10 music videos that have aged badly
While music videos wouldn’t come until the mid-20th century, a visual accompaniment to music has existed for over a hundred years. In the 1920s, silent films popularised by the likes of Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin would often rely on musical accompaniment to keep the ears awake. During this period, feature films were yet to take over and “musical short films” were exceedingly popular as a space-age alternative to the theatre.
If we fast forward to the 1960s, The Beatles famously created not only music videos but feature films to give their LPs, such as A Hard Day’s Night and Magical Mystery Tour, a visual dynamic to broaden the themes explored. However, music videos as we know them in the modern day weren’t incepted until August 1st, 1981.
This is an exceedingly specific date, given my previous ambiguity, but it marked the arrival of MTV. The seismic moment in music history was marked by the words: “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” from one of the channel’s founders, John Lack. The 24-hour cable channel was then fittingly kicked off with The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’.
As the 1980s unfolded, MTV became something of an industry-wide phenomenon, with artists commissioning top-flight filmmakers to helm their visual projects. We were met with an onslaught of synth-era cheesiness from sexually charged 20-somethings and a rose-tinted window into the rock ‘n’ roll world of artistic ostentation and hedonism.
Naturally, there was, and still is, a mass of cringe-worthy music videos that artists have doubtlessly regretted within hours of output, but some have aged worse than others. Below we bring you the ten music videos that have aged the worst.
10 music videos that have aged badly:
‘Lemon Incest’ – Serge Gainsbourg
The question of whether something can age badly when it was always purposefully courting controversy in the first place comes to the fore with ‘Lemon Incest’. In this classic act of wilful cause célèbre, Serge Gainsbourg sings of incest while sharing a bed suggestively with his then-12-year-old daughter, Charlotte. It is as intentionally disturbing as a video can get.
Subsequently, Charlotte has said that the prickly surface is there to serve a subversive point as the song is actually about “the infinite love of a father for his daughter and of a daughter for her father” and described it as “very innocent”. So, how is it more controversial today than it was in 1985? Well, it would seem that we are now more cognizant of the emotional distress that harrowing subjects can induce on victims. While Gainsbourg’s intent may well have been an exposition of the increasing sexualisation of the concept of love, the horror that can wreck for others goes beyond his artistic context.
‘Criminal’ – Britney Spears
Britney Spears’ music videos were never far from controversy. Hell, she was only 16 when ‘Baby One More Time’ was released, making it one of the most highly questionable sensations in music history. However, there was knowledge of that at the time. The uproar was no surprise to people, but when it comes to ‘Criminal’, you get that strange retrospective sensation of wondering, ‘How on Earth did people think this was OK?’
The acting is horrific enough, but the odd hammy domestic violence, rampant misogyny and glamourisation of guns and violence is nearly worse. Remarkably, this is played off as a sort of routine sexy thriller. Local London councillor Ian Rathbone even said that Spears should apologise to the area of Stoke Newington where it was filmed and make a sizable donation for “the rudeness and damage she’s done to this community”. Now there’s a man in search of a Christmas bonus.
‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ – The Offspring
The Offspring’s parody of cultural appropriation is an act of punk being hoisted by its own petard. The song is obviously poking fun at nerds who celebrate hip-hop culture, but in order to do so, it not only rolls out a string of troublesome stereotypes but also offers up misogyny in a crass swathe of naivety.
In essence, the women of colour who parade around the video are there purely to act as the target of white male lust. Even when he is tossed in the pool in an act of retribution, he is instantly greeted by the reward of women cavorting in bikinis. So, even when the male gaze is being laughed at, it still manages to come out on top.
‘Do What U Want’ – Lady Gaga
Both R. Kelly and director Terry Richardson have been investigated for extensive sexual misconduct charges, with Kelly convicted on a 30-year sentence. That’s hardly prime pedigree to have involved in your music video. Weirdly, it is actually worse than the criminal billing behind it suggests. The video and song are essentially an advocacy of rape. It features various suggestions of supporting sexual misconduct, including Kelly in the role of a doctor examining Gaga, who is wearing nothing but a surgical sheet with the words ‘Do What U Want’ ringing in the background.
Gaga has since called the video “absolutely horrifying and indefensible”. She continued: “My intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn’t processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life… I think it’s clear how explicitly twisted my thinking was at the time.”
‘Lapdance’ – N.E.R.D.
