Yet, more often than not, that's the way it goes. Even if you love their music, often the musicians are doing what they're doing only because they realized at some point in the past that making any money was going to require them to radically shift gears. For instance ...

It's great to think of our favorite entertainers as people born with unique visions, destined from childhood to share them with the world. Dr. Dre was always a gangsta, damn it, and you can't bear to think of him as, say, a glam rapper in sequins who reinvented himself because it was profitable .

6 Lady Gaga Was a Normal-Looking Brunette Named Stefani Germanotta

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The Artist You Know:

If you're so far removed from society that basic pop culture knowledge like "Who is Lady Gaga?" lies outside your information wheelhouse, then probably the best we can do for you is "She's that singer with the crazy costumes who once wore a dress made of meat."

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Because while her music might be popular (to the tune of 23 million albums sold in four years), her "bag lady from space" sense of style attracts the most attention. Someone with that much flair and personality was born to be on stage. She even said so in that song she stole from Madonna. She is pure packaging, all ridiculous sets and crazy hats and bullshit. Hell, the record label probably just found some out-of-work model somewhere and glued a bunch of shit to her, right?

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But if you think Lady Gaga looks crazy now, wait until you see what kind of getup she paraded around in before she was famous.

The Artist You Don't Know:

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Holy shit, that's Lady Gaga on that album cover! And she looks ... completely normal? Well, technically speaking, it's Stefani Germanotta, frontwoman for the aptly named Stefani Germanotta Band. Before she was showing up on red carpets in a gigantic egg, Lady Gaga was just a girl in a bar band. Yep, you read that correct. Lady Gaga was in a band, with real instruments and everything.