'Every so
often, music video becomes the object of a bit of a moral panic, where various
writers and groups offer their opinion on how dangerous the form might be for
young people, usually citing a particular example as having 'gone too far' and
suggesting that the boundaries have been pushed just that bit further. Often,
this leads to calls for new regulations, usually in the form of age
restrictions.
Recently, there
has been a lot of controversy about two videos in particular: Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' and Lily Allen's
'Hard out Here'. In this week's blog, I'll point you to a bit of context and
some of the evidence, so that you can decide for yourself.
History of
Controversy
As I have
indicated, this controversy is nothing new. Given that music videos are aimed
at a youthful audience, it is no surprise that they frequently depict things
that older generations might be likely to disapprove of; the format also allows
quite a lot of freedom in terms of structure- music videos don't have to tell a
story or even 'make sense' and work as an 'interpretation' of the song. Back in
1966, the BBC banned this promo film for The Kinks' 'Dead End Street' because
it didn't like them making fun of funerals; Duran Duran made a series of high
budget videos in the early 80s featuring
scatily clad models in raunchy poses, one of which, featuring the girls mud
wrestling, was banned by the BBC: 'Girls on Film'. And in 1984 Frankie Goes To
Hollywood's Relax was banned both as a song and as a video, because of its
explicitly sexual theme, especially gay sex. In 1989 there was huge controversy
over Madonna's 'Like A Prayer', which was described by the Pope as blasphemous,
as it appeared to show Madonna kissing a black Christ-like figure and even had
overtones of oral sex between them. It also showed burning crucifixes, which
always guarantees controversy. Several Madonna videos have created controversy
over the years, another notable one being 'Justify My Love' which features
simulated sado-masochistic sex.
Eminem's
Stan, (violence against women) Marilyn Manson's Coma White (for recreating the
Kennedy assassination) and The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up (drug-taking,
vomiting and sex) all similarly stirred up controversy, outright bans or cuts
to their videos before the watershed. And just about everything on MTV Base at
some time or another has earned disapproval, particularly on the grounds of
explicit sexuality and the representation of gender. So controversy and
attempts to ban or censor music videos are nothing new.
Arguments
against music video
It is too
easy to simply dismiss anyone who complains about a music video as a killjoy.
The arguments are often much more complex than they might appear to be at first
sight. Undoubtedly, music videos do
exploit controversial themes in order to sell more product and it is all too
easy to stir up interest with some questionable sexual material and
particularly women on display for male pleasure. Some recent articles about the
Miley Cyrus video are here: The Mail Online asks if she has 'finally gone too
far' in an article which has almost as many screengrabs from the video as it
does words! Typically, The Daily Mail loves to condemn something by
simultaneously showing the reader to titillate them. The Guardian adopts a more
critical approach, arguing that the message of Miley's video is that young
women should be sexually available. Miley herself offers an argument which
suggests that the message of the song is expressed more in the opening than in
the scantily-clad parts of the video:
"I
think the video is much more, if people get past the point that I'm naked and
you actually look at me you can tell that I actually look more broken then even
the song sounds," Cyrus said. "The song is a pop ballad. It's one of
these songs that everyone is going to relate to, everyone has felt that feeling
at one point."
The video is
directed by fashion photographer, Terry Richardson; a number of commentators
have raised concerns about the exploitation of young models in his photos,
slipping into pornography at times, making him a dubious choice as director for
Miley's video. The video, and Miley's appearance 'twerking' at the MTV awards,
has been a focus of the backlash against music video recently, leading to calls
in the Uk for legislation and the involvement of politicians. The debate hotted
up when Sinead O'Connor, whose famous video for 'Nothing Compares to U'is
clearly the inspiration for the opening of Wrecking Ball, sent an open letter
to Miley saying she was being 'pimped' by the music industry. Annie Lennox also
weighed in with some views, posting them on her facebook page.
Whatever you
think about it, it is hard to deny that it's a hit! The video broke all records
for the number of views on Vevo in the first 24 hours and became the fastest
ever to 100 million views on the channel. Given that streaming views count
towards chart positions in the USA, that helped it to reach the top, in a way
that the song itself probably would not have done.
In the past,
of course, pre-internet, it might have been possible to age restrict the
audience for a music video, either by banning it from TV or not playing it till
late at night, or even by cutting bits of it out to play a 'safe' version. With
the online age, that is not really feasible, as any kind of age restriction can
be by-passed relatively easily.
A key
assumption of much of the coverage is that the video has a particular 'meaning'
that the young audience will take from it. This is problematic, and it is rare
to find, in any moral panic around the media, any evidence of how audiences
actually respond to particular texts. This is particularly interesting in the
case of Lily Allen's video, which is clearly designed to be a parody of
mainstream videos' treatment of women, which immediately won quite a lot of
praise from people pleased with her mockery of sexism, but quickly faced a
backlash as many people started to question the representation of race in the
video, as the black dancers appeared to be objectified by it. So while Lily
Allen was arguing that the industry objectified and demeaned women in the
interests of men, her video appeared to be doing the same to black women in the
interests of white.
Here are the
articles by Suzanne Moore, in the Guardian, Lily Allen defending the video, and
Ellie Mae O'Hagan discussing it in relation to debates about feminism.'
