Comments on: Music Videos: Female revisions of Robert Palmer

By: Korean Sociological Image #29: JYP and the Objectification of Women « The Grand Narrative

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:00:05 +0000

[...] Alyx Vesey explains in Feminist Music Geek, the crucial one was “Addicted to Love” from 1986, because as a feminist, she had: [...]

By: Ange

Ange — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:47:13 +0000

People fail to realize that the video wasn’t Palmer’s concept at all and in fact, he was actually turned off by the girls that dressed that way at his later shows (Peep the vintage 1988 GQ inverview over at http://robert-palmer.over-blog.com/). RP rarely lived up to the image that the music industry made for him. I also think that more than anything, the videos were send-ups of the old Benny Hill “Sexy Party” sketches to begin with.

By: Annie Petersen

Annie Petersen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:12:11 +0000

Man, I used to listen to ‘Greener Side’ ALL THE TIME — my mom was a huge Michelle Shocked fan, as was I — and, because MTV was a no-go in my household, had NO IDEA of any layering connotations.

By: Curran

Curran — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:38:33 +0000

You’re welcome! The video got a good deal of airplay on MTV back in the/my day and the Palmer parody was duly noted. As you can imagine, in those pre-Marky-Mark-in-Calvin-Kleins days the video’s blatant objectification of the male body was seen as unusual, which is, of course, the point: to satirize the objectification of women in Palmer’s video and music videos more generally by “turning the tables.” The video was significant enough that it was, in fact, nominated for best female video of the year, along with Paula Abdul — “Opposites Attract,” Madonna — “Vogue,” Alannah Myles — “Black Velvet,” and Sinead O’Connor — “Nothing Compares 2 U,” — Sinead won, as she did for best video of the year. Ah, memories – I was an MTV junkie back then!

By: Alyx

Alyx — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:49:28 +0000

Whoa! I had no idea about the video or that Michelle Shocked is a UT grad! Thanks for sharing, Curran!

By: Curran

Curran — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:30:43 +0000

Another great blog Alyx! But, you missed the “original”: Michelle Shocked’s “On the Greener Side” from 1990 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1NyTN3FG9s). It’s a deliberate satire/feminist critique of the Palmer video, from self-described feminist Shocked (who is also a UT grad). The Shania video is somewhat of a rip off, or rather a double rip-off. Although, Shocked’s version is more loose in its interpretation.