10 Utterly Outrageous Music Videos That Caused Major Controversy

3. Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Possibly the most infamous song in all of British radio broadcast history (aside, perhaps from Ebeneezer Goode by The Shamen,) "Relax" was an intentionally provocative statement by the Liverpool based band, who had embarked on an agenda of controversy long before their most famous single was ever released. They got their wish, with the BBC's Mike Reed famously banning the single, and almost single handedly ensuring it got to number one as a result, but it wasn't just the song's raunchy lyrics, or its provocative sleeve that caused offense. Following on from the band's early marketing campaigns, that saw ads taken out in the British press featuring singer Holly Johnson dressed as a sailor and the motif "ALL THE NICE BOYS LOVE SEA MEN" the band were provocatively open about their members' homosexuality. The images were intended to upset and to destroy the bigotry around homosexual lifesyles by parodying and grotesquing them. Needless to say, this didn't go down well with the establishment.