The idea of cancel culture today doesn’t make sense because people have criticized artists for decades over their choices. The only difference is today, fans might “cancel” an artist for something actively harmful they’ve done. Back in the day, public outrage was over trivial matters like censored words or evocative imagery that’s meant to make you think. If it even registered as mildly offensive, people would organize and share their disdain until authorities did something about it.
Were they always successful? No, not really. Similar to ‘cancel culture’ today, it only ever works when the public doesn’t find the artist that interesting anymore to warrant them sticking around.
Still, it’s easy to wonder how the public today would react to the controversial music videos of the past. So we’ve picked three songs from decades past with wild videos that would’ve caused a stir if they came out in the modern world.
3 Controversial Music Videos That Would Have Got These Artists in Serious Trouble Today
‘Pumps and a Bump’ by MC Hammer
If you can believe it, MC Hammer of all people was actually controversial at one point. It’s hard to initially wrap your mind around the idea that the “U Can’t Touch This” guy could be anything other than great for a Taco Bell commercial. He could dance, his energy was contagious, and he didn’t cuss in his lyrics. Hammer was extremely marketable, from his friendly rapping to his outrageous pants.
However, people also used those cleaner aspects of his image and tore into him accordingly. A Tribe Called Quest and Redman made it a point to mock MC Hammer and his over-the-top nature. That meant people didn’t take him seriously, and that was a massive concern to him. Consequently, he made a hard pivot to the stylings of G-Funk, all while still somehow maintaining his dancing. It was weird, complicated, and frankly didn’t make any sense.
The first music video ushering in this moment was “Pumps and a Bump”. There, you can find him strutting around in a Speedo, gyrating all in the camera. MTV took it off the air accordingly, prompting MC Hammer to have to make a new music video if he wanted his promotion to go right.
‘Like a Prayer’ by Madonna
People will always get defensive over Christianity. No matter how a critique might be, it’s always seen as too sacred to disparage. Consequently, when Madonna used Catholic iconography to point out hypocrisy, MTV viewers were outraged. Eventually, her daring music video cost her a Pepsi commercial but won her an MTV VMA in the end. Considering how people treated Lil Nas X in his wilder videos, they would’ve crucified Madonna all the same.
‘Tip Drill’ by Nelly
The rampant misogyny alone would’ve seen Nelly in hot water for “Tip Drill”. Before you get into the lyrics of the St. Louis rapper scoffing that “it must be your a** ’cause it ain’t yo face“, the music video is wildly explicit. The only way you could’ve seen it in its full form was on BET Uncut, where women were completely topless and in bathtubs. Meanwhile, Nelly and the St. Lunatics were slapping their butts and sliding credit cards in their cracks. If people today find that there’s somehow too much sex in movies today, they’d have a heart attack over “Tip Drill”.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
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