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Old 20-10-2015, 16:43
SummerHeart
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A lot of female pop stars claim that stripping off is about empowerment and confidence. How does nudity empower women?

When I see Miley Cyrus flashing another body part it doesn’t make me think she’s strong or confident, it makes me think she’s desperate to sell a few more copies of an album or a single. Madonna uses nudity as a way to get people talking about HER and HER music and not the cause or person she’s pretending to advocate by jumping on another news story or bandwagon. It has nothing to do with empowering women. I recall a group of Madonna fans criticising Cher for her skimpy outfits on tour. Pot calling the kettle black.

Anyone who strips off on stage or in a photo shoot or music video is making themselves into a sex object. They look like another victim of a male-dominated music industry. Do they not realise how ridiculous they look when they scream and shout about equality and respect while wearing next to nothing. Breasts aren’t shocking, every woman has them. Am I supposed to be impressed whenever Madonna bares her breasts yet again? She's been doing it since the 1980s. It's old schtick. Am I supposed to be impressed that she uploaded a picture of herself wearing a burka? It's one thing putting on a burka for a minute in your mansion to take a picture and another to wear it day and night in high temperatures like some women have to. Naturally, her fans claimed she was pushing boundaries for women when in reality she was probably bored and wanted to shift the attention from someone like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna to her.

Madonna, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry have worked with Terry Richardson, a guy notorious for inappropriate sexual behaviour towards models. How is working with him empowering to women? It’s not, they’re all hypocrites. Why is it always the least talented performers who shout the loudest and wear the least amount of clothes? We don't see Kate Bush, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Nicks, Adele, Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton stripping off and baring their bodies for attention. Madonna’s Sex book wasn’t daring, artistic or ground- breaking. It was tasteless, classless and backfired on her. I don't know what she was expecting by releasing a book that was nothing more than a recreation of pictures Irving Klaw took of Bettie Page in the 1950s.

I feel the same way about the music business and the media exploiting men in the industry. I don't want to see a male performer’s body. I couldn't care less if he has a sick pack and a big package. I want to hear him sing. I don't find anything attractive about oiled up chests and jeans sagging so low you can see someone’s buttocks. I dread to think what the industry is going to be like in ten years’ time. Mainstream music has been getting progressively worse since the early 1980s.

What do you think?
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Old 20-10-2015, 17:23
RetroMusicFan
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I think someone doesn't like Madonna!
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Old 20-10-2015, 17:26
dodger0703
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Can you post some links to all this nudity as my missus is off out later
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Old 20-10-2015, 17:27
Hollie_Louise
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Not nearly enough of it, especially from male popstars. Timberlake, I'm looking at you!
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Old 20-10-2015, 17:46
Daniel Dare
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Gary Glitter's bare, hairy chest.
*shudders*
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Old 21-10-2015, 07:22
mushymanrob
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A lot of female pop stars claim that stripping off is about empowerment and confidence. How does nudity empower women?

When I see Miley Cyrus flashing another body part it doesn’t make me think she’s strong or confident, it makes me think she’s desperate to sell a few more copies of an album or a single. Madonna uses nudity as a way to get people talking about HER and HER music and not the cause or person she’s pretending to advocate by jumping on another news story or bandwagon. It has nothing to do with empowering women. I recall a group of Madonna fans criticising Cher for her skimpy outfits on tour. Pot calling the kettle black.

Anyone who strips off on stage or in a photo shoot or music video is making themselves into a sex object. They look like another victim of a male-dominated music industry. Do they not realise how ridiculous they look when they scream and shout about equality and respect while wearing next to nothing. Breasts aren’t shocking, every woman has them. Am I supposed to be impressed whenever Madonna bares her breasts yet again? She's been doing it since the 1980s. It's old schtick. Am I supposed to be impressed that she uploaded a picture of herself wearing a burka? It's one thing putting on a burka for a minute in your mansion to take a picture and another to wear it day and night in high temperatures like some women have to. Naturally, her fans claimed she was pushing boundaries for women when in reality she was probably bored and wanted to shift the attention from someone like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna to her.

