• Rapper M.I.A. stirs up controversy with graphic "Born Free" video, pulled from YouTube
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[url]http://vimeo.com/11219730[/url] [url]http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/27/mia.music.video/[/url] [release](CNN) -- If singer/rapper M.I.A.'s purpose was to get people talking about her new single "Born Free," she succeeded . The Sri Lankan-born artist debuted the graphic video on Monday. Immediately, fans took to social media to debate its scenes of military force, violence and brutality. "M.I.A. is a provocateur and someone who tries to rile people up in a variety of ways," said Saul Austerlitz, author of "Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes." "I think one of the main routes that she takes to that end is the political, and this video has a lot of political resonances, things like Guantanamo, the Iraqi insurgency and the Taliban all sort of jumbled together and rebranded." The almost nine-minute video for the song from her upcoming album includes nudity as well as scenes of brutality. Directed by filmmaker Romain Gavras, the video revolves around the rounding up of red-headed young men by a group of military commandos. At one point, a boy is shot point-blank in the head and another young man is blown to pieces. YouTube reportedly yanked the video in light of its content. Sasha Pasulka, managing editor for pop culture website "Evil Beet," said M.I.A. couldn't have played the publicity game better. "It's much better for her that YouTube pulled it because now she gets to rant about that," Pasulka said. And rant the artist did. She took to her official Twitter account to berate her record label, Universal Music Group, for the video being pulled. "(Expletive) UMG WHO WONT SHOW IT ON YOUTUBE!" she wrote before tweeting four minutes later "OK NOT UMG FAULT!" A request by CNN for comment from M.I.A.'s publicist did not receive a response. Pasulka said M.I.A. is following the tradition established by artists such as Michael Jackson in using a longer video as a means of artistic expression. And while it is not clear exactly what message M.I.A. is trying to get across, Pasulka said it is obvious she is trying to provoke thought among viewers. "If you look at M.I.A.'s life, there is a history of political activism," Pasulka said. "She's the daughter of a revolutionary who fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka, so she is obviously trying to make a political statement." On Twitter, fans like one who goes by the moniker "ziggy0stardust" appealed to the artist for her inspiration by writing "@ M.I.A. can u tell us what u were tryin (sic) to say wiv (sic) the born free vid please" while other reactions ranged from those like "Hadge" who wrote "I just watched M.I.A.'s new music video for "Born Free" and now I feel like throwing up. What an awful, awful video" to those like SEFGray who tweeted "M.I.A's Born Free video blew me away, along with the actors." MTV.com writer James Montgomery hailed M.I.A. for the unflinching video. "Yes, it's brutal and at times a bit overly dramatic, but it's also a form of political protest, a downright subversive bit of art created by an artist on a major label, Interscope," Montgomery wrote. Austerlitz pointed out that the video's director is the son of Costa Gavras, a noted filmmaker whose work has also blended politics and entertainment. M.I.A.'s video also took inspiration from the 1971 film "Punishment Park," written and directed by Peter Watkins, Austerlitz said. "['Punishment Park' is] a movie about a totalitarian state where young people are rounded up, brought out to a deserted area and essentially told if they could outrun the police, they could live, but that the police would basically be hunting them," Austerlitz said. "It's sort of a dystopian look at late '60s American protests and student movements," Austerlitz added. "It's clear that the second half of the video has been taken almost shot for shot from that film. In an age where so many musicians are trying to break free from the pack and be viewed as artists with something to say, Pasulka said M.I.A. may have succeeded in generating even more buzz than the industry's current poster girl for all things provocative -- Lady GaGa. "I would say she out-GaGaed Lady GaGa," Pasulka said. "This has the potential for even more coverage than all of the interest that surrounded 'Telephone.' " [/release] Personally, I think it's brilliant.
I thought it got really stupid at the end. How inefficient would it be to have gingers run through a minefield where the mines explode when no one is even stepping on them idgi
lol, the ginger concentration camp thing saw this in the video section yesterday
reminds me of the intro levels to Half-life 2
Your average day in LA. Hmm, seems to be a fairly good video (from a directing standpoint). I mean, I'm sure it would have been allowed if no tits were shown. I mean, violence is just fine until a pair of tits or a dick pops up. If the people weren't ginger, and there were no tits, it'd probably be A-OK. I laughed at the guy getting gibbed by the mine. It looked like something out of a tarintino film.
That video is fucking stupid. Really. I don't get the point of it. Everyone is treating Gingers like they where jews in WW2 for some stupid reason.
Holy shit Ginger concentration camp.
It is bad that I was laughing my ass off by the end? I'm sorry, but that video was [I]hilarious [/I]to me.
[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;21644288]It is bad that I was laughing my ass off by the end? I'm sorry, but that video was [I]hilarious [/I]to me.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure it's basically a joke/publicity stunt. It seems too graphic to be serious. That, and it doesn't make much sense.
