Rammstein's creativity morphs into desperation
Is This The End Of Germany's Metal Powerhouse?
Oct 14, 2009
When one sets his bar too high, chances are that he'll hit himrself over the head while jumping over it. Members of Rammstein must be icing down their bruised foreheads right now after unleashing the video for their newest single - Pussy.
Those who are unfamiliar with Rammstein - an industrial metal band out of East Germany - may find this latest video creative, shocking and even humorous. After all, not every day does the average music video enthusiast get hit with nearly a minute of hardcore pornography involving their favourite musicians while accompanied by obscene yet ridiculous lyrics.
A Fall From Grace
The band that once produced dark, sinister music videos holding social or political messages - Sonne, Ich Will, Amerika - has degraded into a Marylin Manson-esque group that replaces creativity with shock rather than fusing the two together to create quality entertainment.
The video itself follows the lyrics of the song quite closely, depicting the band's six members in various roles typically found in pornographic movies. They are then seduced by equally adventurous women and proceed to engage in various sexual activities - including hardcore intercourse with ejaculation - while Till Lindemann sings (in English, contrary to his usual German) the song's final chorus: "You have a pussy, I have a dick. So what's the problem? Let's do it quick!"
The high mark of this video - and the only mark that shows vague traces of the remainder of the band's creativity - is Christian "Flake" Lorenz's head superimposed on a female's body with the caption reading "Mr. Heeshee."
Switching Gears
Perhaps Rammstein simply feared falling short of the high expectations set so high by their previous efforts, although it seems more likely that the band is attempting to capture the North American market. The target audience for Pussy is obviously the oversexed North American youth who grew up idolizing Jim Carey's talking buttocks or Jason Biggs' love of warm apple pie.
The band, that has insistently sang in German despite sacrificing a share in global fandom, has been including more English into their music than ever before, and with rumours of a North American tour circling online message boards, it is logical to suspect that this latest video (with a censored yet similarly vulgar version on MTV) is nothing more than a cheap marketing campaign. Perhaps that would explain the chorus' last line "I can't get laid in Germany."
Looking Ahead
With the release of Liebe Ist Für Alle Da slotted for October 16, 2009, fans of the band's older material should prepare themselves for an album - the first effort since Rosenrot in 2005 - that will serve as a turning point in Rammstein's career.
To view the uncensored version of the video, visit http://visit-x.net/rammstein/.
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