10 Hard Rock Music Videos That Got Banned
1. Happiness In Slavery - Nine Inch Nails
In the 1990s, few people could match Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails in terms of getting up MTV's nose. The legendary video for Closer was heavily edited by the station, because of about five thousand different perceived infractions.
The naked woman, the bondage gear, the crucified monkey, take your pick.
Perhaps the most egregious offender was the visual accompaniment to the song Happiness in Slavery from 1992. This one is so controversial that it's still hard to find the video for it even today.
It stars performance artist Bob Flanagan as a man alone in a room with a bunch of torture devices. Over the course of the video, Flanagan is slowly torn apart by the machines, before he is eventually disembowelled and killed.
Yeah, you can see why nobody wanted to touch this.
As it was basically a snuff film, the Happiness in Slavery video was prohibited by most (if not all) reputable outlets. The pure, unadulterated violence on display was like nothing anyone had ever seen in a music video, especially not from one with such a high profile artist.
If you are able to somehow hunt this film down, watch it at your own peril.