed if you don't want to keep up," she told Yahoo Entertainment. Like Britney Spears, Aguilera was also part of The Mickey Mouse Club mill, and her solo career took off with hit "Genie in a Bottle" in 1999. She later recounted her time as a child star as being uncomfortable. "You're all pitted against one another," she said. "It's a weird space to grow up." 

Aguilera also witnessed domestic violence as a child between her mom and dad. "My dad was very dominant with my mom, and I always knew I was never going to let a man take advantage of me like that," Xtina told Bustle. She even sings about it in her song, "I'm OK." 

Alanis Morissette became a pop rock sensation with her third studio album Jagged Little Pill in 1995, which is now a Broadway musical. The artist is known for her "thoughtful, unapologetic honesty, paired with a dose of hope," as Ashley Lee of the Los Angeles Times puts it. With tracks like "You Oughta Know" and "Right Through You," Alanis has never exactly been shy in expressing her anger toward the men in her past. 

Alanis has become an outspoken critic of how the music industry treats women, as well as the fact that some are forced to sign non-disclosure agreements so they won't be able to out their abusers. She has had her own negative experiences within the industry as a teenager. In true songwriter fashion, Alanis even sings about an abusive relationship she had with a music executive in "Hands Clean," 15 years before the #MeToo movement began. "Almost every woman in the music industry has been assaulted, harassed, raped. It's ubiquitous — more in music, even, than film. It's just so normalized," Alanis told The Sunday Times (via Canoe.com).

When the Independent asked in an interview if she would have done anything different back then, Alanis said, "I would have had a few extra guardians ... There were a lot of people with the title guardian around me that were often, at times, the very people who were not a guardian." 

Alanis has since had a steady, successful music career, including a whopping seven Grammy Awards.