Sex, sex, and more sex. The entertainment world is increasingly riddled with innuendos, scantily-clad women and men, and an ever-growing theme of liberated “love.”
Many have heard the phrase “sex sells,” but what does that really mean for the sharing of music, movies, commercials, and television shows?
While studies show that sex may not sell quite as much as people say, there has been a growing use of “raunchy” sexuality displayed throughout the entertainment world.
As music artists grow larger and larger, the world starts to see more of this raunchy sexuality displayed throughout their work. The entertainment world has gone from selling “sexiness” to just dirty, explicit sex.
In her upcoming album, expected to drop November 11, Lady Gaga goes no holds barred when it comes to her music and look. With song titles ranging from “Do What U Want” to “Sexxx Dreams,” Gaga leaves little to the imagination in her songs, as well as her overly explicit album cover.
The album cover for ARTPOP displays Gaga naked, covering her breast with her hands and sitting with her legs spread apart and a blue orb covering her lower region that reads “ARTPOP” across it. While Gaga is known to push the limits in everything she does, her growing acceptance indicates a lack of moral refinement within Hollywood and throughout American culture.
This overwhelming sexual expression has broken the lines of just dirty lyrics and controversial album covers and has advanced to real-life depiction in music videos as well. Robin Thicke shook the entertainment world when he released the explicit version of “Blurred Lines”, this summer’s smash hit, showing nude models dancing and being degraded.
Within a week, Thicke’s video had been banned from YouTube and a more ‘refined’ version was to be released. In more recent music, Justin Timberlake released his new music video on October 30 for his first single, TKO, off of The 20/20 Experience: 2 of 2, showing the struggle of a failing relationship and an angry girlfriend.
Although this story has been seen plenty of times, Timberlake amps it up with a dirty sex scene with Riley Keough on the kitchen counter. This video followed up his earlier music video in 2013, “Tunnel Vision”, from his previous album this year, The 20/20 Experience, depicting a very similar theme to Robin Thicke’s music video.
An article from greatschools.org shows that programs with sexual content average 4.4 scenes per hour, music videos contain 93 sexual situations per hour, including 11 hard-core scenes depicting behavior like intercourse and oral sex, and between 1998 and 2005, sexual content in media nearly doubled.
These sorts of statistics show the growing sense of sex in media, while also depicting the risks that it demonstrates for young teens. A study done through preventtogether.org shows that 70% of 15-17 year-old internet users have reported viewing pornography online “very” or “somewhat” often.
Other studies throughout the article show that media is a growing source of curiosity and mental manipulation for teens and young adults. One of the main points of the article, cited by nearly 10 sources, reads, “sexualized media contributes to an earlier onset of sexual behavior in youth.”
Sex is a natural, human action and need, but Hollywood has manipulated that natural part of humanity and twisted it into a disease that fills viewers minds starting at a young age.
While the lyrics in songs may not mean much to a 12 year-old at the time, the music and images they see flashing through their minds begin to have a subconscious and overbearing mental affect, leaving them at risk of permanent damage.
People in today’s culture have begun to mix up “sexiness” with sex, resulting in an ever-growing problem, pushing itself further into every arena of daily life.
(Photo courtesy of directlyrics.com)