- Title: X-Rated: The Pop Videos They Tried To Ban
- Date: 24th July 2004
- Summary: The pop music video has come a long way in 25 years. The ultimate marketing tool, the music industry and artists alike have realised that a controversial promotional video draws coverage and sells records. This feature-length documentary traces the history of the music video, examining some of the most outrageous and shocking pop promos ever made. Back in the 80s, simple schoolboy fantasies of melting ice cubes on nipples (Duran Duran: Girls on Film ) were enough to excite the masses, while the censors were enraged by Frankie Goes to Hollywood's images of bondage, drugs and orgies. Though the Brits may have pioneered the X-rated Pop Video, the rest of the world was quick to get wise to the sales potential of raunch, jumping on the bandwagon and taking things to the extreme. US Death Metal bands brought satanic crucifixions, fun and games with nine inch nails and endless head-on car crashes while Hip Hop introduced booty-shaking, invisible thongs and gun-toting pimps aplenty. And then there are the 'pop videos' that no one was ever going to play - made purely for the pleasure of the bands and their entourages - featuring sex and violence. Think Motley Crue's Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson. From Frankie and Prodigy, through Marilyn and Madonna, to Britney and 50 Cent, X-Rated: The Pop Videos They Tried to Ban is a tale of one long, relentless quest to create shock, controversy and outrage and how well all lapped it up.
- Description:From Relax to Smack My Bitch Up the pop videos they tried to ban.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Visual Voodoo Films Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:24/07/2004
- Rights:UK and Eire
- Decade: 2000s