Research: Controversial Music Video

I wanted to take a look at a controversial music video and for me, there is not much better an example than Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. It was released in March 2013 and became the best-selling single in the UK for the entire year. Here is the video. 

The unrated version of the Blurred Lines music video was so controversial that it was forced to be taken off of YouTube after just one week of being uploaded. However, the video reappeared on YouTube and Vevo two months later, but with an age lock, meaning only people aged 18 and over were intended to be able to access the video. They also released a censored version of the video, which interestingly has had 362,000,000 views on YouTube (as opposed to the uncensored version's 37,000,000 views). There are a few reasons the video caused such controversy.

Most obviously, there are boobs everywhere in this video. This is probably because it encourages the male gaze, which will pull in a larger audience for the video. Many people will argue that this video objectifies women and does not treat them with respect. The males are clearly represented as the superior gender and more powerful. This nudity also wouldn't be appropriate for a younger audience, which especially when the video was originally released, it would have been very easy for a child to find on the Internet. 

At one point, one of the females is seen to be riding a life-sized dog model, in a similar way to how one would ride a horse. To many people, this would be seen as implying that animal cruelty is acceptable and this is an appropriate way to treat a dog. This caused controversy because the video appears to be condoning treating animals in such a way. 

One of the females is also seen to be lighting a cigarette for Robin Thicke and he smokes it. He blows the smoke in the woman's face. Many people would see Robin Thicke as a role model and so to smoke in his music video implies that he is encouraging other people to do it, despite it being so dangerous. It is controversial that Robin Thicke is seen to be promoting smoking. 

There are also some big balloons that spell out "Robin Thicke has a big dick". They're fairly hard to miss - a bit like his penis apparently. This message promotes the idea that peoples' bodies matter, perhaps making others feel insecure about themselves. Also, having females with such perfect, stereotypical bodies also sends out the message to audiences that you should look like this and if you don't, then you are not as cool. 

Arguably, the controversy worked - having such a controversial music video and song lead this to be globally one of the most successful songs of the year. It gets people talking about it, listening and watching it together. This can be said for many controversial videos.