Madonna, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry have worked with Terry Richardson, a guy notorious for inappropriate sexual behaviour towards models. How is working with him empowering to women? It’s not, they’re all hypocrites. Why is it always the least talented performers who shout the loudest and wear the least amount of clothes? We don't see Kate Bush, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Nicks, Adele, Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton stripping off and baring their bodies for attention. Madonna’s Sex book wasn’t daring, artistic or ground- breaking. It was tasteless, classless and backfired on her. I don't know what she was expecting by releasing a book that was nothing more than a recreation of pictures Irving Klaw took of Bettie Page in the 1950s.

I feel the same way about the music business and the media exploiting men in the industry. I don't want to see a male performer’s body. I couldn't care less if he has a sick pack and a big package. I want to hear him sing. I don't find anything attractive about oiled up chests and jeans sagging so low you can see someone’s buttocks. I dread to think what the industry is going to be like in ten years’ time. Mainstream music has been getting progressively worse since the early 1980s.

What do you think?
well said, im completely with you on this.

i always think theres a direct relationship between the amount of flesh on show and the (lack of) quality of the song.

and i dont think its about empowerment, i dont think young people watching these vids think it empowers them. it just props up the stereotype that women should or are expected to look a certain way and behave in a certain manner.

the bottom line is that quality music doesnt need to stoop so low, quality music stands up on its own.
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Old 21-10-2015, 09:37
madiain28
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Summerheart your desperation for slating Madonna and coming up with new topics to post are really quite pathetic. Especially when they are so inaccurate on so many levels. You clearly dislike Madonna so why don't you focus on someone or something you do like rather than continually trolling someone you don't.
This topic has nothing to do with nudity in pop or empowerment of woman.
By the way Barbara Striesand was a cover girl for Playboy in the 70's.
Stevie Nicks has plenty of topless pics floating about.
Dolly Parton has made a career out of her breasts and having bigger implants put in.
But that's straying from the what this entire post is about your dislike of Madonna!
If you put some effort into posting about things you did like you might be a happier person.
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Old 21-10-2015, 09:52
Glawster2002
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It is quite simple, really...

Sex sells.

Always has, always will.
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Old 21-10-2015, 11:41
Puterkid
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It is quite simple, really...

Sex sells.

Always has, always will.
Yeah, the three biggest sellers of late, Adele, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran are always in the buff.

You don't need sex to sell stuff, unless you don't have enough talent and the quality music that sells itself.
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Old 21-10-2015, 12:36
Gigi4
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First of all, I don't know of any artists that get on stage and perform their whole show naked. At the most, they use some sexual imagery.

Sexuality is a part of life. Almost all of us have it and enjoy it. I don't see why sexuality can't be included in a person's work. It has been part of art since the earliest times. Now obviously there is a tasteful way and a non tasteful way to do it. But I think it's silly that there has to be a rule that no musical artist can use sexual themes in their work or it shows they are untalented.
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Old 21-10-2015, 14:09
mushymanrob
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First of all, I don't know of any artists that get on stage and perform their whole show naked. At the most, they use some sexual imagery.

Sexuality is a part of life. Almost all of us have it and enjoy it. I don't see why sexuality can't be included in a person's work. It has been part of art since the earliest times. Now obviously there is a tasteful way and a non tasteful way to do it. But I think it's silly that there has to be a rule that no musical artist can use sexual themes in their work or it shows they are untalented.
theres a difference between sexuality and nudity
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Old 21-10-2015, 15:49
madiain28
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Yeah, the three biggest sellers of late, Adele, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran are always in the buff.

