What does Duran Duran and Strokes have in common?

Not much would be my first response... That is until recently when I stumbled across a small notice in the paper stating that MTV was censoring the Stroke's video Juicebox. I went online to see what this was all about and this is what I found.

Even before the making of the video Julian cassablanca, singer in the band, made a humorous comment regarding the possibility of full frontal nudity in their next video. Not too surprising MTV went through the roof and the not too serious comment suddenly became a huge rumor that spread across the internet even making MTV news comment on it. Read the MTV article here.

The director Michael Palmieri felt so violated by the censored version MTV aired that he removed his name completely from the project. He felt that the censored version failed to communicate the idea that he originaly wanted to say.

"the unfortunate problem mtv had with censoring the video is that there was nothing explicit in the video to take out to begin with. they were trying to censor an idea, which is really hard to do."

He states on the sitesite www.michaelpalmieri.com. A version of the video is also viewable on his site. Another interesting comment is

"is mtv up in arms about lesbians on a rooftop, or are they disturbed by how the lesbians on the rooftop are presented - as material for a man to jerk off to in the dark?"

It's a well known empiric fact that women in music videos more that often is portrayed in a erotic way both in mannerisms and in the way they dress. In the Strokes video you can see a dirty man making a pornographic video with two lesbians. Nothing in the way of nudity is shown and the sexual aggressiveness of the two women could be compared to any RnB video endlessly aired on your favorite music channel. So is it the obvious way Palmieri is showing the two women as sexual products instead of portraying their mannerisms as an image as say Lil Kim that has made MTV censor it?

I for one can't see any logic behind MTV censoring the video but showing videos like Candy shop with 50 cent or Dirrty with Aguilera. But then again MTV has become what it swore to fight when it was founded in the eighties. A corporate gigant not in any way connected or interested in music in any other way that money.

I'm on your side Michael, keep it up! And for those who still wondering about the title, Duran Duran's Girls on film was the first music video that MTV censored back in 1981.