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These days, American pop star Britney Spears, 26, and British soul singer Amy Winehouse, 24, have claimed more headlines for their bad behaviour than for their music.
Camera crews stake out their public appearances, eager to capture their latest snafu - whether it's Spears being carried to an ambulance after yet another breakdown or Winehouse walking around London barefoot in the wee hours in a drunken stupor.
Yet, though their personal lives may seem to be spiralling out of control, that has not hurt their careers or their standing with musical peers.
Winehouse is up for six awards in the upcoming Grammys next month - including Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist. This is the second-highest number of nominations after Kanye West's eight.
In Singapore, she was the biggest seller for record label Universal Music last year. More than 27,000 copies of her two albums have been sold, with the latest one, Back To Black, netting 20,000 sales.
Spears is also hitting the bull's eye. Her album, Blackout, launched in October last year, earned mixed reviews from critics but her fans bought enough to make it to the top charts in Europe, Japan and Canada.
It barely missed out on the top spot in the United States and Britain and at last count, has sold 12,000 copies in Singapore.
Indeed, Spears is the eighth best-selling female American artist, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold over 83 million copies of her five studio albums and three compilations and EPs since 1999.
So why are they still a top spin with record buyers?
One theory postulated by fans and industry commentators is that while their behaviour is bizarre, it also makes them more real, unlike the smooth glossy but fake personas perceived to be adopted by many other artistes.
Sure, Spears and Winehouse seem nutty, even stupid, in some of the scrapes they have gotten into but their experiences also seem to mirror those of many people in real life.
As Winehouse fan Alvin Wong, 31, says: 'I'm still a fan. The bad publicity definitely made people take notice because she's not only a great singer now, but she's also a troubled celebrity. People like to read about that.'
'But at the core, she's also a great songwriter with a unique voice,' adds Wong, who is the managing editor of Men's Folio.
Not all her fans are so forgiving though.
'I saw some of her performances where she was drunk and was just slurring her lyrics. Initially, I didn't think much of her addictions but when it affected her shows, you could say she lost some love there,' says Nur Azira Aziz, 23, a freelance writer-producer.
Still, she hopes Winehouse can clean up her act and focus on what she does best - music, which is evident in the number of Grammy nods received.
In the Spears camp, fans are also sympathetic.
Kevin Yeoh, 25, says her problems stem from her getting married too soon at age 23 and being a mother of two children. She has lost custody of them to ex-hubby Kevin Federline.
'She felt the stress from the media attention. She broke the bubble and got crazy,' says the writer-graphic designer from Kuala Lumpur.
Still, despite the adverse reports, industry sources agree that any publicity is also good publicity, with the extensive tabloid coverage making more people aware of the artistes and their music.
American Idol judge Simon Cowell, who has an intuitive finger on what works in music, told gossip website Startv.com that Spears' screw-ups are good for her career.
'She's all over the news, she gets more publicity than the entire Hot 100 combined, so maybe she's doing everything right and everyone else is getting it wrong.'
The wild side of life is also a magnet for many folks, even if they may recoil from it.
As Spears fan Evelyn Maria Ng, a Singapore actress and model, puts it: 'I think bad girls sell for the fact that people yearn to be like them and would like to walk on the wild side. But you may end up hurting people around you; therefore, people don't do the bad-girl thing.
'But if it involves a performer, fans are more likely to be forgiving because they entertain people.'
Miss Demeanour
TO BE sure, bad-girl behaviour among music artistes is nothing new.
Legendary 1950s jazz and soul singer Nina Simone was described as a hopeless eccentric and difficult to work with.
In 1995, she fired a rifle at some noisy teenage neighbours and was charged in a hit-and-run car accident. She was given suspended eight-month and two-month jail terms respectively for the two offences.
It was later revealed that she was suffering from a bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder.
In the 1960s, American rock and blues singer Janis Joplin made news for her drug addictions and violent mood swings. She died at age 27 in Los Angeles from a drug overdose.
More recently, 1990s grunge star Courtney Love, 43, widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, earned notoriety with her alleged heroin-taking even while she was pregnant with their child, Frances Bean Cobain, in 1992.
There is also no lack of female hip-hop stars on the wrong side of the law.
Brooklyn rapper Foxy Brown, 28, is currently serving time for a string of misdemeanours that include felony assault charges. Victims of her violent rages include her neighbour, manicurists, police officers and even her fellow inmates in prison.
Fellow New York rap star Lil' Kim, 33, was jailed in 2005 after pleading guilty to gun charges after she was found to be directly involved in a 2001 shooting incident that also involved Brown.
Which means that showbiz tabloids are unlikely to run dry of stories to run of the latest hijinks from female singers any time soon.
Blame their free-spirited ways, for one.
In an early 2004 interview, Winehouse revealed a little about her attitude.
'I don't suffer fools gladly. I'm not here to make friends. At the end of the day, I'm there to do my job, I'm not there to have picnics... I don't give a sh** about people's opinions.'
Judging by album sales and critical acclaim, both Winehouse and Spears are doing their job well, bad press be damned.
