[Research] Controversy in Music Videos

We had a look at an article from the Q Magazine which talked about Rihanna's latest music video and the controversy that came with it. This helped us look a bit more into what people think of as controversial and how many views are actually subjective.

The article explains the video of "Bitch Better Have My Money" by Rihanna and how it's all about how Rihanna tries to get her money back from the accountant that stole it all from her, from (basically) killing his wife to then stabbing the accountant. The article makes many references to other music videos such as Taylor Swift's Bad Blood and how that also went down the same line as Rihanna's new video as Taylor's music video was a much more tame version compared to the others although did go down that route of including blood and violence when it wasn't necessary. The article then states how Kendrick Lamar released a clip to his newest song and music video and how it brings back what music videos were all about and how it was more "original, beautiful, moving and thought provoking" than Rihanna's music video.

I think that the writer of the article was quite correct in the point he was trying to get across, after all, what was shown in the music video was not needed and was quite out of the box, sure, but was definitely not necessary in my eyes.

Controversy seems to play quite a large role in the music videos as it gets both press attention as well as the 'hits' they want. Making a controversial music video will only cause press to riot and talk about it which will draw ever more attention towards it, making the public curious as to what is so bad about a music video and will then lead to more and more people watching it. Whereas on the other hand, if press said nothing about it, then it wouldn't be seen as much nor be bothered about too greatly. It seems that both forms, press and 'hits', is what controversial music videos aims for.

It could be argued that there is a political message in the music video though in some sense if you look between the lines. It's the thought of Rihanna doing whatever she wants in order to simply get her money back, showing desperation for such a thing which could be said the same for politicians and democrats to some degree. If viewing this in a metaphorical sense with Rihanna representing someone of high standing and those who are working with her as agents or 'cleaners' then it could show people as being money driven and willing to only do things for the sake of such and to go to such lengths as well is quite a disturbing thought to say the least.