Lily Allen's new song & vid

[elportodelgato]

AMAZING, I absolutely love what she has done in skewering the whole sorry sexist music biz in one song

m.youtube.com/watch?v=E0CazRHB0so&desktop_uri=/watch?v=E0CazRHB0so

Any thoughts?

PS Sorry, I am not even sure I CAN do links on an iPad

I rather like it. Loving 'trust in injustice cos it's here to stay'. I've always liked Lily. She reminds me of Pink.

My only is that for a video satirising all that grinding in small clothes, a big bit of the video seems to be those shots.

Also rather enjoying the take down of Mr Thicke and friends.

The silver balloons made me

There's a thread about this in Chat, and the following is what I wrote on that thread:

Lily looks just like Jessie J in that vid! Would have been great if Rebel was in it for longer than 2 seconds; she's so funny!

I like Lily Allen, think she's sassy. It's good she's being ironic and poking fun at the sexy music industry, but... I have a criticism.... If she's trying to speak out against the porn type images in music videos then why does she have the same thing in this video? She has foxy black girls dancing, shaking their arses and licking things. Surely just keeping it all covered up would have got the message across better. I might be wrong though, but that's my opinion.

The Lily song and video reminded me of Britney Spears' new song 'Work Bitch.' The song is linked below. I watched the video for Britney's like confused. Sad thing is that she isn't being ironic.

The balloons are INSPIRED I think, she's so clever

Love the line about 'who's going to tear your ass in two?'! Take that, Thicke.

But, yeah, all the slo-mo butt-slapping and grinding ceases to become pastiche when it makes up two thirds of the video

it's just another OTT exploitative tits and arse video IMO.

I don't see much difference in her use of female dancers to Thickes. She just think she is more clever or more "ironic' than him. She will certainly get more men watching her video now - was that her intention or just that of her "sexist" manager?

I'm pretty disappointed actually - I've always like Lily Allen - I think what she has done here is crass and only very mildly amusing (balloons) in part. I doubt very much she was trying to make a feminist statement with this, and if she was she has failed spectacularly.

I think it's all a bit obvious - it's like a pastiche that French and Saunders might have done back in the day

Although I agree that there is a lot of tits and arse and, were this message being broadcast in the "broadsheet" sections of the media and aimed at a more sophisticated audience, then I would think that the tits and arse element rather missed the message which the song is trying to put across. However, it is a pop video and aimed at a young, possibly poorly educated, audience and, although the tits and arse element is present, it is clearly meant to be satirical rather than conventionally sexy (eg overt, repeated tapping of the crotch area rather than hands sliding towards it etc) and it does leave the viewer with a slightly uncomfortable feeling. Considering the overwhelming amount of pop videos and other areas of the media that promote women's objectification, I think a song with lyrics and a video which tries to challenge this is at least a start and should be applauded, really. I hope my teenage kids see it and get the message.

Love it. Thank you for sharing. Great song and great lyrics. And anyone with daughters called Ethel and Marnie gets my vote.

Hmm.I can see what she was intending, but I think it got lost there.

I'd have loved a clever take down of the twerking, hip grinding, pelvis thrusting videos - one that I could share with my 11yr old daughter. This isn't it.

The lyrics will have me reaching for the off switch when the song comes on the radio and the video features exactly the kind of thing she is singing about. Shame.

If they had inserted a few older men, for example, small, big, short, tall people of any and all gender and races and really taken the piss a little, it might have worked.

Fact is, a wanker could still wank to this. IYSWIM. Which is what, I'm sure, the record company intended. Please the 14 yo boys, and the feministas.

Really not sure why there are so many women semi naked, licking phallic objects. It's just another music video that makes me feel uncomfortable and angry. Bit of a shame really. Think she could have done something smarter.

The balloons were ace, but I agree there was just too much slow-mo slapping and twerking.

As I pointed out in the Chat thread, Pink does it better: m.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4yQFZK9YM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBR4yQFZK9YM

Someone just posted this on Twitter, and it perfectly sums up the issue with this video

'So Lily Allen did funny spoof. But has no one else notice that she is fully clothed while black women do the semi-naked twerking? Odd, no?!'

God I just adore Pink in just about every possible way. I have a bit of a girl crush on her too. I hadn't seen the Stupid Girls video for ages and I just love it. Used to run to it (back when I used to do such things).

I'll concede, some of the lyrics are clever and the brief flash of the word balloons is funny, but . . .

The video illustrates just about everything that is wrong with white privileged feminism and makes me SO despair. And, the fact that most white, feminist commentators I've seen online so far seem to think it's the greatest feminist thing since Germaine Greer made sliced bread just reaffirms this.

Others have already explained what's wrong with it very well:

Batty Mamzelle - Cate Young (Check out the whitesplaining in the comments section, Whoa!)

Susuana Antubam

thanks for those links KRITIQ - I agree with all they are saying.

I'm still surprised that any feminists whatever their colour are applauding this though - race issues aside it's still a recording artist filling their video with T&A to ensure high rotation airplay!

I like the song, but not the video. I like Lily, she's intelligent and funny.

I like the song, but the video is just same old same old wank-fodder. Some extreme close ups of womens' nethers. Balloons are fab they needed more things like that - I think they had a few good ideas then ran out...

And a real shame she found it appropriate that the almost naked ass-shaking should be done by black women while she - privileged rich white girl - remained fully clothed.

The whole video would have been so much better without the ass-shaking - I agree Pink did it a whole lot better (at least she did the "sexy dancing" in her video herself, to great comedic effect - I laughed at her flailing around on the soapy car).

Shame.

I bet there was a lot of considered thought before Lily agreed to this video. the irony would not have been lost on her and I think it was very purposeful.

She wanted to shock - the purpose was to get it seen ( and we know exactly how videos get high airplay, don't we?) She had to play the game to make her point and for me, it was crystal clear.

With the lyrics, the chances of getting on radio are slim and actually the video cuts a little close to bone and might not get much airplay on TV - but it was online where she wanted to make her mark.

this will be watched by exactly those people she wants to target. us women who are already appalled by this crap video style don't need to see this (we already know!) it is the men and boys who think it is cool who need to watch and they would never have bothered if the video wasn't like it is.

it will be interesting to see if it is censored for radio and TV because that will further highlight the issues of videos and women. does censorship apply to satire, as well?

She is a very brave woman - because she is about to come in for some really harsh criticism and probably rape threats and all the rest...

this FB post makes an interesting point about the video