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Most Controversial Music Videos

Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, incestuous Gainsbourgs make list

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 12, 2009 8:14 AM CDT

(Newser) – With MTV's Video Music Awards set for Sunday (not that you'll see many videos on the channel these days), Oddee.com takes a look at some of the form’s most controversial:

  • Closer, Nine Inch Nails: To go along with the explicitly sexual lyrics, this 1994 piece includes a monkey fixed to a cross, a nude woman with a crucifix mask, and a diagram of a vulva. And it’s in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.
  • Jeremy, Pearl Jam: The 1992 video depicts a boy who, after being teased, heads into a classroom with a gun; MTV banned it after the 1999 Columbine massacre.

  • Lemon Incest, Serge Gainsbourg: The French star’s song for his daughter was already controversial; the 1984 video showed him in bed with Charlotte, then 12.
  • Like A Prayer, Madonna: The Vatican’s laundry list of complaints with this 1989 hit included burning crosses and Madonna making out with a saint and developing stigmata.
  • The Thunder Rolls, Garth Brooks: CMT and TNN banned this 1991 hit in which an abusive husband gets what’s coming to him.
For the full list, with video clips, click the link below.

A screen grab from the video for Closer by Nine Inch Nails.
A screen grab from the video for "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails.   (YouTube)
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The video for Nine Inch Nails' "Closer."   (YouTube)
Serge Gainsbourg's "Lemon Incest."   (YouTube)

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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 2 comments
cognitivefilter
Sep 12, 2009 4:08 AM CDT
lemon incest !
embersyc
Sep 12, 2009 1:35 AM CDT
What about Happiness in Slavery by NIN or Justify My Love by Madonna, but more controversial than the NIN and Madonna videos listed above.

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