Why are music videos so sexual these days?

[HannahJones12111]

I love Little Mix's music, however i've just seen their new music video for Sweet Melody and it just seems a bit "much" e.g. thrusting the floor and Jade literally has her bum on display through most of it.

Maybe i'm just a bore and don't "get it".
But it just felt like a nice song was ruined by a very out there music video.
I'll post the link.

Yeha it's always been like that unfortunately, so annoying.
Also it's funny when your older and listen to the songs that you used to when younger and realise the actual meaning of those lyrics🙉

I was around in the 80s. the difference is there was a range of types of female artists then - yes, Madonna went for the full on 'sex siren' image, which was fine as there was also Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Sinead O'Conner, Grace Jones all doing different things. I agree with you OP, it's something I always notice now, there is no playing around with images/creativity/inventiveness any more. Girls can frolic in their underwear, or, it seems, aren't allowed on video

Nothing new. Remember Madonna writhing around and releasing a photo album called Sex? Or Olivia Newton John thrusting along to let’s get physical? Or the wriggling in bikinis in Duran Duran’s Rio? But I think every generation thinks their young people are more sexual!

I thought Little Mix always being half dressed was their USP?

I also agree about the 80s. Girls on Film, and shock horror the Relax video.
Bit later on George Michael's 'Father Figure' and 'Outside'.
Didn't Take That writhe around in jelly at one point?

“The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress.”

From a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in 1274 A.D.

@Thermo

It strikes me that nobody really gives much of a shit when male singers surround themselves with grinding, scantily clad women...

Yup, this was evident last week. They have edited Sweet Melody in parts I wouldn’t even think twice to notice but they consider it too much for general viewing. And then the MTV EMAs... women are dancing on tables for men singing/rapping. And that’s ok but LM dancing isn’t?

None of it is very edifying, is it? Hip-hop can be very misogynistic but people don't want to go there.

The best music doesn't need all the gyrating and scantily clad women to sell it anyway, the songs sell themselves. Billie Eilish won album of the year at the Grammy's this year. She didn't to show her arse to win it, the songs did it.

@happygolurkey

I was around in the 80s. the difference is there was a range of types of female artists then - yes, Madonna went for the full on 'sex siren' image, which was fine as there was also Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Sinead O'Conner, Grace Jones all doing different things. I agree with you OP, it's something I always notice now, there is no playing around with images/creativity/inventiveness any more. Girls can frolic in their underwear, or, it seems, aren't allowed on video

Still plenty of female artists who are respected for their music rather than their bodies. Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Laura Marling etc.

There's also artists like Kylie who still make good pop music while being sexy, for the most part without resorting to soft core porn and getting their bits out.

Yes, it happened to a certain extent in the 80s but shouldn't we have moved on from this by now? Just because it's nothing new doesn't make it right. Where's the progress? How can we expect men to stop using grinding women in their videos when women happily grind in theirs?

@HannahJones12111 ..... I hear you though others won’t. I remember watching a video on sky when I was about 10 and a guy “swiped” a bank card through a girls buttocks- I remember thinking how shit it was but I MUST be wrong cos it was on sky. Every day misogynistic behaviour which must be called out!

And don’t even get me started on blurred lines!

The adult version where u need to sign in or create an account ......please don’t do this!!!!

It’s pretty depressing isn’t it? It adds nothing to the music yet it seems to be de rigeur for young female artists.

I was shocked last Christmas playing musical statues with my nieces, aged 11 and 9. Some of the moves they were pulling when dancing were so damn provocative- twerking, hip thrusting and so on. Thing is they certainly weren’t deliberately trying to be sexy - perish the thought, boys are still just grubby annoyances to them. No, they were simply copying the moves that they’ve seen Little Mix, Beyoncé et al doing on their videos. Honestly shocking, such adult moves to musical statues fgs and they have no idea. (I mentioned it to SIL by the way, not as criticism but as safeguarding in case she was unaware. She was aware all right and equally depressed about it...apparently it’s the done thing in the playground to practice routines, not for the boys attention but just because they enjoy dancing)

What makes it more depressing is that I don’t think it’s the artists themselves making the choice to be quite so sexualised - if you look back at little mix, girls aloud etc in their early days, they all had clothes covering their bums rather than the cut out leotards they wear today. It’s the industry’s expectation of how a young female pop star should behave. It’s the bloody patriarchy again godammit

Thank god for Billie Eilish, showing you can be a superstar without having to look like sex on wheels.

God, I sound exactly like my mother, yikes!!

It is more pornified these days.

Just look at how little flesh was on show on top of the pops in the 80s/90s to now.

It’s the industry’s expectation of how a young female pop star should behave. It’s the bloody patriarchy again godammit

Maybe it's how they want to behave.

Plenty of female artists are stars and successful without resorting to stripping and gyrating.

Miley Cyrus in nothing breaks like a heart video. I made a comment on Twitter about it and was told off. Apparently I am policing women’s bodies and attributing the video to something else but the camera is focused on her butt so explicitly. See also kylie when she sings can’t get you out of my head with blue Monday at the brits and the camera again follows her butt everywhere. Depressing.

Absolutely Girls On Films and Frankie... nothing new at all!

@alltoomuchrightnow

Absolutely Girls On Films and Frankie... nothing new at all!

the difference is the artists weren't female in those videos

there has always been a sexual element to pop music, but what we see now is more and more female artists performing in a highly sexualised manner

most of Madonna's videos were pretty tame - even those mentioned on this thread like Papa Don't Preach

the vast majority of 80s videos - whether by male or female singers - were actually very unsexy.

Little Mix is aimed at young girls. Says who.
They are adult females who can show their arse if they want to,

If you are worried, then maybe police your own kids more.

You cant blame them for being sexual beings

most of Madonna's videos were pretty tame - even those mentioned on this thread like Papa Don't Preach

Like what? Which ones where tame.

Holiday
Lucky star
True blue
Material girl
Vogue

Loads of them

@BorderlineHappy

Little Mix is aimed at young girls. Says who. They are adult females who can show their arse if they want to,

If you are worried, then maybe police your own kids more.

You cant blame them for being sexual beings

The comment in full (please read it this time - you can do that, right?):

I remember videos with the same tone as this in the 90s. Some were even more explicit, although those songs didn't tend to do well and nobody remembers them now.

Little Mix is aimed at young girls. I would be more worried about what the boys might be watching.

It strikes me that nobody really gives much of a shit when male singers surround themselves with grinding, scantily clad women...

So, no judgement on them for being sexual. In fact, my point was that if we are going to worry about this kind of thing, we should be more concerned about what men do with women's bodies, and they seem to be getting something of a free pass.

So if the conversation is about the different ways one might show one's arse, you do seem to be an expert...

Joan Jett ad the Runaways had issues with a rapey manager...

@AlecTrevelyan006 you said most.

Madonna in her career i wouldnt use the word tame. So most of her videos are not tame.
Justify My Love
Like A Prayer
Open your Heart
God Control
American Life
What if Feels Like For A Girl

@Sparklfairy

Holly Valance was naked in the Kiss Kiss video in 2002 ... just some lasers or something covering what was left of her modesty

Her pop career fizzled out and she said herself that after being naked in her first video, where could she have gone from there.

It’s a ‘transformation’ that happens with so many female pop stars, especially if they start off with a young fan base. At some point they’ll want to shed their teenybopper image, to ‘grow up’ with their fans, and the default way to do that is sex as a coming of age motif.

But they’ve been doing this for quite a few years now anyway. See controversy around Manchester One Love concert etc

The difference between their first videos is striking: