Sam Smith’s Music Video Was Described As Too Raunchy And Called For Strict Age Restrictions
Sam Smith’s new music video has been receiving backlash and positive feedback. Given that kids as young as five can now access the “vulgar content,” many activist groups want it to be prohibited from being viewed by children.
Because of how sexy and hypersexualized Sam’s new song I’m Not Here To Make Friends is, many people contend that it is normalizing pornography in popular culture. On the other hand, other fans describe the video as freeing and empowering.
This sparked a debate about whether YouTube should implement an age restriction for viewing such music videos because of their almost explicit content.
The video starts with Sam flying into a castle by helicopter and then dancing with many performers dressed in corsets, nipple tassels, and suspenders. Dancers clad in black underwear thrust on a bed in other scenes.
Sam, who identifies himself as non-binary, is surrounded by these dancers, who are all dancing provocatively.
Sam’s brand-new album Gloria, which includes this track, was just released last week.
A journalist, Alex Phillips, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the music video was bad for society. She added, “We live in an age where porn is becoming so normalized. It is in music videos and fast fashion that is being marketed to teens, and we also live in an age where we know that people are getting sexually assaulted at school.”
“I don’t think it is a coincidence that the reporting of sexual assaults and sexual attacks, relationships falling apart, the swipe left and swipe right generation. It is bad, unhealthy, and not good for society, and this is a symptom of it.”
Viewers of the video had different reactions, sharing their thoughts about it on social media.
Given that the video resembles a Playboy photoshoot, many people, most likely parents, want to keep kids away from it. They also described it as too much and stated it should be tagged as PG, given that most children and teens today are heavily influenced by the videos they watch and the content they read.
A Twitter user posted, “It is vulgar… Sam Smith has a great voice, but his video is offensive. I certainly don’t want my child to see it.”
Another one shared, “Less is more, Sam. How this can be seen as empowering is beyond me. A sign of these crazy times if someone thinks that’s good.”
A third Twitter user added, “It’s time for standards to be raised regarding pop videos. So many of them are no more than porn, soft or otherwise. What are these people trying to do to our children?”
Meanwhile, Sam found an ally in radio presenter Shivani Dave, who claimed that other stars like Madonna wouldn’t receive that criticism if they, too, released such videos.
Shivani further cited examples like Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj having done the same kinds of videos, but what’s different with Sam’s video was that he was a singer who was male at birth. People are not used to the idea of a male at birth person dancing in their lingerie and wearing corsets.
The concept is not what people are used to, so it appears women can do the same without receiving as much backlash as Sam.
Well, Sam seems unfazed. After all, he’s made it pretty clear he’s not here to make friends!
