DISTRIBUTION: Music Video Age Ratings

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING:

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POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• Due to the school context of my production I would never include extreme violence or sexuality (limit of creativity), however there are some hints of it, very subtle.
• I had hoped to include some Heterosexual Female Gaze/Homosexual Male Gaze with ripped shirts, however only my original performer for Brett Anderson was alright with this, my replacement wasn't, plus the weather would have made it very difficult to film.

EXAMPLES FROM MY ARTIST
ANIMAL NITRATE
Was apparently banned for depicting two men kissing, however that didn't let its stop becoming the first winner of the Euro Video Song Contest.
From the wiki:

The band caused some controversy with the video when it was banned for its depiction of two men engaging in a kiss.^{[citation needed]}

WE ARE THE PIGS
Featuring Dystopian themes, following a loose narrative of violent anarchy, with the artists also framed and edited in a horror-like manner, and including a baby left in distress on a rubbish dump.



From the wiki entry:

The video, directed by David and Raphael Vital-Durand, features a grim, Nineteen Eighty-Four-like setting. It was initially banned by some TV stations including MTV for being too violent. The video features car burnings, cross burnings, and various violence to humans.

The banning of MTV affects the promotion of the artist. So just like the darker theme of the music saw them pushed down the charts, the visual imagery of this video also meant they were prevented from further coverage, especially in the USA (where a legal dispute with an artist of the same name hadn't helped either)


NIGHT THOUGHTS
Instead of a few music videos, a filmic representation of the whole album.



As a full feature film, it has its own BBFC entry:
The issues raised were moderate violence and sex references, no swearing as the whole film is dubbed with the music.



EXAMPLES OF CENCORSHIP

CLEAN VERSIONS
ROBIN THICKE BLURRED LINES 
PLEASE NOTE: Highly sexually graphic content



They filmed two different versions, this being one where Male Gaze



Here are some examples where censorship has been turned into satire.

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The German indie band Kraftklub did something similar with their zombie-insipired video Fenster.

Here also there were performance elements of the rest of the band added.

VIOLENCE

MAROON 5 - ANIMALS
From the boyband Maroon 5, their lead singer Adam Levine was a huge sex symbol (Sexiest Man Alive Award). With this video, he is portrayed as a stalker of a typical American blonde woman (played by his girlfriend). This was supposed to give the band a darker edge, however caused huge controvery and the band received flak.

In this article, Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti slammed the video for trivialising the issue of stalking

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I’m sure Levine and his bandmates think they’ve done something edgy here – ooh, so dark! – but there is nothing “alternative” about showing women being stalked, hunted, raped or killed because it’s something that happens every damn day.What’s particularly disturbing about Animals is that the song’s message – that men are “animals” with no self control – implies there is nothing we can do about issues of sexual violence. If sexual predators are “animals”, or “crazy”, than it absolves us of social responsibility ... because you can’t control an animal, amiright? It’s just in their nature. (A fairly insulting vision of male sexuality, I must say.) Maroon 5’s Animals also comes on the heels of a Time article from professional provocateur Camille Paglia, who argued, apparently in all seriousness, that a culture that condones and glamorizes violence against women isn’t the problem - “evil” is. “Young women do not see the animal eyes glowing at them in the dark,” she wrote.

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DAVID BOWIE - THE NEXT DAY
An interesting comparison case study with the Maroon 5 example. Bowie ever since his landmark Ziggy Stardust persona was known for sexuality in the visualisation of music (using guitars as phallic symbols), however this video is more or less void of sexual content.
It however has similar use of gore as in Maroon 5's video.
It is an critical attack on the Catholic Church, amplifying the anti lyrics (one of Goodwin's six music video conventions) . and representing the priests as a Mafiaso-type organisation in a bar, deconstructing various themes and motifs.

Receiving flak from the Catholic Church (NME report):

Writing in The Telegraph, former Archbishop of Cantebury Lord Carey states that the video is “juvenile” and criticises Bowie for “upsetting people”. “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery perhaps Christians should not worry too much at such an exploitation of religious imagery,” Carey writes. “I doubt that Bowie would have the courage to use Islamic imagery – I very much doubt it. Frankly, I don’t get offended by such juvenilia – Christians should have the courage to rise above offensive language, although I hope Bowie will recognise that he may be upsetting some people.”
Additionally, the Catholic League, which bills itself as America’s “largest Catholic civil rights organisation”, has taken issue with the video’s overtly religious subject matter – posting a scathing blog post on its website titled “BOWIE’S ‘JESUS’ VIDEO IS A MESS”.
The group’s President Bill Donohue writes: “David Bowie is back, but hopefully not for long. The switch-hitting, bisexual, senior citizen from London has resurfaced, this time playing a Jesus-like character who hangs out in a nightclub dump frequented by priests, cardinals and half-naked women.”
Continuing, Donohue claims that the video is”strewn with characteristic excess” and Bowie himself is described as “nothing if not confused about religion”. Donohue concludes: “In short, the video reflects the artist – it is a mess.”

BAN FROM YOUTUBE:
In a matter of only two hours the video was taken off YouTube and banned. Does this prove that despite freedom of speech, there is still a Christian hegemony in our culture, like in Ireland when Stephen Fry was nearly jailed for comments.
From the wiki:

The video gained wide attention and caused a controversy. It was banned from YouTube just two hours after its release due to "violation of YouTube's Terms of Service."^[4][12][13] However, the video returned on the website shortly after its removal, with an age restriction. A YouTube spokeswoman stated: "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it."^[3][13][14]

Reinstated with an adult-only version:

Reuters News

The video was soon reported and taken off by YouTube, and then later marked Explicit when put back. Why was not similar action undertaken with the outcry reaction to Animals?


CARAVAN PALACE - LONE DIGGER
A video which looks like an innocent animation, but turns very gory, and also has blood splattered on sexualised female bodies. The location is a stripclub, so it is anchored very quickly this is not a child-friendly narrative, however that is something that would quite likely not be noticed by children before the violence starts.



SEXUALITY (+links with gender)
GECKO DRIVE

This video has sex scenes, and in the context of the inhuman characters, bodily fluids, which is something very controversial to show (less so for Sex in the City)

This starts off having this warning, however has not been marked explicit

 

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MYKKI BLANCO
Guardian article:, where comparisons to several controversies with sexuality including, as well as another landmark drag video, Queen's I Want To Break Free.

Madonna’s BDSM bedroom antics in Justify My Love. Freddie Mercury in drag as a housewife for I Want To Break Free. Too-hot-for-BBC leather daddies in Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax. Pop music has long been a place for subverting sexual norms, not least in videos. But for queer artists in 2016, it feels as if this medium of expression could be under threat.

This rapper argues (with strong language), that LGBT+ videos and art in general is attempting to be silenced through these new age restrictions.

The fact that we’re having such a political conversation over a campy video like Loner, which is as sexual as an evening at a Ringling Brothers Circus, is sad,” Blanco says. “That video is a celebration of kitsch, in many ways turning the pop aesthetic on its head, empowering the LGBTQ [community] through its flamboyance.”
Streaming sites might think that age restrictions are helpful, but acceptance won’t change if some queer art is deemed illicit. Blanco himself vows to make bulgier, queerer visuals in future. “We combat this by saying: ‘F*** you, we will not be silenced,’” he says, “[and] demanding our art not be treated as ‘less than’. We will get there.”

AGE RATING FOR MY VIDEO
My video does not include any extreme levels of sexuality and violence (the former unlike the video of my course mate Evie Gibbons)

There are some small hints of sensuality

The smoking in the video, along with the use of an image on digipak and website and social media would be read as glamorising this lifestyle.