Nearly 30 years after its popularisation, the music video is still an instrument of myth and message.

And though no one knows for sure which artiste truly holds bragging rights for having first employed the medium, most have used these miniature movie-esque stylings to captivate audiences in an effort to keep their name in lights.

The music video has spawned a culture, a generation that feeds on the visual. But if what prevails within present-day visual culture is anything to go by, then this generation is readily becoming a brood of 'blood-sex-and-gore-thirsty' fiends.

"With the music video at a historic turning point, caught between its television-fuelled past and a still-unformed Internet future, it is an ideal time to look back at the life of this mutant art form - one that united the two most influential media of the last 50 years," writes Google-find Saul Austerlitz, author of Money For Nothing: A History of Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes.

Austerlitz says that Bob Dylan and the Beatles paved the way for music video giants like Madonna and Michael Jackson of the 1980s. And though the latter's 1983-release Thriller arguably revolutionised music video presentation; with its otherworldly werewolves, ghouls and zombies, what obtains today makes that seem little more than an episode of Barney & Friends.

Just ask United States-based watch-dog organisation Parents Television Council, who commissioned The Rap On Rap study, a content analysis of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Music Television's (MTV) daytime music video programming.

"These shows were chosen due to their daily new and recent video releases as well as the fact that they are all aired during afternoon or early evening hours," the study says of BET cash cow 106 & Park, Rap City and MTV's Sucker Free.

The study, carried out for two weeks in December 2007 and again in March 2008, notes that a sample of 25 episodes constituting a total of 27.5 hours of programming, outlines every instance of explicit language, sex, violence, drugs (sales and/or use), and other illegal activity.

Of the 14-hour analysis period last March, the research notes 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content. Sex, it outlines, constitutes the majority of adult content in the analysed videos (45 per cent), followed by explicit language (29 per cent), violence (13 per cent), drug use/sales (nine per cent) and other illegal activity (three per cent).

The study also outlines that Rap City featured the highest number of sexual references (31.6 instances per hour), while Sucker Free contained the highest levels of drug-related allusions (10 instances per hour).

Though the survey is based on American programming, it holds some relevance among local viewers, since, both cable channels are streamed directly into Jamaican homes and youth in particular gravitate towards the bling-bling lifestyle that rappers and singers tout during their three to five-minute-long music videos.
It's not uncommon even, to view homegrown-but-crossover successes like Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Sean Kingston, Shaggy and Sean Paul seated on the 106 & Park couch, beside hosts Rocsi and Terrence; and in front a screaming, swooning audience chock-full of teenaged fans.

"During the study period, children under 18 made up approximately 40 per cent of the viewing audience for 106 & Park; 41 per cent of the Rap City audience and 39 per cent of Sucker Free on MTV," the study posits.

Fifteen-year-old high school student Ornella Stevens is a fan of these shows but doesn't believe the presence of violence, sex or drugs in music videos impacts her.

"It nuh really affect me, me just watch it," Stevens tells Splash, "It doesn't make me feel like I want to go out an' have sex or stab somebody because 50 Cent seh so."

She is, however, quick to point out that international music video junkets are not alone in the proliferation of explicit content and that, "local cable channel like RETV and HYPE show dem things deh too".

Asked if she receives any kind of parental control as it pertains to these videos, she informs Splash that her "mother doesn't really like when [she] listen to [Vybz] Kartel" but has never physically prevented her from listening to the controversial deejay's tracks.

Stevens notes that local music videos, in her opinion, are much more grotesque than their foreign counterparts.

"Local video worse man, because people like Bounty an' Mavado. a bare gun thing dem sing 'bout. dat much worse than how Jay Z would a seh it."

The girl's schoolmate, 17-year-old Xavier Chin also finds the same music video channels appealing. for him, it's all about the video vixens in tight clothes.

"The video girls dress kinky and that appeals to me," Chin quips, before outlining that he wouldn't marry a woman who dresses like that but he's "cool with" someone like that if he were to engage in a casual relationship.

Chin's musings aside, music video networks often assign age-appropriate ratings to their programmes, and even excerpt or mute curse words or vulgar references.

But for Jordane Irving, also 17, none of that matters.

"Even if they blur out the bad word or a scene me automatically know weh dem a seh," Irving says. His companion Sanique DaCosta agrees, adding too that, "more bad words are bleeped out on BET than MTV." She outlines that though BET music videos feature more graphic language - as indicated by the study - she prefers the rough-and-tumble urban music because "MTV too white". Still, she is bothered by the vulgar references to the female anatomy and/or the labels rappers oft give women.

"But apart from that, is a good channel to watch," she quips.
These youth speak at a time when local dancehall stars like Bounty Killer and Mavado have received bans from some countries due to their graphic lyrics and the always-gun-praising Vybz Kartel has voiced a public service announcement imploring youth to live peacefully.

"Music is powerful and music videos make it even more so," says ace videographer Jason 'Jay Will' Williams, who spoke to Splash via telephone.

"The people who watch music videos are definitely affected by them," he added, " by watching videos we're informed of how to dress, what to say and what to look at."

Williams, who has had international directorial experience, explains to Splash that though the music video industry in Jamaica has improved, there's yet more to achieve.

"In terms of the level of violence and sex in music videos, we get away with so much in Jamaica," Williams says, "in America there are the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. they're a lot more serious about fining and law suits than we are here, perhaps because they've got more to lose."

"In America even the networks themselves will crack down on the DJs for badly edited playlists or videos that are too risqué. but you done know how Jamaica run already."

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