Angelina WagnerSex sells, and there is no doubt that the country music industry has not picked up on this concept. Rascal Flatts’ single “I Melt” has raised some eyebrows lately. It was not the song that had some fans wondering, it was the music video itself. Scenes from it included a woman taking a shower, and a man lying in bed.
Other country stars, such as Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Keith Urban have had sexual content in their videos. When the issue arose with the Rascal Flatts video, a forum was placed on cmt.com. People posted a variety of comments on what they felt about the issue.
Majority of fans wrote that, “This is not the first time sex has been in videos,” and “It’s a song about love and how beautiful it is.” On the other side there were those who were upset about it saying, “I don’t want my children to see this sort of thing,” and “This is not what country music is about.”
They only aired the video a few times on country music networks. Shortly after the incident, they began to show a censored version of the video. Even Great American Country had to remove the video request from their website because so many people were nominating the video. Rascal Flatts took part in an interview to discuss the issue. A special was done on Country Music Television about sex in country music videos. The commotion has calmed down a bit, but it is not the first time controversy has arisen in country music. Fans were astonished as why nobody ever questioned Faith Hill’s video for “Breathe” or Keith Urban’s “Raining on Sunday.”
Rascal Flatts is not entirely new to the country music scene. They had another album that was released before their current “I Melt” album. Now their popularity is becoming more known and this may be a question to why this video has stirred concerns. A special two-disc DVD featuring live footage will be released on Sept. 16th.
