List of nudity in music videos

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The portrayal of nudity in music videos has always been controversial. Nudity has gained wider acceptance in European television, where in contrast to their American counterparts the audience perceive nudity and sexuality as less objectionable than the depiction of violence. MTV, VH1 and other North American music-related television channels usually censors what they think is unappropriated, and might be considered offensive, to their viewers.

[edit] Chronology

  • 1981: Soft Cell's "Sex Dwarf" original promotional video directed by Tim Pope featured Mark Almond and Dave Ball in a bloody butcher shop surrounded by chainsaws, nude actors, and dwarves. However, the film was confiscated by police and censored before it was even released. As a tongue-in-cheek substitute, a re-filmed "Sex Dwarf" appeared in Non-Stop Exotic Video Show featuring Almond dressed in a tuxedo, directing a symphony orchestra of dwarves.
  • 1983: The first official music video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" (also directed by Godley & Creme) was banned from both American MTV and British BBC. This video presented scenes of an orgy happening in a gay nightclub and featured a full-frontal male nudity scene. A second, and less offensive, music video had to be recorded to promote the song in both sides of the Atlantic.
  • 1987: The music video for The Tubes's "Sports Fan" started with a scene of the vocalist of the band, Fee Waybill, fully naked. Since the band's popularity has declined through the mid-1980s, this video was completly ignored by MTV and other music video channels.
  • 1990: The music video for Pet Shop Boys' "Being Boring" was directed by the controversial American photographer Bruce Weber. On the first scene of it, a naked man is seen jumping on a trampoline from behind. On the next scenes, different people are seen taking a long shower bath. The song was never released as a single in the United States.
  • 1990: The music video for Madonna's "Justify My Love" was banned from both American MTV and Canadian MuchMusic. This video featured scenes of partial nudity, homosexuality, mild sado-masochism. MTV's pass on the video created a furor in the American media. ABC's Nightline played the video in its entirety and Madonna appeared on the program to defend her position and express her views on censorship. The video became a bestselling "video single" when released on the VHS-format later that year. In mid-2002, the video was aired on MTV2 in its entirety, as part of a special countdown titled the Most Controversial Music Videos.
  • 1992: The music video for Madonna's "Erotica" was aired a total of only three times on American MTV due to its highly-charged sexual content. The video was directed by Fabien Baron and was made in conjunction with the photo sessions of her Sex book. Madonna also shot another music video for "Erotica", known as the Uncensored Version. On this version of the video, Madonna appears doing nude poses.
  • 1997: The music video for The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" was universally banned from television, although massive demands on MTV made the channel show the video at the safe harbor hours. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, it depicted a night out in the city from an innovative and much imitated first-person perspective. Drinking, snorting, fighting, vandalism, sex and nudity were vital parts of its storyline. Somewhat antagonistically, however, the protagonist is later revealed to be a female.
  • 1998: The music video of Alanis Morissette's "Thank U", featured the singer walking nude on the streets, with her long hair shrouding her breasts. The video for "Thank U" was not well-received; nonetheless, many fans still regard it as groundbreaking. Slight modifications to the video were made before broadcasting by MTV in India and certain other Asian countries. Subsequent replays, however, aired the video in its original format.
  • 2000: The music video for Robbie Williams' "Rock DJ" was banned from several European music channels, including VH1, MTV and VIVA. But nudity wasn't the only reason for the banning of the video. The video starts with Williams dancing at a roller-disco with girls skating around him. He wants to get the attention of the female DJ standing above the stage, so he begins stripping off his clothes. After he is fully naked, and still does not get her attention, he starts stripping his flesh, muscles and organs, too, until the only thing that is left from him are his bones. In the end, he achieves the DJ's attention and dances with her as a skeleton. In 2001, "Rock DJ" won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects.
  • 2001: The music video for Björk's "Pagan Poetry", directed by Nick Knight, was the most controversial of that year. It featured Björk in a dress designed by Alexander McQueen, that covered only the lower portion of her body. The video also included distorted images of sexual intercourse, fellatio, and a graphic display of body piercing. The video was banned by American MTV, but was eventually shown in unedited form on MTV2 in a presentation of the Most Controversial Music Videos.
  • 2002: Christina Aguilera caused a huge controvesy with the premiere of her "Dirrty" music video. Beside the fact that there was no explicit nudity, the general public was impressed with Aguilera's new raunchy image - what probably made the song have a mediocre chart success in the United States. She would later say that her video suggested female empowerment, but this idea was not accepted by the public. The video would be banned from Thailand, bacause it contained Thai language posters that read "Thailand's Sex Tourism" and "Young Underage Girls".
  • 2002: The music video for Aerosmith's "Girls of Summer" featured a scene in which a man is humiliated after trying to flirt with a girl; she pulls his shorts down, and he runs with his buttocks exposed on a beach. American MTV censored this scene, digitally clothing the man's back. Nevertheless, European and Latin American MTVs showed the video with this scene unedited.

[edit] See also

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