Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Mr Bungle - Travolta




"Travolta"/"Quote Unquote" is the only Mr. Bungle song to have an official music video. One fan compiled a video to "My Ass Is On Fire" sometime thereafter.

Cannibal Corpse - Sentaced to Burn



Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band from Buffalo, New York, noted for its controversial and ultra-violent lyrics and imagery, founded in 1988 by Chris Barnes, Bob Rusay, Jack Owen, Alex Webster and Paul Mazurkiewicz. Cannibal Corpse is noted as the most successful death metal band of the Sound Scan era, having achieved worldwide record sales of over one million copies with virtually no radio or television exposure. They also became the first ever death metal band to have albums appear on the Billboard 200 album chart. They are regarded as one of the longest lasting and best-known bands in the death metal scene.

Bjork - Pagan Poetry




The music video for "Pagan Poetry", directed by Nick Knight, was also one of Björk's most controversial. It featured Björk in a dress designed by Alexander McQueen, covering only the lower portion of her body. The video also included distorted, close-up images of sexual intercourse, fellatio, and a graphic display of body piercing. The video was banned by MTV in the United States, but was eventually shown in unedited form on MTV2 in a presentation of the "20 Most Controversial Music Videos".

Cradle of Filth - From Cradle to Enslaved

Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up




Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and proved to be very controversial and popular as well. Though universally banned from television, massive demands on MTV made them show the video, but only after midnight and following an MTV News warning. The video depicts a night out in the city from an innovative and much imitated first-person perspective, portraying drinking & driving, shooting heroin, fighting, vandalism and sex. Detractors deplored the wantonly aggressive and mysogynistic behaviour of the video's protagonist, which would seem to indicate that they did not watch the end of the video, where the protagonist is revealed to be female.

Massive Attack - Be Thankful



During the first Gulf War, several British media channels became anxious to avoid using words suggestive of war and violence, and Massive Attack (then struggling to become established) were forced to temporarily change their name to simply Massive. Del Naja makes no secret in interviews of his political objections to what he sees as U.S. aggression against the Third World in the name of democracy, often expressing regret that he ever agreed to the name change.

In 2003, Del Naja was arrested and questioned "in connection with allegations of the possession of class A drugs and Internet pornography offences," as a part of Operation Ore, a nation-wide crackdown on child pornography. [2] Del Naja never admitted to the crime, saying that he has never looked at child pornography in his life, and some fans have claimed that the government was running a smear campaign on him for his views on the war in Iraq. The reason finally stated was that Del Naja's credit card had been used to procure computer services via a company which, in turn, had links to another organisation sympathetic to hosting child pornography, Del Naja being entirely unaware of the connection. He was released on bail after six hours in jail.

Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy




The accompanying video was directed by acclaimed director Chris Cunningham. It features a number of children, each with the maniacally-grinning head of Richard D. James, running through an industrial suburb, fighting with each other, and terrorizing helpless adults.
The children are controlled by a monstrous, skinny demon (played by Al Stokes) from within a television, who, at the memorable climax of the video, comes out from the TV and starts to scream louder and louder at the old lady at the beginning of the video. The video ends with the demon, now wearing James' face as well, gathering the children around itself.

NIN - Closer




"Closer" is perhaps Nine Inch Nails' most well-known song. The song's chorus includes the famous line "I want to fuck you like an animal," requiring the profanity to be censored for radio play despite its prominent placement in the song.
"Closer" has been covered by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, The Galan Pixs, Eric Gorfain, Maroon 5, Maxwell, Nine Inch Richards, Frank Rogala, Rosetta Stone, Ark Sano, S.I.N.A., Spiralmouth and Transient. "Weird Al" Yankovic included a polka version of the song in "Alternative Polka" from his album Bad Hair Day.
An edit of the remix "Closer (precursor)" is present in the opening credits of the movie Se7en.

The music video was directed by Mark Romanek and first aired on May 12, 1994. The video was popular and helped bolster the success of the band. It was also somewhat controversial due to its imagery which included a nude woman with a crucifix mask, a monkey tied to a cross, and diagrams of vulvas. Many think these images were inspired by the art of Joel-Peter Witkin. Scenes that had to be removed were replaced with a title card that said "Scene Missing" (this was done to make sure the flow of the song was not affected). The video also has a stylized, old-film look. The video is one of two directed by Romanek that the Museum of Modern Art has added to its permanent collection.

In mid-2002, the full-on unedited version of this video was aired on MTV2 as part of a special countdown showing the most controversial videos ever to air on MTV. This countdown was only shown late at night because of the graphic imagery of "Closer" and several other videos on the countdown.

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