IT MEANS that people do not go back to her person as "she was such so cool, let me go listen to her biggest hit". Unfortunately Madonna has made more headlines for her acts than for her music this decade, and for those things she is judged to this day, and has consequently alienated a lot of people, some fans too. The last thing I remember reading about George Michael was that he had a beer with friends, both him and Prince had very quiet lifestyles until they passed.
Why do you act as if each album's lead single has not created controversy (sexually charged LAV, encouraging ballad LTT, gospel inspired LAP, sex odes JML and Erotica, another ballad in the midst of electro wave, American Life, disco song in the hip hop filled airwaves, etc) ? I may have done a stretch with writing never, but very few people have taken the number of risks she has.
Haven't all celebrities who passed experienced some kind of posthumous success? Even the most hated people like Joan Rivers?