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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 14:24:12 GMT
I think Queen had another controversy with their video for Body Language, so maybe after I Want to Break Free, the folks at MTV thought those guys from Queen were "trouble makers." I forgot all about that. Honestly that might be it.
Also, I suppose the thing with Boy George was, he presented himself as a curiosity: he wasn't looking explicit or sexy, or even really getting into those issues directly in the songs. He wore layers of baggy clothes most of the time, just with feminine makeup and (usually oddly colored and decorated) hair.
Whereas "Body Language" in particular was obviously sexual. (Still, "I Want to Break Free" wasn't, unless they thought the specific ways Roger and Freddie presented themselves were over the top in that direction?)
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 14:28:40 GMT
I think Queen had another controversy with their video for Body Language, so maybe after I Want to Break Free, the folks at MTV thought those guys from Queen were "trouble makers." I forgot all about that. Honestly that might be it.
Also, I suppose the thing with Boy George was, he presented himself as a curiosity: he wasn't looking explicit or sexy, or even really getting into those issues directly in the songs. He wore layers of baggy clothes most of the time, just with feminine makeup and (usually oddly colored and decorated) hair.
Whereas "Body Language" in particular was obviously sexual. (Still, "I Want to Break Free" wasn't, unless they thought the specific ways Roger and Freddie presented themselves were over the top in that direction?)
Maybe one of the execs got pissed when he thought the blonde in I Want to Break Free was a cutie, until being told it was Roger Taylor.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 14:34:45 GMT
That reminds me of sometime in the mid-to-late 90s when I was visiting some friends at their college. We were sitting around having beers and watching MTV and, when one of their videos came on, one of my friends somewhat hesitantly said he thought "the girl" in Hanson was kind of cute.
The rest of us enjoyed that little admission very much. I think we got him to restate it a couple of times, becoming more sheepish and sure something wasn't quite right, before he understood the situation.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 14:36:26 GMT
Sounds familiar
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 14:48:48 GMT
Here's a summary of some banned MTV videos, including both Queen ones already mentioned. I keep forgetting about the Van Halen clip for Pretty Woman, which features a drag queen. ultimateclassicrock.com/videos-banned-by-mtv/While not mentioned, there was an early version of Whitesnake's Here I Go Again where Tawny Kitean's nipple is exposed briefly, and it aired a few times before the network caught on.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 15:27:40 GMT
With all the talk of banned videos, I have to ask: did anyone who was a kid in the '80s have any issues with their parents about MTV; or did anyone who had kids have issues with them watching it?
My parents were quite conservative and religious, and we also didn't have cable all the time for reasons both financial and religious, I suppose. But by 1987 or so, we did more or less continuously have a cable package including MTV. (Before that, sometimes we had it and others we didn't; I'd watch at my friends' or relatives' houses when the opportunity arose.)
My parents were somewhat inconsistent about it, probably in part because my dad (being a cop) had odd and ever-changing shifts, and so frankly what we watched wasn't his #1 priority. My mom returned to work around that same time, and so her attention came and went about these things. Every once in a while, there'd be some video or ad that she'd see and we'd be told we weren't allowed to watch anymore ... but soon enough, it would blow over and we'd be right back at it. I think by the time I was 13 or 14, there were no more restrictions, just occasional lectures about it.
But also, we'd mostly watch when parents weren't home or weren't around: summer afternoons, or in the basement rather than the living room, etc. Basically anything overly sexual was frowned upon, especially by my mom. I recall being REALLY excited when I was 9 or so to show my parents DLR's "California Girls," since they had the original on Endless Summer and were somewhat of that era. My mom was not amused and I felt downright scolded over it!
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 15:37:32 GMT
My father's super into music, and that was eventually passed down to me. So, MTV was on a lot when I was little, for better or worse. I do recall being a little frightened at Greg Kihn's Jeopardy video with the zombies and skeletons. Plus, MTV showed cartoons when I was little.....Beatles Cartoons.
My folks were pretty relaxed in regards to what I and my little sister watched. MTV was a non issue. I remember seeing movies like Nightmare on Elm St, Halloween, and Jaws around the age of eight. I was shown Ghostbusters at the age of 7. Which makes it kind of funny to me that the studio decided to make the sequel more kid friendly, when a lot of the more adult stuff in the original (ie. drinking beer, smoking, the dream sequence ghost) went over my head anyway.
Funny thing, now as a parent, I honestly couldn't imagine showing some of that stuff to my kid. But, he's only three and a half, so I'll cross that bridge when I get to it should I find him checking out Dua Lipa or Bebe Rexha videos on YouTube at some point.
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