At what point does nudity in a music video cross the line from art to offensive?

[Livecat]

This is a discussion I found myself in with a few friends of mine the other night. I thought I would bring it up here to see what an art community would have to say on the subject.

It all started when I showed them Daniel Bedingfield's latest music video, "Secret Fear" (http://youtu.be/nE9ySQRZpGI). At first, the nudity came off as excessive. But after really watching the video and listening to the lyrics, I began to grasp the essence of the message more clearly. Both love and fear can make you feel naked and vulnerable. As if tumbling in confinement through dark water..

In my opinion, this video is more about expressing that emotion than trying to shock it's audience and be offensive.

What are your thoughts?

[Music Head]

Nudity in itself is not offensive to me.
It's the sexual nature of the use of the nudity.
Two entirely different things.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

i have no time for it in music video's....
it detracts from the music IMO....especially when it is done in a sexual way.
for the most part i think it gives women the image of "pieces of meat".
Rap is the worst genre for this exploitation...making out that all women/females are hoe's,whores and sl#ts...
then you get a whole generation of impressionable females thinking theyve got to act like that to be 'socially acceptable' to guys...and then in return, guys expect females to be like that of they are not females...

i also usually find that video's filmed like that usually have crappy songs attached to them, but they sell purely on the basis of the video.

i also switch off when those video's containing semi-clad women gyrating provocatively on the screen as they are not neccessary IMO...

the music should come first and the video IMO should be a tool for the artists to be able to get their music out there because they cant go everywhere to promote it, thus the video should only be a promotional tool...
i guess we can blame michael Jackson for bringing video's to the forefront of music with the superb ones he did in the 1980s..but these new guys have taken it all one step too far!

[Frownland]

I don't watch music videos too much anymore, but I don't think that nudity is offensive in them. Even if they are displayed in an overtly sexual manner that degrades women, it still makes a statement on the culture of the artist's world, whether he/she intended it to be or not. An extremely sexual video can also be art as well, take the film Salo or 120 Days of Sodom for example. It's possibly one of the most disgusting things that I've ever seen, but it's hard to deny Pasolini's statements on the borgeoisie and how he inventively exerts control over the setting, costumes, and cinematography to make his point by turning what was originally a fetishist novel into an extraordinary film.

So...yeah. Nudity and sexuality can still be considered art.

[Jerome]

'At what point does nudity in a music video cross the line from art to offensive?'

When the nudiy becomes the point and the music is forgotten.

[Eminem_19]

I think nudity in 80% of music videos is for attract people to play the video, sometimes the purpose is reprsesnting the matter of the song, but most of songs that include nude scenes arn’t for something valuable.

[SteveO]

You've summed it up in a nutshell J ! I agree with your comment !

'At what point does nudity in a music video cross the line from art to offensive?'

When the nudiy becomes the point and the music is forgotten.

[Nick Dilley]

'At what point does nudity in a music video cross the line from art to offensive?'

When the nudiy becomes the point and the music is forgotten.

+1
totally agree.

[CherieLuamboYampanyaStar]

Nudity is not neccessarily bad but the problem is that nudity is generally used for very sexual and can be very preverted terms. I mean many of today's music is very bad in my view and as result, nudity is one way that can get their music any chance.

I think Crazy House, summed up the best. We should actually judge a musician based on their talent. But now days, you don't need to actually sing but be marketable. I mean these days, many people want to copy T-Pain. Thanks to T-Pain, autotune gets used a bit too much.

Nudity should be very discouraged because often it is used for sexual and preverted purposes and that is so wrong.