RGG March 2015 - p.7
With sexual themes you can be subtle in a
joking innuendo way or there's being as blatant
as a swastika German metal band Rammstein
had the brainwave of releasing a music video in
called "Pussy" which presented members
of the band engaging in unsimulated sexual
intercourse The idea dared to conquer some of
the remaining taboos in music video history
which answers the question as to why they did
it The question their band's management
should have asked was would Rammsteins'
predominantly young male fanbase be thrilled
seeing their music heroes (or body doubles)
engaging in hardcore sex scenes? Despite
getting some steamy short term publicity they
arguably alienated a lot of their younger fans at
the time who probably had a hell of a task
locating pussy on a google search engine those
said fans have grown up now and probably find
it quite tame compared to standard internet
viewing Lyrically I think the song was written
using an egg timer and as a piece of art it sits
comfortable on YouPorn with all the other
pieces of art that get flagged Arguably this
music video harmed the band's image slightly as
it just seemed a little desperate to shock and
although there was an element of it being
tongue in cheek as you'd expect from
Rammstein it was a little too deeper tongue
and probably an arse cheek
Mixing sex with humour is a detour from
erotica but it can sell music You could say that
American band Steel Panther took a gamble
with their music career and won sexual themes
dominate their back catalogue and because of
their dedication to consistency in parodying
's stereotypes of glam rock icons they can be
as crude or filthy as they feel and it becomes
comedic entertainment every time "Glory
Hole" for example is too ridiculous to be
offensive and songs such as "Asian hooker"
"Eatin' ain't cheatin'" and " girls in a row" have
led them to arena tours with Def Leppard
Mötley Crüe and half of the bands that they
take the piss out of
Just in case you've been locked in a closet for
all this time you should know that "Gay Bar"
by Electric Six was released in
and
became a massive hit This band used Freudian
phallic images throughout the music video to
get attention for the song and it worked
maybe too well as their world famous tune
continues to over shadow their later works
such as "Infected girls" with the very catchy
chorus "Calling unprotected girls infected girls
do it better" Electric Six have released ten
albums to date are constantly touring and
fortunate to have a cult following; they're
pigeonholed by a post millennium anthem but
at least the only original member Dick
Valentine is still making music
The examples I've given are just some of the
ways that sex has been used in rock music it
doesn't always benefit a band and the level of
success depends on how it's done When used
in rock there's quite often elements of comedy
thrown in too; seems to be a very important
factor Before some of you begin to judge or
criticise bands that do all this have you noticed
the amount of sexual imagery and intertextual
references to pornography in mainstream pop
music videos for auto tuned artists such as
Beyoncé Miley Cyrus or Rihanna? They seem
to have almost no sense of humour target
younger audiences and are just one camera
angle away from a porno flick I imagine that
if you removed all the sex from their music
videos then you'd be left with very little
indeed although you can see self regulation in
the pop music industry at the moment as
there's a new breed of younger artists such as
Meghan Trainor Taylor Swift and Katy Perry
who despite their current bubble gum image
as the years progress will slowly transform
into robotic ball licking clit shaking sex
billboards That's all this month
Nick J Townsend is the frontman and
guitarist for British band Weak13
An experienced Underground
musician and music promoter
Supporter of original music
r
gg
since 1995
