10 Music Videos Banned By MTV
4. Twisted Sister - Be Chrool To Your Scuel (1985)
If you were a glam metal band in the '80s and your music videos didn't involve some kind of 'kicking against the pricks' sentiment, then you weren't doing your job. There was a formula to this type of video. Usually an oppressed character morphs into a given rock star. Then some authority figure is beaten down with the liberating virtues of rock and roll.
Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It (1984) was exactly that. The video was a huge success for the group; one they tried to capitalise on. They recruited Dee Snider's idol, the vampire count of rock, Alice Cooper. Blending the original concept of We're Not Gonna Take It with a take on Cooper's hit, School's Out, was sure to be a winner in their eyes.
The resulting video saw two downtrodden teachers morph into Snider and Cooper, who then attempt to liberate the zombified students from their oppressive education. The video cost a bomb. A number of expensive prosthetic techniques were used to dress dozens of extras like zombies. Unfortunately the group failed to capitalise on their endeavour, when MTV banned the video for being too gruesome. You'd think after the success of Thriller in '82 they'd be down for this kind of thing...