Media Classification of Music Videos Continued

Media Classification of Music Videos Continued

Year on Year it is becoming more and more difficult for websites such as YouTube to regulate the music videos as there are more and more artists which are producing more and more music videos that includes explicit content such as very strong language, sexual themes and inappropriate themes that are all inappropriate for people aged under 18. As it is becoming clearer that it is so difficult to regulate music videos, the Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that all music videos viewed by people within the United Kingdom will now have an age rating label that will be stamped on the front of the music video or the music CD cover as well as the Digipak. This is a new pilot scheme that has been introduced by David Cameron after it came to light about Rhianna’s music video and song, S and M which was and is extremely inappropriate, this video sparked a lot of debate on these types of videos and how these types of videos should be regulated in an effective way so the correct audience age is watching the music videos. Rhianna’s music video for her song S and M had such a bad reception due to the fact that throughout the whole video things such as ball gags, blow up dolls and fetish all of which is inappropriate for audiences under the age of 18. From all of these David Cameron felt that some kind of regulation needed to be put into place in order to regulate sites such as YouTube as YouTube is the website/app which is most used by people watching videos, targeting the main websites and apps that are used by audiences.

Another example of a music video that became extremely well known for its very explicit content was the song that was sung by Robin Thicke called; Blurred Lines. This song was released with two different versions of the music videos, one of the versions that was released featured female models dancing around Robin Thicke in the nude whilst he was fully clothed in a suit, this of course sparked major crushing criticism for the music artist, Robin Thicke as well as the music video director, all of this criticism came from the general public making it one of the most controversial music videos of all time. This music video can also be linked to the signs and signifier’s theory as the women are nude throughout the duration of the music video whilst the men in the music video are fully clothed showing that women are underneath men in hierarchical terms, which is extremely wrong in the modern day.

There should be some type of regulation that should be put into place to regulate when people are watching these music videos and more importantly who is actually watching these music videos. A new way of regulating music videos needs to be put into place as the current way of regulating music videos are not effective and need to be changed in order to regulate music videos more closely. The website/app, YouTube regulates explicit videos for people over the age of 18 by placing a tick box which the viewer has to tick in order to continue and watch the video, by ticking the box you confirm that you are 18 or over, anyone can tick a box which therefore leaves the video open for any member of the general public to then watch.