Most Controversial Music Video Ever?

I have no idea why I and buddy talked about this tonight, but is Madonna's "Like a Prayer" video one of the most controversial ever? I love it. I see nothing wrong with it. But I can see how, in 1989 I think it was, this would make waves:

There are burning crosses. She's scantly clad in a church. There is a central black Jesus-like figure. At the beginning of the video she pseudo-touches herself on a church pew. She's obviously sexually attracted to black Jesus-like character. I'm assuming she's sexually assaulted — if not raped — by a group of white men in an alley on what looks to be a minivan bench seat. She's the only white church goer in the video — although the white sexually assaulting men show up in the end, presumably for forgiveness.

I think this video is awesome. I see nothing wrong with it.

Thoughts?

I was only 13ish when this came out, so I don't remember the hubbub about it very well. I just know it made waves.

Any other videos stand out as "controversial" in your eyes?

 

The "Smack My Bitch Up" video by Prodigy.

THIS LINK IS VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!
The quality isn't great either.

 

Madonna's Justify my Love was a little controversial. I think MTV banned it and they also relegated I want your sex (I love that song) to late night airplay

 

I remember Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" catching a lot of flack for showing the kid presumably shooting his classmates.

 

MTV also stopped playing Madonna's "What it Feels Like for a Girl" because it showed her on a crime spree.

 

That's more gratuitous than controversial I think. I think Madonna pushes more envelopes in a different way.

Then again, I'm about 10 MGDs in, so who knows.

At any rate, that's a cool video you posted. And I haven't heard that song since it came out.

 

Good point. Great vid, too. Here's the uncut version:

(or so it says, I can't remember what I saw on MTV back then).


And, seriously, didn't we all go to school with a kid like this?

 

I was about to post this, but I think there are differences between the controversy factor between the two videos. For one, The Prodigy may have had a cult following in the U.S. when "Fat Of The Land" was released, while Madonna was a huge star at the time of "LAP".

I think both videos were trying to accomplish the same thing, but I think there is still a slightly higher regard for "LAP" because of what Madonna was when it was released.

"SMBU" is notorious, but I don't think it caused the same level of controversy in the U.S. simply because it was a cult act that had a ridiculously graphic video.

 

Howard Jones: "Things Can Only Get Better"

 

I honestly think this was Madonna's "Smack My Bitch Up" moment, because it was more gratuitous and graphic than "Like A Prayer".

As a result, it didn't cause the same amount of controversy. She had long established what she was going to try to do with her videos, a reputation that wasn't as fully-fledged when "Like A Prayer" came out.

 

"I Want Your Sex" by George Michael needs to mentioned here, doesn't it?

 

This is a good point, and one I keep running into as I'm thinking of videos. Nine Inch Nails' uncut version of Closer is grotesque...but who is really expecting different?