Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is currently sitting comfortably atop the Billboard 100, thanks to its catchy beats, inclusion in the Radio Shack Beats Pill commercial that seems to be on TV every 36 seconds, and also the fact that the original music video for the single generated an incredible amount of buzz. The reason? It features Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. surrounded by a gaggle of topless models for approximately four minutes.
Naturally, that explicit video got the boot from YouTube for violating the site’s nudity policies, but fans of the song (and video) are probably wondering, “WTF?” right about now, since YouTube has decided to allow Justin Timberlake’s “Tunnel Vision” video to remain active – after initially being removed for the same reasons – despite its 7 minutes of female nudity. As it turns out, YouTube does allow nudity in certain circumstances, but it has to be a specific type, as a spokesperson explained to E!.
A rep for YouTube said the site does not comment on individual videos, but did issue a statement outlining how it handles such tastefully shot works in general.
“While our guidelines generally prohibit nudity, we make exceptions when it is presented in an educational, documentary or artistic context, and take care to add appropriate warnings and age restrictions,” said the spokesperson.
Does that mean that what Justin Timberlake produces is always art? Because I’d like to remind everyone that he is and always will be responsible for this:
And does this mean that Thicke is just some sort of smut-peddler? I hope not, because Alan Thicke (AKA Dr. Jason Seaver) did not raise such a man. Either way, you can decide for yourself by watching Timberlake’s “art” right here (NSFW obviously) and, while the explicit “Blurred Lines” was also removed from Vimeo, you know how to use Google and find it.
