Do We Need Age Limits On Music Videos? (Music Video Feature)
Friday, 06 January 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
As time progresses, people tend to push the boundaries further in varying formats. In terms of music, artists have most certainly been pushing the boundaries in their songs and videos, so much so that the Prime Minister is considering putting age limits on certain music videos.
While the idea of censorship or banned videos isn’t a new thing, the raunchiness and ‘disturbing’ imagery causing concern is becoming more of a cultural norm nowadays. Whether or not these bother you personally is one matter, but David Cameron is looking to put age restrictions on numerous videos to avoid young children becoming influenced or affected by the images in videos deemed too adult for them. According to The Daily Telegraph, they have seen a letter confirming that there are plans to put age limits on videos to stop “the commercialisation and sexualisation” of youngsters.
This topic has drawn the focus towards the mass of videos that have warranted bans, complaints and censorships to date, spiralling from the mainstream to the alternative. Not all culprits are as explicit as certain tracks by Rammstein or Placebo, only viewable on x-rated websites, but there’s a fair share who were deemed worthy of condemnation by some people; and here are some...
Rihanna (pictured above) is the prime example in today’s music scene of the mainstream artist being slammed for sexualisation. A funny little story within that is the farmer who stopped Rihanna filming a video in his field when her shirt came off because he felt she was getting too raunchy. RiRi? Raunchy? Never! A key example would be ‘S&M’, where her video vividly depicts the title with further sexual content. The lyrics find themselves censored on radio; there’s no replacement, they genuinely just blur out the noise of ‘chains and whips’. With each video seemingly getting raunchier or dabbling in further violence, Rihanna is the target of those seeking to put age restrictions on videos since her videos are, at times, just flat out smut.
Lady Gaga is the other member of the pop elite causing controversy with her videos on a daily basis. Whether it’s the nudity in 'Telephone' with a line confirming she ‘didn’t have a dick’, or the religious imagery visible in ‘'Alejandro'’, Gaga is pushing the boundaries of artistic intent. With every decision, she has a considered justification, but more and more people seem happy to claim she is being bold and different for the sake of attaining the shock factor.
The most officially censored artist to date is Britney Spears, who has found seven of her videos under fire. For the most part, her videos have been scrutinised for the amount of nudity involved – 'Toxic', 'Gimme More', 'Piece Of Me', 'Womanizer'. Most notably, her video for 'Everytime' caused quite a stir by depicting an implicit suicide attempt following an argument. This hasn’t deterred Britney; 'Criminal' – released last year – was cited to be inappropriate for featuring sexual content, gun violence and domestic abuse. A far cry from the schoolgirl in ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’, albeit a more scantily clad schoolgirl than the norm.
Second for the title of most censored artist, for the mainstream at least, is the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna. With five of her videos seemingly requiring censorship, her reasons are a bit more diverse than nudity – although that often does feature as a reason. While ‘American Life’ depicts harsh violence and murder, ‘Erotica’ - surprise of the century - was slammed for its strong sexual content. The most prolific video on her list is ‘Like A Prayer’, where murder and violence were teamed with was is, in proper terms, considered ‘religious iconography’. Madonna found herself under serious fire for drawing a strong link between religion and sexuality, something Gaga has also come under fire for in more recent times. Either way, she seems to have learned her lesson. Her last video to be slammed as inappropriate was ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl’ back in 2001...
From the Queen of Pop to Queen. Fun fact: Did you know Queen’s ‘Body Language’ was the first ever video banned by MTV? Seemingly sweaty bodies writhing against each other to the sound of Mr. Mercury’s moans was enough to tick them off.
Moving away from pure mainstream icons, we have The Prodigy. While their announcement for Download split the masses somewhat (who knows why...), the metal community should relish their troublemaking ways through their two definitive videos. ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ revels in explicit nudity, indulges in drug use and flaunts violence – unsurprisingly this didn’t sit well with many. The song title doesn’t exactly suggest an elegant tea party, though, does it? Top Of The Pops bore the brunt of their ‘Firestarter’ video, finding a mass of complaints from viewers after it was played in 1996. Seemingly the band were asked to make an alternative, friendlier version by the BBC and they told them... well, probably a more fruitful version of no.
