What to Do with ‘R-Rated’ Music Videos, ‘Violence, Sexual Content’

What to Do with ‘R-Rated’ Music Videos, Violence, Sexual Content

Two opposing crowds approach each other. Bricks are chucked at bare heads, hammers are thrown down on shoulders, broken glass bottles are flying and blood splatters everywhere. (LC9′s “MaMa Beat”)

The shirtless, muscular upper body lies on top of a woman in bed. The man reaches for the woman’s short skirt and the female’s long nails scratch across the man’s back. (Jay Park’s “Welcome”)

These music videos were intended for K-pop idol fans, who are largely teenagers. There is no question as to why these clips received an R-rating. For violence and sexual content, of course.

Alarmingly, the drift toward ‘more’ has taken off too many clothes and revealed too much skin in music videos and on stage in K-pop.

Nine Muses is another group who received an R-rating on their music video. Though no explicit contents are present, the music video displays revealing figures of the members as well as questionable props such as whips, pistols, and razor blades that seem to point at imageries that are undeniably deliberate as well as ill-advised considering their target audience.

Even big-name artists were without exception. One of 2PM’s new music videos was originally going to contain explicit sexual contents but such footages were edited in order to obtain a PG-13 rating.

An associate from a rookie idol group commented on the R-rated phenomenon, “It is definitely a form of noise marketing. For new groups especially, no strategy works better than making front or second page on web news. We could travel coast to coast holding fan meetings but it really does not get much done. No doubt does it hurt our image and compromise certain components as artists, but it is a way of survival.”

The public is raising concerns about the enormous influence such K-pop media exert on teenagers. Realistically, however, there is no tangible method to prevent neither the young viewers from accessing R-rated videos online nor the production companies from creating such products.