Music Video Controversy

Research:

Every so often, music videos become 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.

Within my chosen genre of ‘Pop’ music there has been much controversy over music videos, in recent years some of these include Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ and Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’.

People have named ‘Blurred Lines’ to be the most controversial song and music video of the decade. When looking at the music video for Robin Thicke’s blurred line music video the one thing that stands out to us are the half-naked girls that are strutting around the men. This can be seen as highly sexual and the women being greatly objectified. The University College London student union (UCLU) took the unusual step of even banning this song and it joins around 20 other UK student unions to do so. People argue that this song and music video promotes a very worrying attitude towards sex and consent. One blogger branded it a "rape song", and two months later Tricia Romano of the Daily Beast described it as "rapey", a word that caught fire in other media outlets. Other lyrics such as “You know you want it” stands out as it is suggesting that consent is no longer needed when it comes to sex. This song and music video has sparked much debate and has even led ‘anti- Robin Thicke protesters’ to the streets in Chicago protesting to get this highly explicit song banned all together. Even the most prominent model in the Blurred Lines video, Emily Ratajkowski, has said: "I'm glad that people are criticising pop lyrics, because I think that's an important thing to do."

Many people who follow pop music closely, however, are surprised that Blurred Lines has become such a lightning rod. "It really did boggle my mind when people started freaking out about it," says US music critic Maura Johnston. "This is just a cheesy pickup line song and everyone was like: 'No, it's about forcing a woman against her will.' There are so many songs out there that are worse about demeaning women. Thicke himself has been a woeful defender of the song in interviews, recalling Spinal Tap's response to being called sexist: "What's wrong with being sexy?”

This music video is also joined by Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ video as being one of the most controversial songs of the decade. This music video includes visuals of a naked Miley Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball as she sings. People have criticised this music video for being far too sexual especially because of the young fans that Miley has from being a massive Disney star, perhaps suggesting to young women that they should be more sexually available. Miley herself however, argues that the message of the song is expressed more in the opening of the song rather than the fast paced parts of the video. Miley explained: ‘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 than even the song sounds.’ 'I'm broken': The 20-year-old claims the provocative imagery is indicative of how vulnerable she feels adding: ‘The song is a pop ballad. It's one of these songs that everyone is gonna to relate to, everyone's felt that feeling at some point.’

Whatever you think of these songs it is hard to deny that they were huge hits, breaking records for the number one views on Vevo and in chart tables.

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 for 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.

In my own opinion that uproar based around these music videos should be present as both of them highly objectify women and I disagree with this. I agree with Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Graze’ theory where she explains that camera movements and visual highly sexualise and objectify women in music videos as they are filmed to be in the view from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This can lead to problems such as being seen as ‘rapey’ and even have effects on how women look at themselves in a demoralising way.

Planning:

In our own music video we plan not to make it include controversy or controversial ideas. We are doing this so that all people in our target audience can enjoy the music video and not have to be put off by it if it did include controversial ideas. I think that it is very important to have a music video that ALL can enjoy and this way it can reach out and gain a wider audience. To ensure that we do not include any controversy in our music video we are going to make sure all people that are seen in it are fully dress and are not seen as being purposefully objectified or sexualised. The lyrics of our chosen may be seen as controversial but we will make sure our visuals are not too extreme.