‘Lapdance’ has an interesting premise: it uses the concept of sex workers as a metaphor for the useless dialogue of politicians. In the process, it not only denigrates strippers as a means to represent the lowest form of nonsense, but it also aggressively toys with them throughout. There is even a moment where one woman is manhandled by Lee Harvey as he pushes her away by the neck.
Naturally, it is objectifying. That is, in essence, the point of the video and the context of the track. However, the level of sexual aggression is disturbing these days. There is a strong undercurrent on display that you, essentially, do what you want. This might have been lewdly sexual for teenagers back in the day, but it masked a lot of the problems that are now being addressed in the MeToo movement.
‘Dancing in the Street’ – David Bowie and Mick Jagger
Perhaps one of the most embarrassing moments of the 1980s, and yet one that I’m very thankful for, is David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s miscalculated rendition of Martha Reeves & the Vandellas’ 1964 hit ‘Dancing in the Street’. Given Jagger’s illustrious career fronting The Rolling Stones and Bowie’s impressive oeuvre of the ‘70s, this 1985 cover came with a shock and a little bit of bile.
Perhaps we can excuse the pair’s fashion choices as a thing of its time, and I must admit, I have a soft spot for Bowie’s get-up. However, I struggle to find an excuse for the hilarious dance moves and Jagger’s overcooked lip sync. This video has gone down as one of the bravest career choices in pop-music history, but for the laughter it conjures, I’m eternally grateful.
‘Country House’ – Blur
In the 1990s, Blur created some great music to rival Oasis during their fierce Britpop war. Given the Gallagher brothers’ attachment to anthemic Beatles worship, Blur often came out on top in terms of artistic depth and variation. It’s undecided who won the war, but the battle of August 14th, 1995, in which Oasis offered ‘Roll With It’ and Blur released ‘Country House’, was won by the Manchester lads in my eyes, despite Blur making it to number one.
‘Roll With It’ was by no means one of the Gallaghers’ strongest singles, but with ‘Country House’, Blur scored an own goal. The track was catchy enough to reach number one, but artistically, it festers on the same pile as ‘Girls & Boys’. To top it all off, the Blur boys created a hilarious music video starring Keith Allen. Its only redeeming quality is that it feels like the band members are laughing at themselves, too, here.
‘Heal the World’ – Michael Jackson
By the early 1990s, Michael Jackson had been at the cutting edge of pop music for over two decades. Thanks to his seminal solo output of the ‘80s, Jackson became one of the most famous stars in the world, with screams following him as surely as his shadow. Having grown up without much of a childhood and with the double-edged sword of fame impaling his mind from such a young age, Jackson was sadly a very troubled individual.
In 1991, the star released his eighth studio album, Dangerous, which contained nine singles. One of these was ‘Heal the World’, which, like 1995’s ‘Earth Song’, came with a humanitarian message for universal improvement. A year later, Jackson founded the Heal the World Foundation, a charitable organisation designed to improve the lives of children around the world. The music video seen below echoes the charity’s heartfelt intentions but has been marred by child sexual abuse allegations over the past two decades.
‘The Reflex’ – Duran Duran
The 1980s spawned some truly emetic audiovisual material, as this list attests. Duran Duran are perhaps one of the most ‘80s ‘80s groups out there, and in their early years, they struck a chord with listeners and made a killing with some infinitely catchy pop records. By 1983, with the release of their third studio album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Duran Duran began to show some cracks.
The album was the Birmingham group’s final to feature the original five-piece lineup, and it struggled to live up to the artistic quality of its predecessor, Rio. Perhaps the most famous of the album’s singles was ‘The Reflex’, a very dated song with an even more dated music video. For this, we can thank Simon Le Bon’s dance moves and the collective garb that would stick out like a sore thumb in any other decade.
‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ – The Buggles
For our final selection, we’re taking it right back to the start of MTV. While there’s nothing socio-politically off-putting about this video in the modern day, it certainly has a cringey “of its time” feel. From the aged animation effects to the lacquered suits and tinsel wigs, this classic really shows its wrinkles despite still being thoroughly enjoyable.
The premise set out in the lyrics and song title has also aged. While it was the perfect song to introduce us to the age of music videos killing off the radio, if anything, the reverse is occurring in the modern day. MTV has well and truly entered its sunset years, with people favouring streaming platforms for both music and TV. Concurrently, radio is enjoying a small resurgence thanks to online streaming availabilities.
