Beyoncé slammed for sampling shuttle tragedy on 'XO'...

It was only a matter of time before Beyoncé would catch flack over a sample. Come to think of it, I don't think there's been an era where she hasn't caught flack over a sample. This time, it's over one she used for her current pop single 'XO'. Former NASA astronauts are deeming her ‘insensitive’ because she sampled six seconds of real audio pulled from 1986′s ‘Space Shuttle Challenger’ disaster.

At the start of the song, you hear now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt announcing, “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction”, which actually occurred as the nation watched wreckage fall toward the ocean on live television. Beyoncé has since apologised stating that the song was recorded to help heal those who have lost loved ones. Her message is that we should live and love now, because no one is guaranteed tomorrow.

If this affects loved ones lost, she should just remove the audio from the video and future distribution of the album. Unfortunately, her generation of fans were probably clueless (and probably don't even care) about what the audio represented. At least they got to learn something from it at the end of the day.