From this to this: how pop music turned into porn.

Has pop music made a gradual descent into porn? We’ve talked about inappropriate song lyrics before – but now, Mike Stock (from Stock Aitken Waterman), one of the famed songwriters who made a career out of writing and producing international hits for celebrities such as Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, has written an open letter to the media, asking broadcasters to remove “sexually explicit trash” from television screens.

“As far as music is concerned, it has been a slow but unmistakable descent into pornography,” he said. “Put some sexualised dancing and scantily-clad females in the video, and get it on the box. Job done.”

He also wrote that “American acts who have taken sexualised imagery, dance moves and lyrical content way beyond the limits of decency. I am not alone in thinking there should be more control introduced to prevent unacceptable material finding its way into the UK media.”

He singled out Nicole Scherzinger’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent, which he said included “overtly sexual content on a family show”, and called on broadcasters to refuse to play videos or songs “they deem unfit”, saying it would force record companies to “to think again and clean up their act”.

This all came as a result of the Bailey Report, which was commissioned to look into the commercialisation and sexualisation of children and young people in the media. The report recommended giving age ratings to music videos, amongst other tighter voluntary controls.

However, Stock didn’t think this would be enough, arguing that “with the BBC iPlayer and the internet as your platform, you can watch last night’s TV at this morning’s breakfast. Young people all know how to use these features. Advisory stickers on records is also a non-starter. You can’t easily sticker a download.”

He called on broadcasters to refuse to play videos or songs ‘they deem unfit’, saying it would force record companies ‘to think again and clean up their act’.

Here’s the video for Kylie’s “I should be so lucky”, which Stock wrote:

And another one from back in the day – Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ video:

Below, we’ve also included some of the music videos that have done the rounds on Video Hits and MTV. Here’s one from Rihanna (it gets really bad around the 2 min mark):

And one from the Pussycat Dolls:

So – what are your thoughts on this? Is pop music making a descent into porn, or is there always a generational divide when it comes to music?