Iconic pop diva, Annie Lennox, has spoken out about the possible need for ratings in pop videos – and having listened to her, she makes some very strong points that i haven’t thought about before.
We have ratings for films, DVD’s, games, so why not pop videos too?
[h2]Ratings for art?[/h2]
But if this happens, could it extend to other things? How about ratings for Art? Poetry? Books? What do you think?
[blockquote]Clearly pop music videos are more sexuliased and explicit than ever before, and certainly many of those artists have a very young fan base.[/blockquote]
But is it the same for art, which has always very easily and openly explored sexual themes and sexuality. Art reflects life, and sexuality is an inherent and profound part of life.
I am not 100% sure – but I do not recall that any art exhibition has ever had official ratings applied to it? I didn’t notice any 18 certificate on the cover of ’50 shades a Grey’, which was available to all and piled up high at the entrance to WHSmith and in your face at the TESCO Tills. I have sometimes been advised not to take children to certain theatre shows by a line of blurb on the flyer – but never had any official restriction?
[h2]Complex and Controversial Topic[/h2]
But Annie Lennox has really raised some excellent points, on what is certainly a very complex topic.
[blockquote]How do you stop your kids being exposed to it? It’s so powerful. You don’t want to see your seven-year-old girls twerking all over the place.[/blockquote]
No doubt, her views will attract contoversy – especially as her own visual imagary in her own videos and promotional material has been quite striking over the years. But I hope very much that her thoughts will not be twisted out of context by the masses, as she is not critisicing the artists, in fact she applauds them for their creativity and visual style.
The frontwoman for 90s pop band The Eurythmics is simply suggesting the idea that some of the material they produce should be marked age appropriateley, and its distribution be managed in the same way that film is.
Annie Lennox previously wrote on her Facebook page that if a pop star created “a soft porn video or highly sexualised live performance, then it needs to qualify as such and be X-rated for adults only
[h2]What if pop videos were rated?[/h2]
But what if pop videos were rated – how does the industry manage its distribution?
In the same way that children could easliy have accessed any of the sex scenes in 50 Shades of Grey, they can sureley also see easily access Miley Cyrus next ‘Twerking’ video on You Tube whenever they want, regardless of suitability – and Tou Tube activeley promotes such content on its home page, in an attempt to entice us all to see, and indirectly support their advertisers.
I suppose that question of availability and access takes us into the realms of parenting – and like I say, this issue is complex.
Equally as complex a question is iasking if music video ratings were introduced, where does it stop – if the actual video is rated, should the actually audio version of the music be too. What we hear may be just as – or even more – explicit than what we see. It wasn’t that long ago that despite the whole world wearing ‘Frankie Says…’ T-shirts, you were not allowed to hear their hit song ‘Relax’ on the radio. I listened to Relax recently, and struggled to recall what all the fuss was about.
As for Twerking, well yes, that is clearly a sexual display… and I guess the question there is does anyone want to that in your face whilst trying to have your tea, let alone children being exposed to it?
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What do you think about Annie Lennox view about music videos?
How do you feel about this being extended to have pieces of art or entire exhibitions rated?
Comments below please