You don't need sex to sell stuff, unless you don't have enough talent and the quality music that sells itself.
Jeez you picked three artists out of thousands, you could counter act that with Madonna biggest selling female artist ever! Robbie Williams biggest Uk male artist spent most his videos shirtless! Or posing nearly nude in countless magazines.
Just because some people may not like sexuality being used or nudity others do that doesn't make a person any more or less talented.
Yes they may be three of the biggest sellers currently but let's see in twenty years if they still are or if they are remembered.
Can you give me me one iconic artist over the past 50 years that has not used sexuality or sexual imagery of some kind or even suggestive photos to sell themselves artistically. Jeez next we will be saying you can't be a talented actor if you've stripped or simulated any sexual activity in a film.
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Old 21-10-2015, 16:00
Sambda
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Yeah - Demis Roussos never felt the need to get naked to sell his music.
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Old 21-10-2015, 16:02
Sambda
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Can you give me me one iconic artist over the past 50 years that has not used sexuality or sexual imagery of some kind or even suggestive photos to sell themselves artistically. Jeez next we will be saying you can't be a talented actor if you've stripped or simulated any sexual activity in a film.
Brian May. Pink Floyd. Status Quo.
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Old 21-10-2015, 16:27
Aneechik
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It's certainly a weird paradox that female artists whose target audience is young women seem to spend the most time getting them out for the lads. But then in an industry that's run entirely by straight 40-year-old men, it's perhaps not entirely unsurprising.
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Old 21-10-2015, 16:58
madiain28
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Brian May. Pink Floyd. Status Quo.
Just off the top of my head,
Status Quo did a nude photo shoot a few years back just holding guitars,
Brian May was part of Queen which frequently used provocative imagery in videos of them in leotards etc leaving nothing to the imagination.
Pink Floyd The Wall has the flower scene which was extremely sexual and the film also contained scenes of naked woman on bed in a sexual scene with a man. I'm sure if I searched the Internet there would be more.
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Old 21-10-2015, 17:03
madiain28
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Yeah - Demis Roussos never felt the need to get naked to sell his music.
Demis Roussos Album cover for universum him sitting over a woman in a provocative pose with her right nipple just about showing. That album cover certainly alludes to a sexual encounter.
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Old 21-10-2015, 17:38
mgvsmith
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A lot of female pop stars claim that stripping off is about empowerment and confidence. How does nudity empower women?
....

Anyone who strips off on stage or in a photo shoot or music video is making themselves into a sex object. They look like another victim of a male-dominated music industry. Do they not realise how ridiculous they look when they scream and shout about equality and respect while wearing next to nothing. Breasts aren’t shocking, every woman has them. Am I supposed to be impressed whenever Madonna bares her breasts yet again? She's been doing it since the 1980s. It's old schtick. Am I supposed to be impressed that she uploaded a picture of herself wearing a burka? It's one thing putting on a burka for a minute in your mansion to take a picture and another to wear it day and night in high temperatures like some women have to. Naturally, her fans claimed she was pushing boundaries for women when in reality she was probably bored and wanted to shift the attention from someone like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna to her.

Madonna, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry have worked with Terry Richardson, a guy notorious for inappropriate sexual behaviour towards models. How is working with him empowering to women? It’s not, they’re all hypocrites. Why is it always the least talented performers who shout the loudest and wear the least amount of clothes? We don't see Kate Bush, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Nicks, Adele, Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton stripping off and baring their bodies for attention. Madonna’s Sex book wasn’t daring, artistic or ground- breaking. It was tasteless, classless and backfired on her. I don't know what she was expecting by releasing a book that was nothing more than a recreation of pictures Irving Klaw took of Bettie Page in the 1950s.

....

What do you think?
I think I have heard a lot of this before and there is nothing new here. The usual suspects (Madonna, Rihanna, Miley) get bashed and the boys escape scott free. There is an innate sexism in this kind of article. Women who display their sexuality often get this treatment because they display themselves whereas men who simply use women to display their sexuality (Aerosmith, 'Love in an Elevator' or Queen, 'Fat Bottom Girls' etc etc) avoid this kind of criticism.

