The history of pictures is invariably also the history of dirty pictures: in this respect, music video is not much different from cave painting or photography or the Internet. So the ‘X-rated’ video has been part of the landscape of music video almost since the Seventies. The motivation for their existence often has more to do with PR than ‘art’, but they can also reflect the nature of popular music to keep pushing the boundaries of acceptability. Unseen and Unclean explores this grand tradition, from the soft-core Girls on Film, directed by Godley & Creme for Duran Duran in 1981, and the hardcore and notorious Sex Dwarf, directed by Tim Pope for Soft Cell that same year, through to the modern ‘banned’ videos such as Plug Me In and the various videos from the Death in Vegas oeuvre. The programme reveals the countless battles with censorship experienced by directors such as Jonas Akerlund, who has made a number of controversial videos, including Smack My Bitch Up (Prodigy), My Favourite Game (Cardigans) and Try (Smashing Pumpkins). There is the rise of the gothic video (Nine Inch Nails’ groundbreaking Closer), the work of Baillie Walsh, who disregarded conventions with Boy George’s Generations of Love, and the erotically charged works from WIZ. And then there’s Madonna, who demonstrates that the power of the superstar can force sexual explicitness into the mainstream. (David Knight) (Provisional list of videos to be shown in full or in part) Add N To X – Plug Me In Queens of the Stone Age – Feelgood Sid Vicious – My Way Frankie – Relax Madonna – Justify My Love Prodigy – Smack My Bitch Up The Cardigans – My Favourite Game Smashing Pumpkins – Try Soft Cell – Sex Dwarf Duran Duran – Girls on Film Belouis Some – Imagination Sonic Youth – Death Valley 69 Madonna – Like A Prayer Nine Inch Nails – Closer Tool – Stinkfish Therapy – Diane Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go Aphex Twin – Come to Daddy Leftfield – Afrika Shox Boy George – Generations of Love Massive Attack – Be Thankful Death in Vegas – Dirt Death in Vegas Aisha 2Pac – How Do You Want It? INXS – Taste It
