5 sexualised music videos that are way more controversial than Sam Smith’s

Sam Smith is being branded “evil” for their new music video, which is a feast of fabulous outfits and proudly unsubtle innuendo.

The pitchfork-wielding critics are calling for tighter internet age limits to ensure their children can’t access such “obscene, debauched” content.

And yet, many of them are the same people who clapped their hands with glee every time Eric Prydz’s ‘Call on Me’ was played on Top of the Pops.

We appreciate that Smith’s ‘I’m not here to make friends’ is raunchy, but it’s not half as explicit as other videos that have come before it.

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Here, we take a look at just a handful that have a far-greater shock factor than that of the non-binary star’s new track. Or, at least, some of them should do…

Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, be warned that the following contains some explicit content.

Relax, Frankie goes to Hollywood (1983)

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax (Official Video)www.youtube.com

Hailed as one of the “gayest songs of all time” the original music video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s first track, wasn’t aired on television because it was considered too explicit.

The BBC banned it from both TV and radio because of its suggestive lyrics, (i.e. “relax, don’t do it, when you want to come”) and the video’s setting: in a bar packed full of leather-clad gay men and drag queens.

But the broadcaster’s boycott only fuelled interest in the song – propelling it to the top of the UK singles chart for five weeks.

Girls on Film, Duran Duran (1981)

Duran Duran - Girls On Film (Official Music Video)www.youtube.com

The video for Duran Duran’s third track was “initially made for nightclubs, where there was no limitation of what you could or couldn't show,” according to its director Kevin Godly.

He, and co-director Lol Creme, were instructed by the band’s managers at the time to “make us something that's erotic”, and boy, oh boy, did he comply.

‘Girls on film’ features mud-wrestling, a shaving foam-slathered, and ice cubes rubbed on bare nipples.

As you’d expect, it was swiftly banned by the BBC, and soon transformed the British band into international stars.

Robin Thicke, Blurred lines (2013)

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell (Official Music Video)www.youtube.com

The video that made Emily Ratajowski a household name, is also – according to the supermodel – the “bane of her existence”.

And 10 years since its release, it’s not hard to see why.

Dancing semi-naked around besuited men as they sing jovially about how sexual consent is a grey area is not something we’d be proud of. And yet, the single was number one in the UK for five weeks.

2 Live Crew, Me So Horny (1989)

2 Live Crew - Me So Hornywww.youtube.com

2 Live Crew’s brazenly sexual lyrics are what really set tongues wagging in the late 80s– not just on this track but on the whole of their ‘As Nasty As They Want to Be’ album from which it was taken.

Such was the controversy surrounding 'Me So Horny' that a few months after its release, an anti-porn lawyer called Jack Thompson reported the single to Florida law enforcement, condemning it as pornographic work being peddled to teens.

A US district court judge went on to rule the entire album obscene, marking the first time a musical recording had ever been tagged that way by a federal judge in the US, as Billboard reports.

The video to ‘Me So Horny’, with its lycra-clad female dancers, is largely credited as an inspiration to Prydz’s ‘Call on Me’.

Britney Spears, ...Baby One More Time

Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time (Official Video)www.youtube.com

Clearly, this is less of an obvious choice than the likes of ‘Me So Horny’, but we feel this is an important inclusion.

The video may not include any X-rated scenes, but it explicitly sexualises a schoolgirl. And that, in our books, is not OK.

Sure, we loved the song at the time, and saw nothing wrong in the video. But now when we watch it, all we see is the fetishisation of an underage girl.

And how is that more acceptable than seeing a fully-grown Sam Smith in a corset?

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