Promo or Porno? The Demise of The Pop Video as ‘art’

The question of what constitutes ‘art’ has long been a divisive one for academics, critics, practitioners and laypersons alike. Moreover, the notion that anything that falls within the category of mainstream popular culture can be considered art is offensive to many – indeed, ‘popular culture’ would be perceived as an oxymoron. However, while the term ‘postmodern’ is still highly contentious in terms of definition, there is a broad consensus that a defining feature of postmodernism is a sense of egalitarianism, a delineation of highbrow and populist, more often than not executed with an overt sense of knowingness. Yes, we’re all in on the joke.

Not being a snooty art critic myself, I do believe that there’s art and artistry in popular culture (although I’ll maintain that much of it’s shit, and I mean that objectively as well as subjective).

Not am I no snooty art critic, but as is evident from my work, I’m no prude either. But recently I’ve found myself raising an eyebrow with increasing frequency whenever I happen upon pop videos on the television. Sure, sex sells and having foxy female artists – or if you’re a band, having foxy chicks in your video – is cool enough. It’s tradition, after all. Pop stars are as much about image and eye candy as they are about being aurally delightful. But whatever happened to subtlety, or suggestion?

Shakira’s trademark bust thrusting par excellence is quite something, although in general I find her moves more strange than seductive, and her goat-like bleatings are plain bonkers. Still, her persona’s tame in comparison to Lady(boy) Ga Ga, whose ersatz eccentricity is one of the most blatant marketing ploys I’ve observed in some time, and while some of her singles have clearly been very well thought out by a team of extremely able writers – ‘Pokerface’ is a succession of hooks – there can be little question that her cache is very much style over content. Much of her overtly outrageous style appears to derive from her having some ‘wacky’ designers devise new ways to expose maximum flesh, accessorized with absurd wigs, shades, makeup, etc. Fine, but does anyone actually find her remotely ‘sexy’?

One female artist who is frequently cited as being sexy is Beyonce, and her recent videos have placed her in the top-ranking position of worst offender by far in the flashing skin to shift units (or to draw attention away from the fact that her record’s utter spunk with barely a tune over the sequenced drum beats). There’s so much cleavage in the opening scene of ‘Sweet Dreams’ that Ms Knowles is practically tits-out before she moves onto the leotard with the slatted blind effect over the bust and much of the body. It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that her collaboration with Ga Ga is about as subtle as Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘Put ‘em on the Glass.’

Now, my knowledge of pop music’s not too bad, and I do have a comparatively good memory – enough to know, and remember well, the controversy certain pop videos stirred up in the 80s, in particular Duran Duran’s ‘Girls on Film’ (unsurprisingly banned, being tits galore and shot in a soft-focus softcore porn style… ok, when I say style, it was, to all intents and purposes, softcore porn); ‘I Want Your Sex’ by George Michael, and ‘Justify My Love’ by Madonna. So, one could contend that it was ever thus.

However, the aforementioned artists were all attempting to push the boundaries, and to provoke a reaction. Being ‘banned’ is a surefire route to notoriety, and besides, a video that shocks and gets people talking and wanting to find out what all the fuss is about is a brilliant (if perhaps obvious way) of promoting an otherwise mediocre song (let’s face it, Michael and Madonna weren’t really at their creative peak with those singles, while Duran Duran were yet to make it really big.

These examples remains strong in the memory because they were isolated and well-documented. At the same time, bands – or directors, at least – were producing videos that were memorable, visually stimulating, eye-catching. Depeche Mode and The Cure have both promoted numerous single releases with quite off-the-wall and arty videos, and while not necessarily my bag, The Aphex Twin and The Prodigy have both accompanied singles with challenging, exciting and outright weird promo vids. There are, of course, countless examples of videos that have attempted to do something different and innovative with the format, and while I don’t dig ‘Thriller’ in the slightest, can certainly appreciate what a truly remarkable production it was. He buzz around at the time, particularly the night after its first full UK screening, was phenomenal.

Inevitably it’s going to be hard to rival that now, especially given the state of the music industry. Here, perhaps, is the crux of the issue: the music industry placed too much emphasis on the industry and not enough on the music. The contemporary examples I cited also seem to employ the strategy of using a ‘sexy’ video as a means of providing a distraction from woefully weak songs as singles, but the difference is that they’re not trying to shock anyone with them. Instead, they’re receiving heavy rotation on all of the music channels. I’m sure lots of teenage boys and single men salivate over this kind of stuff, but I find it all rather tedious myself. Perhaps I’m desentized by media overload: I’m clearly not the only one, given that music channels are now wall-to-wall gyrating flesh-fests and no-one seems to really consider it anything other than commonplace. On the other hand, it seems quite ridiculous that a nipple can still create a stir: after all, they’ve been around for a while now.

All of this simply goes to show what strange creatures we are, and what a topsy-turvy world we live in. It’s just a pity no-one makes decent pop videos any more.