Why are videos banned?
- Music videos are banned if they are considered too extreme in anyway
- Many artists will receive a ban on television and sometimes youtube if their video is considered too sexual, too violent, too political etc.
- Some artists though are highly controversial for a reason, whether it be to garner media attention, make a statement or artistically express their mental state they amy release a music video despair the huge controversy that surrounds it.
MIA born free
- Some artists in their music videos are highly controversial in order to express a certain political message or a message they believe to be relevant to the public.
- MIA grew up in Sri Lanka and witnessed lots of atrocities, attempted genocide and mass killings in her time there.
- She is also passionate about the fact that atrocities happen everyday but they were swept under the rug as if they never existed in the first place.
- MIA wanted to depict a real event that happens but made into something fake to give people perspective on the horrors going on in our world.
- MIA had a lot of control over the whole project writing the whole music video out herself and without telling her record company.
- The controversial French director Romain Gavras was hired to be the director of the video.
- the video positions us to see red heads as a minority group that is clearly being blamed for the societies problems (or perhaps it is because they are different) as a result they are rounded up on a bus and taken to be exterminated.
- The audience is positioned to see them as victims of genocide, reminiscent of the jewish in the holocaust or atrocities in Sri Lanka.
- The idea that they play the victims of mass atrocities is also emphasised by the fact that there is a poster in the street of red heads with the claim "our day will come" beneath it.
- Non red headed guards imitate and are presented like the leaders and authorities in many atrocities, they are presented as the predators of the minorities, senselessly killing them.
- Censorship was taken on this video and it was taken down due to the fact it was claimed to be too violent.
- The video clip features a red head being blown up, a young boy with his brains blown out and another getting violently beaten
- This infers the extreme violence against all the red heads.
- It was also censored because people believed it "hit to close to home"and was almost too real and too confronting for people to watch due to the representations of the red heads as a minority group in a genocide and comments on the absurdity of genocide
- Despite its censoring and many people believing the video was too much, it was well critically acclaimed because of the representations presented in the video
- Many appreciated the accurate portrayals of military violence, brutality and force.
- As her own institution MIA was angered by the censoring of her message and the fact that people reacted with so much sadness and anger towards her video but barely aknowledged the real events it was based off.
- Her director claims
"How can you be shocked by the M.I.A. video and not shocked when Israel bombs Gazafor days and days...Really crazy stuff where people actually die, real things."
Blurred lines
- The blurred lines music video is intentionally controversial due to the insitutions of Robin Thicke, Pharrell williams, the prodcers of the song, their record companies and the director of the video wanting to garner as much attention, hype and controversy around the video.
- It was a banned video due to the fact it had strong themes of rape culture throughout the video
- It was also highly degrading to women
- They did this by harnessing specific representations of the people in the video and using highly controversial lyrics as a backdrop for the action.
- One of the main aspects of this video that causes extreme amounts of controversy are the lyrics. They depict rape culture claiming that it is okay to blur the lines between consential sex and rape if the woman seems like she wants it.
- As part of an institution Robin thick copped a lot of flack for the song. He attempted to rebuttal this in serval interviews.
- he claimed that because he was married with children he was the perfect person to sing a song about this.
- As another part of the institution Pharrel williams attempted to calm the controversy stating "I know you want it wasn't meant to be sexually suggestive but rather suggest that even good girls have bad thoughts."
- This dress of the controversy did little to quell public outrage.
- the outrage was also fuelled by the representations of the video
- In the video the men are represented as "player" like characters who girls are attracted to, they are not however displayed as objects of sex, being fully clothed.
- Fully naked women prance around them, lighting cigarettes for the men, inferring acts of bastiality, being aided by the men to take drugs while the men whisper "I know you want it" in their ear.
- The women are simply objects of sex in the video contrasting the men by being fully naked.
- As part of the institutions williams thick and the director Diane Martel had a lot of control over the controversy in the film clip
- Thicke spoke out about the film clips controversy in an interview explaining how as an institution they chose to be extremely controversial for the publicity and hype around the video. They wanted the song to be huge. "we tried to do everything that was taboo bestiality, drug injections, everything that was derogitory towards women."
- He then went on to claim that he was actually a good person and never had degrading women before which unfortunately didn't help his reputation.
- he stated
"What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I've never gotten to do that before. Ive always respected women. "
Born to die
- As a major part of her institution Lana del rey has always displayed a highly glorified morbid disposition to the public which likely stems from the fact that she claims to suffer from several severe mental illnesses
- Although it may not be intentional Lana del rey's glorification of sadness, suicide and dying young and beautiful has become a large part of her brand.
- The representations in her music videos highly reflect this.
- she claims to use her music and art as a means to express her sadness and depressive mindsets.
- One of the most prominent examples of her self destructive mindset occurs in her music video Born To Die.
- The film clip was banned from television due to the fact that it glorified suicide.
- The morbid music video is also coupled by depressive lyrics "choose your last words this is the last time. Cause you and I we were born to die."
- Lana del rey has always been known to idolise tragic stars such as Amyy winehouse, Kurt Cobain and Marilyn Monroe.
- Lana del rey is portrayed as extremely sad and the video features many clips of her sitting in rich ad luscious borders staring sadly at the floor, morbidly singing to the camera in great french cathedrals surrounded by white tigers in lush beautiful clothes or else lying with her tattooed clad boyfriend in beautifully furnished rooms.
- These clips create the representation of Lana in her prime, currently she is beautiful, she is wealthy, she is surrounded by fame and money and men yet it is deliciously tragic that among all the lushness that she is depressed.
- these rich shots are juxtaposed with her and her man in their dark car screaming down the highway. the representation of their deliciously tragic and imminent suicide is created here and highly glorified through the way they look away from the road and kiss each other passionately driving to their death. the video ends with the man carrying Lana's bloodied body from his car
- The representation Lana is trying to create is that it is a beautiful thing to die young beautiful and wealthy,
- her self expression of her depression