-Pete's Blog
'Every so
often, music video becomes the object of a bit of a moral panic, where various
writers and groups offer their opinion on how dangerous the form might be for
young people, usually citing a particular example as having 'gone too far' and
suggesting that the boundaries have been pushed just that bit further. Often,
this leads to calls for new regulations, usually in the form of age
restrictions.
Recently, there
has been a lot of controversy about two videos in particular: Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' and Lily Allen's
'Hard out Here'. In this week's blog, I'll point you to a bit of context and
some of the evidence, so that you can decide for yourself.
History of
Controversy
As I have
indicated, this controversy is nothing new. Given that music videos are aimed
at a youthful audience, it is no surprise that they frequently depict things
that older generations might be likely to disapprove of; the format also allows
quite a lot of freedom in terms of structure- music videos don't have to tell a
story or even 'make sense' and work as an 'interpretation' of the song. Back in
1966, the BBC banned this promo film for The Kinks' 'Dead End Street' because
it didn't like them making fun of funerals; Duran Duran made a series of high
budget videos in the early 80s featuring
scatily clad models in raunchy poses, one of which, featuring the girls mud
wrestling, was banned by the BBC: 'Girls on Film'. And in 1984 Frankie Goes To
Hollywood's Relax was banned both as a song and as a video, because of its
explicitly sexual theme, especially gay sex. In 1989 there was huge controversy
over Madonna's 'Like A Prayer', which was described by the Pope as blasphemous,
as it appeared to show Madonna kissing a black Christ-like figure and even had
overtones of oral sex between them. It also showed burning crucifixes, which
always guarantees controversy. Several Madonna videos have created controversy
over the years, another notable one being 'Justify My Love' which features
simulated sado-masochistic sex.
Eminem's
Stan, (violence against women) Marilyn Manson's Coma White (for recreating the
Kennedy assassination) and The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up (drug-taking,
vomiting and sex) all similarly stirred up controversy, outright bans or cuts
to their videos before the watershed. And just about everything on MTV Base at
some time or another has earned disapproval, particularly on the grounds of
explicit sexuality and the representation of gender. So controversy and
attempts to ban or censor music videos are nothing new.
Arguments
against music video
It is too
easy to simply dismiss anyone who complains about a music video as a killjoy.
The arguments are often much more complex than they might appear to be at first
sight. Undoubtedly, music videos do
exploit controversial themes in order to sell more product and it is all too
easy to stir up interest with some questionable sexual material and
particularly women on display for male pleasure. Some recent articles about the
Miley Cyrus video are here: The Mail Online asks if she has 'finally gone too
far' in an article which has almost as many screengrabs from the video as it
does words! Typically, The Daily Mail loves to condemn something by
simultaneously showing the reader to titillate them. The Guardian adopts a more
critical approach, arguing that the message of Miley's video is that young
women should be sexually available. Miley herself offers an argument which
suggests that the message of the song is expressed more in the opening than in
the scantily-clad parts of the video:
"I
think the video is much more, if people get past the point that I'm naked and
you actually look at me you can tell that I actually look more broken then even
the song sounds," Cyrus said. "The song is a pop ballad. It's one of
these songs that everyone is going to relate to, everyone has felt that feeling
at one point."
The video is
directed by fashion photographer, Terry Richardson; a number of commentators
have raised concerns about the exploitation of young models in his photos,
slipping into pornography at times, making him a dubious choice as director for
Miley's video. The video, and Miley's appearance 'twerking' at the MTV awards,
has been a focus of the backlash against music video recently, leading to calls
in the Uk for legislation and the involvement of politicians. The debate hotted
up when Sinead O'Connor, whose famous video for 'Nothing Compares to U'is
clearly the inspiration for the opening of Wrecking Ball, sent an open letter
to Miley saying she was being 'pimped' by the music industry. Annie Lennox also
weighed in with some views, posting them on her facebook page.
Whatever you
think about it, it is hard to deny that it's a hit! The video broke all records
for the number of views on Vevo in the first 24 hours and became the fastest
ever to 100 million views on the channel. Given that streaming views count
towards chart positions in the USA, that helped it to reach the top, in a way
that the song itself probably would not have done.
In the past,
of course, pre-internet, it might have been possible to age restrict the
audience for a music video, either by banning it from TV or not playing it till
late at night, or even by cutting bits of it out to play a 'safe' version. With
the online age, that is not really feasible, as any kind of age restriction can
be by-passed relatively easily.
A key
assumption of much of the coverage is that the video has a particular 'meaning'
that the young audience will take from it. This is problematic, and it is rare
to find, in any moral panic around the media, any evidence of how audiences
actually respond to particular texts. This is particularly interesting in the
case of Lily Allen's video, which is clearly designed to be a parody of
mainstream videos' treatment of women, which immediately won quite a lot of
praise from people pleased with her mockery of sexism, but quickly faced a
backlash as many people started to question the representation of race in the
video, as the black dancers appeared to be objectified by it. So while Lily
Allen was arguing that the industry objectified and demeaned women in the
interests of men, her video appeared to be doing the same to black women in the
interests of white.
Here are the
articles by Suzanne Moore, in the Guardian, Lily Allen defending the video, and
Ellie Mae O'Hagan discussing it in relation to debates about feminism.'
-Pete's Blog
