There was a particularly interesting report in The Age this week that caught my eye. A British study recently undertaken by the University of Nottingham analysed several music videos of songs from the British top 40 chart for references to alcohol and tobacco. This was done simultaneously with some YouGov polling of young people to see how many times people of certain age brackets had actually seen the videos.

Research author Dr Jo Cranwell analysed the videos according the to presence of alcohol or tobacco ‘impressions’, including both verbal and visual references. She estimated that based on the responses of those studied the 32 videos analysed were responsible for 1,006 million impressions of alcohol and 203 million of tobacco. The top offenders (bearing in mind that the study was conducted during 2013 and 2014) were Jason Derulo’s Trumpets and Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines for smoking references and Beyonce’s Drunk in Love and Pitbull and Kesha’s Timber for alcohol.

The article that I was reading online in The Sydney Morning Herald asserted that “it was well known that adolescents who were exposed to alcohol and tobacco were more likely to consume the drugs themselves.” Which begs the question, should we be regulating music video? Although film and TV in Australia have ratings that extend beyond recommendations and warnings to actual limitations on when certain things can be broadcast, we have no such system for music videos. Channel Ten’s music video program The Loop airs at 9am on Saturdays alongside children’s cartoons, and yet shows themes of sexuality, drug-taking, drinking, and other adult concepts that would not be permitted in other shows at that hour. Often there are TV edits made to music videos, but these usually come from the TV station or program rather than any regulatory body.

An interesting case in point comes from the UK, where this study was conducted. Just last year after a successful pilot program, the UK government introduced regulation to classify online music videos in the way that TV and films are rated. Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music must now send videos to the British Board of Film Classification before publication to YouTube or Vevo. I have to say, I’ll be interested to see how the UK government goes about policing this tricky online space, but I guess only time will tell.

Of course, this all relies on the argument that music videos do actually influence the behaviour of young people, which is a contentious topic in and of itself. I remember watching Michael Moore’s film Bowling for Columbine in high school and seeing the debate surrounding the impact of Marilyn Manson’s music videos on youth violence. It’s an interesting discussion and I’ll be fascinated to see if this report has any impact on music video regulation in Australia.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/cigarettes-and-alcohol-in-music-videos-a-health-hazard-for-teens-bmj-study-20160118-gm8moq.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35311337