(Illustration by Zimbio)Earlier in 2012 we recapped the year's most titillating music videos, illustrating just how many pop stars are pushing buttons with brazen, bold sexuality. It's nothing new, but now that artists are no longer reliant on MTV and VH1 for airplay, they're moving into saucier, edgier, and often more graphic territory than ever before. Here are the videos that were too hot to handle in 2012. Also check out the best music videos of the year, as well as the most controversial.
Rihanna - "Where Have You Been"Rihanna always brings a natural level of raunch to her music videos, but in the Dave Meyers-directed clip for "Where Have You Been," she really goes for it with expertly executed choreography — including her favorite move,
the "vag slap." This woman is a master of subtlety.
Lana Del Rey - "National Anthem"Lana Del Rey's Anthony Mandler-directed video offers the singer's best imitations of both Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, opposite A$AP Rocky's John F. Kennedy. Though there's considerably less flesh on display than in, say, Del Rey's prostitution mini-movie "Ride" (also a Mandler piece), it depicts flashes of intimacy that are far more provocative — like shots of Del Rey's glittering fingers clutching at the labels of Rocky's shirt.
Daniel Bedingfield - "Secret Fear" (NSFW)Daniel Bedingfield — Natasha's brother, best known for that song "Gotta Get Thru This" from about a decade ago — stripped down completely for his "Secret Fear" video, which is sensual and horrific in equal doses with its exploration of inescapable, suffocating love. Bedingfield also directed and produced the video, in which he truly bares all. We're to modest to post it in full, so
click here to watch.
(YouTube)Madonna - "Girl Gone Wild"Madonna spends a fair amount of time in the "Girl Gone Wild" video humping on a wall, setting the tone for a clip that includes a lot of male model-on-male model action, gunplay, and of course, skin. The video was eventually deemed too hot for VEVO after multiple users flagged it as inappropriate on YouTube.
Sigur Rós - "Fjögur píanó" (NSFW)
There's a lot going on in video for Sigur Rós' slow-burner "Fjögur píanó," created as part of the band's "valtari mystery film experiment." With a $10,000 budget and complete creative freedom, director Alma Har'el painted a gorgeous portrait of a couple stuck in a cycle of passion and violence. Try not to get too hung up on Shia LeBeouf's LittleBeouf, which appears within the first several seconds of the intense and emotionally jarring video.
Click here to watch.
(Vimeo)Nicki Minaj - "Beez in the Trap"It'd be awfully hard to find a Nicki Minaj video that
isn't sexy, given the hip-hop artist's love of skintight spandex and candy-colored bra tops. But Benny Boom's clip for "Beez in the Trap" takes the cake, thanks in part to the song itself. Though Minaj issues diss after diss in the lyrics, she does so over a truly hot beat. Also, she's surrounded by strippers, so that helps.
The Aikiu - "Pieces of Gold"With "Pieces of Gold," French pop band The Aikiu managed to release a music video that isn't exactly NSFW, but really feels like it thanks to some ingenious splicing of uh, "performance footage." Shots of the band are cut in with clips from vintage pornographic films, creating an uncomfortably sexual experience. Just think about how much porn the editor must have had to watch to fit it all together.
Amanda Palmer, "Do It With a Rock Star"
(NSFW)The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne directed the clip for Amanda Palmer's "Do It With a Rockstar," in which adult actress Stoya (
unSEXpected, Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge) plays a shy fan who seduces Ms. Palmer post-show. Of course it isn't safe for work, what with its nudity and excessive use of bananas, sausages, and gold glitter.
Click here to watch.
(YouTube)Avan Lava, "Sisters"The beautifully shot video for AVAN LAVA's "Sisters" depicts one of those painfully intense relationships in which one person clearly desires something the other cannot give them. A gorgeous woman develops a passionate obsession with her best friend, who appears oblivious to her longing.
Rhye - "Open" (NSFW)When Rhye debuted the Jennifer Nies-directed video for their achingly sensual first single "Open," no one knew anything about the Los Angeles-based duo. Thankfully, the clip was powerful enough to speak volumes on its own, with its graphic but lovely depictions of various lovers in moments alternately tender and painful, but always stark and intimate.
Click here to watch.
(Vimeo)
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