That's How Kids Die.

When German industrial metal freakazoids Rammstein first popped into the annals of American pop culture with their jam “Du Hast”, they definitely got a raw deal.  Not only were they unfairly lumped in with the nu metal scene that unfortunately gave us the likes of KoRn and Limp Bisquick (does anyone else remember a brief period where dumb asshole music journalists tried to refer to that shit as “pimp rock”?  probably not), they became more known for their pyro-drenched live shows than for writing good songs and producing some music videos that actually made the “art form” of the video still seem relevant.

Although Rammstein may have fallen off the popular radar here in the US, the band is still plugging away with their rad brand of teutonic metal and still making insane videos.  If you think you’ve seen some provocative clips before, the video for the band’s latest single, “Pussy”, is a doozy and then some.  I’m talking about full-on penetration-showing, money-shot ending, ABSOLUTELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK pornography.  Now, the merits of this video can be debated on many levels. Is this a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the fucked up underbelly of human nature, or merely an attempt by the band to get themselves back in the spotlight?  Maybe they just wanted an excuse to nail porn sluts?  

With the continued assimilation of porn into the mainstream, it shouldn’t be too surprising that an artist finally made a pornographic music video. Porn star Janine Lindemulder graced the cover of Blink-182’s (aka Playskool’s My First Punk Band) 15 million selling 1st album, and bands like Danzig and Prodigy have already flirted with nudity and S&M in their videos (see “Its Coming Down” and “Smack My Bitch Up”). Let’s face it, there are so many pop music videos out there that are all about showing skin and the insinuation of sex, it is almost as if Rammstein just took it a step further and showed us what’s already on all our minds anyway. When Britney Spears and her ilk plaster themselves all over MTV with videos (on the occasion that they actually show them, which is becoming increasingly rare) that generally consist of a bunch of skanks shaking their goods or rolling around in bed with a few well-placed sheets… what is the logical conclusion?  

Furthermore, in the past several years, directors like Kevin Smith and Steven Soderbergh have cast porn stars in “legitimate” film rolls (Katie Morgan in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend Experience) and mainstream cable channels like Showtime have aired reality shows revolving around the industry (Deeper Throat, Debbie Does Dallas Again), so the intertwining of pop culture and what was once considered “taboo” draws ever closer to complete integration.  At this point, it is damn near inevitable that the porn industry will become accepted, even embraced by the mainstream on a level that few could have ever thought possible.

Regardless of what it might say about the big picture, the truly amazing thing about the Rammstein video is that their label and all the other industry stiffs most  likely associated with the band were cool with letting them make this thing and release it.  Sure, this type of thing is arguably more acceptable and marketable than ever before as demonstrated by the examples previously mentioned, but I still have a hard time believing this didn’t ruffle any feathers of make anyone a little hot under the collar. It is hard to imagine a bunch of record execs sitting around going, “Hey!  the band wants to film themselves having sex and release it as a music video on an adult website! that sounds like a great way to move some units!”  Or maybe Rammstein just doesn’t give a shit and can do whatever they want, which is pretty awesome if that’s the case.

Anyway, here is a link to the video… I really wanted to embed it in this post but for some strange reason wordpress won’t let me… I can’t imagine why. Besides, I don’t want to get the blog shut down after the first post.

http://video.cod.ru/users/MrScrotum/2481/

(note: this video is probably seen by some of you as old news, since it has been out for about a month now, but I hadn’t had a chance to weigh in on it yet… so eat it.)