Sexy Song of the Week: Wicked Game

Wicked GameThis week we feature “Wicked Game”, a 1989 song by Chris Isaak from his album Heart Shaped World. The song became a hit after it was featured in the 1990 David Lynch film Wild at Heart. The video won several MTV Video Music Awards and is often featured on VH1 countdowns of the sexiest songs and videos of all time. The video features former Victoria’s Secret model Helena Christensen.

While the song is primarily remembered for the famous black and white video featuring Christensen and Isaak, it is Isaak’s haunting melody and desperate lyrics that make the song unique. In the song Isaak expresses his struggle to resist the femme fatale, Christensen, and the effect this struggle has on his feelings about love.  In the song’s first verse Isaak introduces us to the root of his struggle revealing that, “I never dreamed that I’d meet somebody like you /And I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you”.  Later, in the chorus, we hear his increasing resistance to his would be lover’s allure, as he sings, “No, I don’t want to fall in love/with you”, while a voice (his instinct?) is saying, “This love is only gonna break your heart.”

As he attempts to resolve the contradiction between his need and his disdain for his lover, he simultaneously finds fault in her for “making” him fall in love even as she tells him she doesn’t feel the same way he does, singing,” What a wicked game you play/To make me feel this way /What a wicked thing to do/To let me dream of you /What a wicked thing to say /You never felt this way”. This classic portrayal of a mans encounter with a femme fatale ends with the chorus and Isaak’s final depressing conclusion that, “Nobody loves no one”.

How can such a sexy video portray such a seemingly depressing revelation? Is this sexy? As you listen to this and watch the video do you find any similarities to the Muddy Waters song and video that we featured? How are suggestive or symbolic tools used in the video (the crashing waves or the rising clouds, for example)?  Does Christensen seem interested in Isaak or is he chasing after her hopelessly?

Finally, is Isaak suggesting that love is a “wicked game” or that the actions of his lover are wicked? Can you relate to these emotions? How does Isaak’s portrayal of love relate to this week’s readings and lecture material about theories of love?

Sexy Song of the Week: I touch myself

divinyls

In honor of your reading on solitary sexual practices, the sexy song of the week is “I Touch Myself.” This 1991 tune, turned perennial karaoke favorite, launched the Australian group, the DiVinyls, into one-hit-wonder fame. The video was very popular.

Masturbation goes by many descriptive, often funny, names. As discussed in Carroll Chapter 10 and in lecture, the practice is a safe release for (sexual) tension. However, many people choose not to experiment with masturbation for reasons such as religious or cultural prescriptions and personal guilt or embarrassment. This is especially the case with women. Your textbook reports that college men masturbate 3 times more than college females. Tell me: Is this a shocking find given a 95% success rate in women reaching orgasm via self-stimulation as opposed to a much lower chance of orgasm during intercourse?

This is your chance to comment on this sexy song, of course, but I am more curious about your thoughts on masturbation. Why is it still considered secret or taboo to some, especially for women? Is it a more accepted practice for men?

What in our cultural world informs our norms about masturbation? Why is it often used as a comical device in media as in American Pie? How is masturbation presented in church or in school? What myths do we have (like it will cause blindness)? How did your peers or parents talk about masturbation to you? Was your experience at all similar to this interesting lesson given by the ne’re-do-well uncle on Weeds involving a banana?

Finally, how important do you think masturbation is to a healthy sex life? Is there a place for masturbation in relationships or is it a secret to be kept from your partner?

Sexy Song of the Week: I just want to make love to you

waters Sometimes love gives you the blues. Growing out of regional traditions of African-American slave music, the blues has greatly impacted musical sound in the last century. With a minor tone and heavy guitar, blues tunes just stir something deep down in your gut. Blues harmonies can make you mournful or fire you up and turn you on.

This week we focus on a classic: I just want to make love to you. The song was first performed in 1954 by Muddy Waters. (Here is a later video made of the song featuring the very sexy Kate Moss.) It has since been covered by numerous artists. My favorite version is by the untouchable Etta James. She recorded the song in 1961 for her very first album and still performs it today. You can read about her tumultuous career and private life in Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story.

Both James and Waters worked with the famous Chicago-based company Chess Records and both are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The history of Chess will be depicted in an upcoming film, Cadillac Records, starring Beyonce Knowles. I encourage you to check out these featured artists and other greats of the post-war blues era. Maybe you have some suggestions for your classmates. What are your impressions of this song and the sex appeal of the blues?

For further discussion, from last week’s comments on Britney’s video there appears to be some disparity in the class concerning exactly what is sexy. And some of you have offered suggestions of sexy songs, but you haven’t explained why you chose them. This is your time to speak up and clarify. What is really sexy to you and why? Is sex appeal something tantalizing left to the imagination or does it need to be more overt? Do you need explicit lyrics to get the idea? Or can a song like “I just want to make love to you” grab you?

Sexy Song of the Week: I’m a Slave 4 U

britney Before the babies, the baldness, and the breakdown, no one can deny Britney Spears was the Princess of Pop. If there was any modicum of girlhood innocence in her early hits, all the, uh-hm, gloves came off with her 2001 Britney album. The frustrated pop star was publicly and professionally articulating that she had matured into a self-assured woman. The first single off the album was the dance track “I’m a slave for you.”