Sepultura also faced a video ban from MTV courtesy of 1991’s ‘Arise’. This effort depicts a number of Chirst-like beings nailed to crosses with gas masks. Unsurprisingly, the religious impact this had was a key reason as to why the video was pulled. Soundgarden followed a similar suit with ‘Jesus Christ Pose’; the video featured burning crucifixes and a crucified skeleton. The woman on the cross caused particular issue, which Chris Cornell justified as being a representation of the lifelong persecution of women. Religious fanatics didn’t buy it.
The Smashing Pumpkins at least had the courtesy to put a warning at the start of their video for ‘Try Try Try’, a styled documentary following two drug addicts on a day they eventually overdose. Warning or not, this video was slammed with heavy censorship.
Korn’s video ‘A.D.I.D.A.S’ (All Day I Dream About Sex) was criticised for ‘disturbing images’; this involves a car crash, corpses thrashing around as they seemingly come alive in their body bags and them all ending up in a rather creepy looking morgue. Some suggest the video should be censored as the depiction of a crash at the hands of a pimp and his lady friends isn’t suitable for younger Korn fans. The alternative options tend to be more grotesque or horrific, but if there was a title for the leader of controversy, it would go to one man...
Marilyn Manson. His video for ‘Coma White’ was a direct parody of the 1963 assassination for President John F. Kennedy. Manson defends this decision, saying it was a “metaphor for America's obsession and worship of violence”, yet the reason didn’t fly. To those who give Marilyn Manson attention, you’ll know he’s actually a very intelligent being, so the reasoning is plausible. To the masses, however, this was flat out provocation.
In 2003, his video for ‘(S)AINT’ hit the headlines for more explicit factors. The video features blatant drug use, full frontal nudity, bondage and simulated sex. Who says you need to just tick people off with one thing per video? Marilyn Manson is the typically understood musician. While he admittedly provokes a lot through his work, much thrown at him is unjust. In fact, he dealt with the accusations of inspiring massacres more maturely than many discussing it but he does like to push a few buttons through his visual offerings. Without an element of shock, Manson wouldn’t be as renowned as he is now.
It wouldn’t be the same without some explicit R&B inclusion. Jay Z was doing well with his ‘99 Problems’ video until he was shot at the end. While he claims this was a representation of something deeper, the attack didn’t fly for mainstream TV and has been cut short often. Nelly’s ‘Tip Drill’ is almost a testament to Sir Mixalot’s proclamation of the gluteus maximus. Women complained in the masses saying his video demeaned women and depicted them as simple objects, but from a brief glance it looks like Nelly’s just a guy who likes big butts and he cannot lie.
Nas ft. P. Diddy falls foul in the same vein as Sepultura and Soundgarden with their video for ‘Hate Me Now’. Nas appears on the cross with a crown of thorns; needless to say this caused an immediate religion-fuelled backlash. He defended himself, proclaiming he is a full believer in Christ and this was not a representation of his death, yet that seems highly unlikely.
It is probably a fair idea to put age limits on some music videos; there’s enough listed above that we’d most likely not want our own children to see at a young age. The issue, though, is that many will just lie. We all did it. How many of us had a Myspace before they turned 14? Or just flat out ticked a box saying you’re over eighteen when you clearly weren’t?
It’s understandable that the raunchier videos are deemed unsuitable for youngsters and that some of the more grotesque would be a little too scary or unsettling. There are countless other artists who have found themselves subject to criticism or censorship for their work, far too many to name. While it doesn’t personally cause issue to be a bit more risky or gory in videos, it’s admittedly quite amusing to go through lists upon lists of videos people found minute fault with. It’s a safe bet to say none of the abovementioned videos will have a PG rating, at least.
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