Indeed, those boys who do strip (Iggy, Freddie, Jagger, Bieber, Derulo etc http://www.idolator.com/7575432/shir...-abs-nude-pics) never seem to face the same ire as the girls who do. In some way they are on display but are not flaunting their sexuality? It really is time to cut out the double standards. Because that's actually what this reflects.
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Old 22-10-2015, 07:24
mushymanrob
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Just off the top of my head,
Status Quo did a nude photo shoot a few years back just holding guitars,
Brian May was part of Queen which frequently used provocative imagery in videos of them in leotards etc leaving nothing to the imagination.
Pink Floyd The Wall has the flower scene which was extremely sexual and the film also contained scenes of naked woman on bed in a sexual scene with a man. I'm sure if I searched the Internet there would be more.
theres a difference between an odd shot here and there to serial nudists who not only pose but appear in vids gyrating in a sexual manner.
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Old 22-10-2015, 07:50
dearmrman
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Jeez you picked three artists out of thousands, you could counter act that with Madonna biggest selling female artist ever! Robbie Williams biggest Uk male artist spent most his videos shirtless! Or posing nearly nude in countless magazines.
Just because some people may not like sexuality being used or nudity others do that doesn't make a person any more or less talented.
Yes they may be three of the biggest sellers currently but let's see in twenty years if they still are or if they are remembered.
Can you give me me one iconic artist over the past 50 years that has not used sexuality or sexual imagery of some kind or even suggestive photos to sell themselves artistically. Jeez next we will be saying you can't be a talented actor if you've stripped or simulated any sexual activity in a film.
Bob Dylan
Simon & Garfunkel
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Old 22-10-2015, 13:08
madiain28
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theres a difference between an odd shot here and there to serial nudists who not only pose but appear in vids gyrating in a sexual manner.
My point was actually more to do with the fact this topic wasn't anything about nudity in pop. It was yet another thread by summerheart just to troll Madonna. We get the fact summerheart has an obsession with Madonna and in every single thread manages to turn it all into slating Madonna.
At the end of the day nudity and sex has always been part of music from Elvis gyrating to suggestively shot videos to blatant nudity both make and female artists have used it to sell. There are very few artists who have not at some point used either sex or nudity in some way to sell themselves either in photo shoots or videos.
Dearmrman your most probably right with S&G and Bob but if you think about the number of iconic artists not 1 hit wonders or 5 year career artists but most artists with careers spanning decades at some point have used nudity or sex to sell at some point. Wether it be a photo shoot or moody video that had a lingering body shot of a semi naked male or female.
Its actually quite hard to come up with any artists that have not used some form of sexual connotation in their work wether it be to promote or to sell.
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Old 22-10-2015, 13:33
Sambda
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Just off the top of my head,
Status Quo did a nude photo shoot a few years back just holding guitars,
Brian May was part of Queen which frequently used provocative imagery in videos of them in leotards etc leaving nothing to the imagination.
Pink Floyd The Wall has the flower scene which was extremely sexual and the film also contained scenes of naked woman on bed in a sexual scene with a man. I'm sure if I searched the Internet there would be more.
Odd gag shots like those are more to sell a band/act through doing something unusual. They are clearly not an attempt to turn on/eroticise the viewer. Things like the Quo stuff were surely a joke about the band *not* using sexuality to sell their stuff, surely?
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Old 22-10-2015, 13:53
madiain28
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Odd gag shots like those are more to sell a band/act through doing something unusual. They are clearly not an attempt to turn on/eroticise the viewer. Things like the Quo stuff were surely a joke about the band *not* using sexuality to sell their stuff, surely?
It was for the album cover of acoustics stripped bare! But the point was wether tongue and cheek or not they used nudity to gain publicity for the launch of an album. It got them headlines in the media and exposure due to the fact they stripped naked with just a guitar.
I have no problem with it wether younger or older male or female but just reading through the posts it shows how judgemental and disciminatory we are.
So as a one off gag shot that's ok, Who decides what a gag shot is. Why shouldn't woman of the same age find them a turn on or the pic erotic? Are you suggesting that older people shouldn't get turned on or find adults of the same age erotic? Surely anyone at any age can be a turn on or feel erotic if they wish?
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Old 22-10-2015, 14:02
Glawster2002
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Jeez you picked three artists out of thousands, you could counter act that with Madonna biggest selling female artist ever! Robbie Williams biggest Uk male artist spent most his videos shirtless! Or posing nearly nude in countless magazines.
Just because some people may not like sexuality being used or nudity others do that doesn't make a person any more or less talented.
Yes they may be three of the biggest sellers currently but let's see in twenty years if they still are or if they are remembered.
Can you give me me one iconic artist over the past 50 years that has not used sexuality or sexual imagery of some kind or even suggestive photos to sell themselves artistically. Jeez next we will be saying you can't be a talented actor if you've stripped or simulated any sexual activity in a film.
You answered his point far better than I would have.

Talk about misinterpreting the point of the thread...
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Old 22-10-2015, 14:06
Glawster2002
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Just off the top of my head,
Status Quo did a nude photo shoot a few years back just holding guitars,
Brian May was part of Queen which frequently used provocative imagery in videos of them in leotards etc leaving nothing to the imagination.
Pink Floyd The Wall has the flower scene which was extremely sexual and the film also contained scenes of naked woman on bed in a sexual scene with a man. I'm sure if I searched the Internet there would be more.
The Pink Floyd connection is, at best, a bit tenuous because the film was based on the album. The film was directed by Alan Parker and the graphics were drawn by Gerald Scarfe so it wasn't the band "stripping off" to sell their music.
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