About this time last year, we ran an overview of some of the more interesting music videos of 2010, videos that would never have been shown on MTV, but nevertheless represented some fascinating and innovative filmmaking. At the time, we noted that “now that we get so much of our entertainment online, and MTV barely airs music videos anymore, the rules have changed.” In 2011, that’s more apparent than ever — and so, we’ve repeated the dose this year, looking at everything from a short film that barely features and music at all to a video that features men with heads for penises. Some of these are raunchy, some of them are disturbing, and some are just plain weird — but they’re all noteworthy, and they all make for interesting viewing. (And, just in case it’s not clear that a post entitled “The Year In NSFW Music Videos” is NSFW… well, it is. So don’t blame us if your boss catches you watching these.)
Eminem — “Space Bound”
This year’s variation on the “Love The Way You Lie” theme, in which Eminem takes the part of a frighteningly obsessive boyfriend, imagines torturing and murdering his girlfriend, and then blows his brains out with a pistol. What a guy. (Also, it’s nice to see that YouTube is like the rest of American society: horrifying violence and misogyny are perfectly OK, so long as there’s no titties!)
Comments (8)
ok the thing with the rihanna line is that the feeling of doing something wrong or taboo is a cornerstone of bdsm fetishism. it doesn’t endorse that sex is wrong; it’s just exploring the draw of bdsm. and while her “symbiotic relationship with sexual violence”(not really the nicest term to use – she does exist outside of having been abused) borders on exploitative, it’s still a step forward. what other female celebrities can you think of that were victims of abuse who took ownership of it and used it as a means to empowerment? it is also a little unfair to bring that argument into a piece about a song about safe, consensual sex. that’s kind of more of an ” implicit endorsement of the wrong-headed idea that there’s something ‘bad’ about sex and/or fetishes in the first place” than any actual line in the song.
yep. what he said.
I would like to point out that Rihanna is not murdering a “lover” in ‘Man Down’, she’s murdering a rapist? Way to perpetuate the “she brought it on herself/she was asking for it” ideal there.
what the shit…these articles are no longer navigable given the absolutely shit coding involved. take your web coder out back for a bit and then beat him/her/them with a foldable chair please.
Rihanna’s music in this cut is so unoriginal and ho-hum that anything else doesn’t matter.
agree with fuckface. Also, and while I’m not much of a glossy pop fan, I think you’re treating Rihanna like she’s stupid and hasn’t at all considered these things. It’s pretty clear to me when anyone who is into it talks about S&M/bondage, “being bad” is said sorta tongue-in-cheek, as ultimately expressing whatever your sexual desires are is empowering. If that means being punished for “being bad”, hell… it’s a lot more interesting and says you have more going on upstairs than the average vanilla public. And the allure of bondage/role play/etc is also partially that on some level we all buy into that because we’ve had it shoved down our throats since we were born. So it’s exciting because you ARE doing something taboo, but you’re also aware of how silly it is to consider something like a sexual fetish “bad” (in a moral sense).
I think you’re not giving her enough credit. The song is pretty boring, though.
Fair enough – you all make good points. (And that’s definitely the first time I’ve ever seen the phrase “agree with fuckface”.)
HI.
Great job done by Rihanna in “Man Down”. Murdering her lover.
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