More video related news now, and Madonna and Michael Jackson have confirmed their leading roles in the world of music video by both getting multiple entries in MTV's top ten videos that "broke the rules".
The TV network surveyed over 10,000 viewers for the survey, designed to celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary. The slightly ambiguous title of the poll means that some of the videos that appear are listed because they broke new ground on their release, while others seemingly get their place in the chart because they literally "broke the rules", ie they violated broadcasting rules or caused protests from one lobbying group or another.
The number one video, Madonna's 'Like A Prayer', possibly achieved both. Certainly the promo, with its burning crosses and black Christ-like figure, caused a backlash among some Christian groups on its release. However, some of Madonna's other more controversial videos, like those for 'Justify My Love', 'Erotica' and 'What It Feels Like For a Girl', all of which were censored by MTV themselves in one way or another, do not appear in the top ten. Her other entries - 'Ray Of Light' at 4 and 'Vogue' at 5 more likely appear for creative rather than controversial reasons.
Likewise the two Michael Jackson entries in the top ten. 'Thriller' is, predictably, in there, at number three, while his collaboration with sister Janet, 'Scream', one of the most expensive pop promos ever, is at number 6.
Other top ten rated 'rule breaking' videos can be split between the 'ground breaking' and the 'viewer-group bothering' categories. Presumably Britney Spears' 'Baby One More Time', Robbie Williams' 'Rock DJ' and Eric Prydz's 'Call On Me' fall into the latter, while Jamiroquai's 'Virtual Insanity' falls into the former. Not sure what category Spice Girls' 'Wannabe', the tenth biggest rule breaking video, falls into. Given that it introduced us all to the world of the Spice Girls for the very first time, I suppose it broke new ground in over-produced, aggressively-marketed mediocrity.