Gigwise takes a wry look at the music world's worst break-ups...
Luke Britton

10:44 2nd November 2011

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Yesterday it was announced that indie queen Zooey Deschanel and husband, Death Cab For Cutie singer Ben Gibbard have split - causing 15-year-olds the blogs over to melodramatically exclaim in written unison that "Love is dead".

Poor Ben, just imagine him sitting alone in a darkened room this winter, writing the next deeply-melancholic Death Cab album around a roaring fire, and suddenly the She & Him Christmas album comes on the radio and he's reminded of the heartache all over again. But I guess we don't have to worry as I've already heard the aforementioned record - Zooey's musical output with musician M Ward - and, truth be told, it probably won't make itself anywhere near a radio playlist any time soon.

But without further a-do, we bring to you a wry look at some of the worst break-ups in rock and pop - including the recent split between Sonic Youth art-rock veterans Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, the fashion world's favourite Alex and Alexa, the dethorning of pop-punk's royal couple Avril Lavigne and Deryck Whibley, and, err, Jessica Simpson's divorce from reality TV star Nick Lachey - which we're all still reeling from the shock of, right?

  • Love doesn't exist, this was well proven last month when veteran art-rock couple Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon announced their split after being married since 1984. And if their band Sonic Youth are forced to break up under the strain of divorce proceedings between the frontman and frontwoman then Good Music will cease to exist too. RIP Love. RIP Good Music.

  • Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner and the similarly-named TV presenter and model Alexa Chung broke it off earlier this year. The message boards full of heated debate of which of them pulls off 'festival-chic' better must have finally got to them.

  • Death Cab singer Ben Gibbard and actress-come-She & Him vocalist Zooey Deschanel have announced their separation. Rumours that it was due to Ben's anniversary present of growing the curtains of his hair an extra three inches for every year of their marriage has been proven false.

  • Laura Marling and Marcus Mumford ended their relationship around Christmas 2010, causing massive inconvenience for whoever arranged the table layout at that year's BRIT Awards.

  • Avril Lavigne split up with pop-rocker Deryck Whibley in 2009. I guess she's now going to have to find some(forty)one else.

  • A golden oldie: the romance between Bob Dylan and Joan Baez would only be rivalled in coolness today if Karen O married Julian from The Strokes. Let's hope that never happens, or the whole blog world would implode.

  • A weird-dressing, funny man who has somehow been able to blag a career: I wonder who Katy Perry was always destined to go for after dumping Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy Oh, that's right - Russell Brand.

  • When Blur singer Damon Albarn and Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann got together in 1995, it seems likely that they must have spent their pre-tour nights playing Britpop Top Trumps to determine who each can have as support acts. "You can have Suede, if I can get Pulp". The couple split in 1998.

  • Britney and Justin made MTV executives' wildest fantasies a reality when they pursued their childhood romance in the public eye during the early 00s. After splitting, Justin has gone on to have a success pop career, starred in high profile films and has dated Cameron Dias. Britney, on the other hand, shaved her head and went a bit mental. They should've got a pre-nup!

  • East Coast rapper Nas split with 'Milkshake' singer Kelis in 2009. We are told that it wasn't because he was jealous at the plural in her lyric "my milkshake brings all the boyS to the yard".

  • Newlyweds reality TV stars Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey split in 2005. I think it's safe to say that the world just hasn't been the same for us since.

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Photo: WENN.com