The BBFC, with its DVD classification business in long-term decline, has lobbied for itself some nice new business, classifying music videos.
The new move was preceded by a neatly-packaged moral panic in 2013 over “sexualised” music videos, with Miley Cyrus singled out for a particularly strong witch-hunt; Cyrus had committed the sin of transforming, in recent years, from an innocent little girl into a grown, sexual woman, and then proceeded to appear naked – something that is seen as unpardonable among sexual morality campaigners.
This month, a conference session was held as part of The Great Escape music industry event, to discuss the issues around sexual music videos and censorship; I took part on behalf of Sex & Censorship. You can read a write-up and listen to a recording of the discussion here.