Sam Smith’s music video: Calling it ‘pornographic’ is a poisonous double commonplace

We watch Sam Smith arrive at an previous citadel. Inside seconds, they’re inside, surrounded by provocatively dressed dancers undulating suggestively. Smith stands on the centre, tassels on their nipples. Streams of water bounce off their face. In a close-by room, leather-clad BDSMers thrust amorously atop beds. I suppose it’s no surprise Smith’s newest music video, for the disco-inflected observe “I’m Not Right here to Make Buddies”, has acquired individuals up in arms. It’s a raunchy, unabashed show of sexuality. Some have branded it “pornography” – however they’re unsuitable. It’s an accusation that reeks of homophobia.

The observe itself isn’t the difficulty. “I’m Not Right here to Make Buddies” has fairly innocuous lyrics – tamely sexy strains about seeking to pull in a nightclub. Smith’s video, too, shouldn’t actually have raised too many eyebrows: the non-binary English singer was merely embracing the form of in-your-face, sex- and body-positive sensibility that has turn into pretty commonplace within the fashionable music scene. And but, in poured the outrage, with detractors branding the content material “pornographic” and calling for an age restriction to be positioned on the video. In one of many extra excessive reactions, ex-Brexit Celebration MEP Alex Phillips went on Good Morning Britain and likened the video to porn, linking its content material to a wider tradition of sexual assaults and “relationships falling aside”.

Now, whereas a few of the extra reactionary objections to Smith’s video are merely not value indulging with a good-faith response, it needs to be identified that the video isn’t pornographic, by any actual definition of the phrase. The mere suggestion of sexuality doesn’t equate to porn, neither is such a suggestion inherently unsuitable for kids. Smith’s video won’t make the first faculty curriculum any time quickly, however there’s an unlimited desert of center floor between Deep Throat and Barney the Dinosaur. Musicians shouldn’t be compelled to tailor their output to the sexless whims of the younger. Equally, kids shouldn’t be insulated from any content material that dare admit sexuality exists. And moreover – the concept that five-year-olds are streaming Smith’s YouTube channel of their droves, is, frankly, a laughable fiction.

In comparison with a lot of their pop contemporaries, Smith is totally unremarkable of their willingness to position intercourse entrance and centre. It’s hardly a leap to imagine that there’s a component of homophobia within the backlash, in addition to a streak of physique fascism; if Smith had been skinny and cisgender, their unapologetic shows of sexuality would seemingly have handed by unnoticed. Different artists who’ve suffered comparable censure in recent times for “over-sexualised” music movies embody Lil Nas X, and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion for his or her raunchy hit “WAP”. It’s in all probability no coincidence that these singers are queer artists of color.

Artists akin to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury have been broadly valorised for upending sexual and gender norms, for daring to stand up on stage and be unapologetically themselves, at a time when few dared to take action. Individuals love a insurgent. No less than, they love a insurgent when the mud has settled. When the parapet has gone again up. When the act of rebel has been washed clear, made sturdy by historical past and the heft of consensus. When transgression nonetheless has a residing, beating pulse, plaudits is usually a little more durable to return by.

Whereas Smith is at present dealing with the sharp finish of this double commonplace, it will be absurd to behave as if they’re some form of radical button-pusher. Musically, their oeuvre is way from the leading edge. In a three-star review of their latest album, Gloria, Helen Brown describes Smith’s singing because the “aural equal of watching a lava lamp” – and he or she’s proper. Smith is not any punk rocker: they’re a radio-ready crooner who performs stadiums. Maybe it’s this incongruity that sits uneasily with some individuals. That even a mainstream, accessible artist like Smith is ready to put unapologetically queer sexuality on show is proof of simply how far society has progressed in recent times. For prudes and bigots, it’s a terrifying thought.

I’m reminded of a routine from Stewart Lee’s Comedy Car, by which the comic jokes: “In the present day’s younger persons are uncovered to pornographic imagery all over the place. In promoting. In vogue. In music. And above all, in pornography, the place this can be very prevalent.” Which is to say, sure – there may be clearly an issue with how broadly, and early, kids are being uncovered to pornographic materials. But it surely’s disingenuous to counsel that Smith’s video is in any manner a part of this drawback. This isn’t Pink Flamingos. It’s a little bit of dancing. Develop up.