Controversial Music Videos

Controversy has taken over the music video industry over recent years, where artists have become braver in what content they use and the narrative of the video. Many artists have pushed boundaries to the limit and some even exceed the boundary and present inappropriate content to an audience. The more recent example of controversy is the Rihanna ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ video. In the video, Rihanna is seen to be plotting revenge against an accountant for stealing money from her, she kidnaps a woman and ties her upside down whilst naked. She gets her drunk, partially drowns her and then stabs the accountant. The video is very explicit and at one point in the video, Rihanna is seen with blood covering her face.

In an article in Q-Magazine written by Dorian Lynskey, it speaks about infamous ‘mini-movies’ becoming music videos and how more and more artists are creating a whole story just for one song. It goes on to speak about how negative these types of music videos are and says ‘when a musician starts to use the phrase ‘mini-movie’ to describe a video- it’s time to quit’ this shows that not an effective way to present their music.

However, ‘mini-movie’ music videos are becoming more and more popular and more and more artists are deciding to use this as a way to promote a new song. This is because controversial music videos are becoming popular as they strive off attention as it gets people talking. Videos such as ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ and Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ are considered controversial as many people were offended by the content in these videos. Regardless of this, both have been very successful and popular as people are always talking about them, and just how shocking they are. This then makes other people interested to watch them and the cycle keeps on going.

Controversial videos like ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ work in the favour of people like Rihanna and other artists of a similar idea, this is because when people talk about music videos and they get shared, retweeted and constantly spoken about on social media and on music channels. The article states that ‘whether you hate Rihanna’s video or consider it the Citizen Kane of the Vevo era, if you watched it at all, she wins’. This means that people can argue about controversy all they like, but by watching them and making a fuss about them, gets the artists hits on YouTube, and sales on iTunes, then you are getting them money, they are receiving a big wage for you moaning about content they are posting. It will be very difficult to stop controversial music videos being created, especially when they are the ones with the money and power.