I can sort of see what she's trying to do with this but fuck me what an awful noise.
They must have had a really shitty costume designer because those are some badly depicted uniforms. [editline]02:27AM[/editline] Some were better then others, but generally they made them look like a bunch of skinny airsoft players. It could be the actors too, none of them have that cop look. I guess I understood where they tried to go with it, what with the fat driver and all, but it just looked weird and out of place and I couldn't take it seriously.
[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;21644352]They must have had a really shitty costume designer because those are some badly depicted uniforms.[/QUOTE] yeah, the red hair and freckles are all wrong.
[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;21644352]They must have had a really shitty costume designer because those are some badly depicted uniforms. [editline]02:27AM[/editline] Some were better then others, but generally they made them look like a bunch of skinny airsoft players. It could be the actors too, none of them have that cop look. I guess I understood where they tried to go with it, what with the fat driver and all, but it just looked weird and out of place and I couldn't take it seriously.[/QUOTE] I imagine it's done intentionally to stop people thinking the police are rounding up gingers.
[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;21644288]It is bad that I was laughing my ass off by the end? I'm sorry, but that video was [I]hilarious [/I]to me.[/QUOTE] Hey yall I'm de-sensitized to violence!
I just generally didn't find the movie very, I don't know, it didn't make me feel anything. I actually thought it was silly, the music was terrible and it was just a 'shock' video to provoke reaction. I don't see any real message, especially with that red-head stuff. Also, those police don't scare me. These men are scary; [img]http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/airtalkblog/2008/08/28/Denver%20Riot%20Police-thumb-480x360.jpg[/img] Not this; [img]http://www.cubeupload.com/files/e53000police.jpg[/img] The video seems like it could be made by a bunch of college students if it wasn't for the end with the explosions and the point they were driving around a bus and armored car. [editline]02:39AM[/editline] They really look like airsoft players, holy shit. I'm starting to see the humor in this. [editline]02:42AM[/editline] And they're acting like a bunch of thugs. That's the thing, I get where they wanted to take the video but I think the video would be more shocking or scary if they it was organized. Instead of walking around like they're going to a football game they should be organized and they should be surgically storming the building and with frighting precision executing, incapacitating, abusing and beating the residents.
[QUOTE=Sir_takeslot;21644241]That video is fucking stupid. Really. I don't get the point of it. Everyone is treating Gingers like they where jews in WW2 for some stupid reason.[/QUOTE] Yea, you're pretty off.
Here's Lady Gaga's Telephone because it was mentioned in the OP. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY[/media]
I'm sorry, I really can't take this seriously. No way they -paid- someone money to direct this and watched this and told them it was genius. [editline]02:53AM[/editline] [QUOTE=thisispain;21644645]Here's Lady Gaga's Telephone because it was mentioned in the OP. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY[/media][/QUOTE] Same story, shock video for attention. The song has nothing to do with the video for christ sake.
[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;21644649] Same story, shock video for attention. The song has nothing to do with the video for christ sake.[/QUOTE] Lol, watch the whole thing. It's pretty entertaining.
I usually watch up to about 1:11 on that telephone video. After that it just sort of goes downhill.
I'm pretty sure that's the point.
I mean downhill as in "Best part's over, I'm going to watch something else"
The video itself felt like a sledgehammer to crack a walnut really; it could've handled the subject much more powerfully by being more subtle. But then in the Publicity game it's a winner Tune's pretty good, sorta like a female Alec Empire kinda vibe End of the video reminded me of that Prodigy video where they're all running blind
It was entertaining yet stupid at the end.
Up until the last minute, it could have been the plot to a South Park episode. I've seen and heard far worse things in "music videos" before. The outrage is just asinine.
The entire video really sucked, it wasn't even shocking or disturbing the say the least. The only thing that was really bad is the two fat fuckers fucking each other. Other then that there are much more disturbing videos out there by other artists.
I had to replay the part at the end where this one ginger kid gets blown into pieces due to a land mine. I thought I had imagined it at first. [editline]09:04AM[/editline] Also, she seems to be sampling this: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a224CkygvR4[/url]
Wow, seems like MIA stopped make good songs. This is really a Shock video, the music sucks, the video sucks, the idea itself sucks.
[QUOTE=healthpoint;21645643]I had to replay the part at the end where this one ginger kid gets blown into pieces due to a land mine. I thought I had imagined it at first. [editline]09:04AM[/editline] Also, she seems to be sampling this: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a224CkygvR4[/url][/QUOTE] Lol, I liked when the ginger stepped on a mine and the explosion went off behind him and then after the explosion he gets disintegrated from the inside.
I think the videos quite good, it's not supposed to be 100% serious, they're taking all the gingers for gods sake...
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