Spears opens the song with “I need to do what I feel like doing, so let me go.” She croons about being unable to control herself around her paramour and expressing her sexuality through dancing. The chorus extols: “I’m a slave for you. I cannot hold it; I cannot control it. I’m a slave for you. I won’t deny it; I’m not trying to hide it.”

The original video is set ambiguously at sunset or possibly at dawn in a very steamy, urban high rise building. Britney, glistening with sweat and wearing a pink thong on the outside of her leather pants, dances suggestively with a scantily clad, equally sweaty troupe. However, it was Britney’s unforgettable 2002 VMA performance that took the primal theme of “I’m a slave” to the next level. Repositioning the setting from the urban jungle to the tropical jungle, the stage production features a lion, dancers in tribal costumes with body paint, and, at one point, Britney gyrating with a giant, yellow anaconda.

Aside from being visually and audibly sexy and sensual, this song can be linked to the themes in this week’s readings. In your textbook Carroll describes a number of theoretical approaches to understanding human sexuality, from social learning to psychological to biological. (You can refer to the chart on pg 38). And de Waal and Diamond interestingly compare the sexual habits of non-human primates.

Discussion: Use this blog post to comment on the content of the song and videos, but also ponder themes in the reading. Why is the nature-based, primal analogy Britney presents so convincing and pervasive? (Think Duran Duran’s “Hungry like the wolf?”) Are we a slave to our biology? To our needs for reproduction and resources? Why are we attracted to certain types of partners? Or are we a slave to something else that is culturally learned or cognitive? Which of the theories examined do you find most interesting or convincing and why? (Also, aren’t you just pulling for Britney to finally make a great comeback?)

Sexy Song of the Week: “I Want Your Sex”

Released in 1987, the album “Faith” was George Michael’s killer solo release following the break-up of the British pop duo Wham! The title track begins, “Well I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your body….” and was Michael’s first solo Billboard #1. The very sexy album sold over 7 million copies in the USA, produced 6 chart toppers, and inspired some of the most memorable and controversial music videos ever played on MTV.

The vibey R&B track “I want your sex” unleashed an extreme storm of criticism for Michael. On the one hand, the song is an exploration of the human need for sex. (“It’s natural, It’s chemical…”) And Michael begs for it. (“Every man’s got his patience, and here’s where mine ends…” The song was banned on many radio stations and the video could only be played after- hours on MTV. The video features celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung scantily clad in lingerie and a crimson blindfold. Michael, however, was adamant that the controversy was misplaced. In a spoken addendum to the video he states that the song is not about promiscuity and casual sex. Rather the song is intended to be about the beauty of monogamy. In a steamy video scene, Michael writes the word monogamy on Jeung’s back and the video ends with “Explore Monogamy” on the screen. The original liner notes for a 9-minute version of the song are titled “Monogamy Mix.”

Arguably, the controversy and popularity surrounding “I want your sex” was a sign of the times. By the 1980s, the sexual revolution in the popular media had been a raging battle for over two decades. Liberal movers and shakers raged against the anxiety and loathing associated with overt sexuality. This song and video resurfaced the (often moral) debate about what counts as pornography and obscenity. More importantly, the late 1980’s marked the time when the world was just beginning to understand what HIV/AIDS was, how it was contracted, and its magnitude. Prejudice in the media was rampant. In 1985, the AIDS related death of iconic actor Rock Hudson spurred the Reagan White House out of silence. In 1987, AZT became the first FDA approved drug for treatment. By 1988, our first national campaign against HIV was launched.

At the time, Michael’s own homosexuality was not so publicly known. As a friend of mine remembers, the song fueled talk that Michael was overcompensating, being “over-sexualized for his inability to come out of the closet.” The song erupted in night clubs at a moment when casual sex was frightening. However, it was overwhelmingly popular in gay bars for years to come. My friend comments, “It became a caricatured way for people, at least in the gay bar scene, to sexualize their bodies through dance and music and not necessarily sex, but made the body sexy again, instead of a disease vector…I tell you, when that song came on, the boys went absolutely crazy. It was a whole choreography of simulated sex.”

Questions for discussion

Sources: Amazon, Wikipedia, Avert.org, VH1’s Sex: The Revolution.

Blog Feature: Sexy Song of the Week

Attention super students of Human Sexuality and Culture: Rachel Harvey (one of your TAs) here. As a feature on our class blog, each week we will post about the life and times of some very sexy songs. Let’s face it, R&B, rock & roll, hip-hop, jazz—there’s sex in all of it. You cannot deny the innuendo in the heavy drum lines of popular artists from Led Zeppelin to Britney Spears to Prince, not to mention the lyrics, the choreography, the album art, and on and on.

We invite your responses and participation. Each post will offer information on the song, artist, and historical time period as well as some questions for discussion. We will endeavor to touch on as many decades and genres as possible. Over the course of the semester we look forward to exciting debates on why music is so evocative. Why is sexuality such a common theme in so many genres of music? When does music carry the sexual metaphor too far and when it is just for fun?