There must be something in the ether overseas with first Sinead O'Connor and now Eurtyhmics singer Annie Lennox taking stands against the sexualized nature of music videos...
First was Sinead, who has now posted several long open letters to Miley Cyrus, asking her to assume control of her image before it overwhelms her music and her life:
Sinead O'Connor: I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether its the music business or yourself doing the pimping."
It was a well-reasoned and impassioned letter (even if the above quote is very reductive), so obviously the conversation moved to Twitter where it quickly devolved into a "crazy" mess, that now has Sinead threatening lawsuits and demanding an apology from Miley for comparing her to Amanda Bynes and referencing her previous mental state. (I don't have the energy to dig up the links; forgive me).
Now we have Annie Lennox, who takes a more general survey of the scene, blogging and doing interviews from a parent's perspective on not so much NSFW videos, but generally sexual pop videos:
Annie Lennox: "There is absolutely nothing "wrong" about our sexuality or sensuality per se - But if a performing artist has an audience of impressionable young fans and they want to present a soft porn video or highly sexualised live performance, then it needs to qualify as such and be X rated for adults only. I'm talking from the perspective of the parents of those young fans. The whole thing is about their children's protection. Is it appropriate for seven year olds to be thrusting their pelvises like pole dancers? I really don't think so. Boundaries need to be put in place so that young kids aren't barraged by market forces exploiting the "normalisation" of explicit sex in under age entertainment. That means - no audiences under 18. Simple!"
Of course, her best quote is:
"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."
Obviously this is all just a rehash of a conversation that started with Elvis and his pelvis, continued through Madonna and now has us considering the Wrecking Ball. But, there is a point to be made here: It was previously impossible to see overly risque or X-rated music videos unless you were willing to get it on VHS. The internet changed all that, of course, for the better or worse. And Lennox's point is one I've made before: If the target audience is pre-teen girls, do these videos really appeal to them? Or, do they appeal to sad middle-aged bloggers who help amp up the height?
Hard to say what comes next... There's a chance that this is just a period of directors and musicians/singers feeling out the boundaries for this new unfettered territory, or we're hurtling close to something that's going to be a mash-up of pop star/porn star/tabloid star.
