Music Banter - Music Videos Showing People Smoking

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Music Videos Showing People Smoking

(I searched for a similar topic first.)

I'm having a hard time thinking of music videos that show people smoking. The lack thereof is strange, considering that smoking isn't rare among musicians (even though it's a bad habit that singers especially should avoid). I wonder if there is an informal policy among video directors or companies not to snow it in videos.

Anyway, some names or links to music videos with smoking, please? I prefer that smoking from movie scenes not be counted.

Well, here's one with several people smoking at different points in the video, though it's not exactly a focal point:

Good catch. Izzie one of the smokers, I vaguely recall.

"Madness" by Muse heavily features smoking.

"When It's Love," by Van Halen, shows smoking at the end.

(Okay, my brain has awoken and thought of several more.)

Neal Schon is briefly shown with a probably unlit cigarette here...

Journey - Chain Reaction - YouTube

George Michael smokes in "Father Figure."

There are people smoking in "R.O.C.K. in the USA," by John Mellencamp. There might be smoking in other videos of his, as he is or was a long-time smoker.

Madonna smokes in "Bad Girl," and I vaguely recall her doing so in at least one more video.

There's smoking in this...

Survivor - Caught In The Game (1983) - YouTube

A piano player smokes in the video for Joe Cocker's "Unchain My Heart."

The bassist smokes in several Huey Lewis and The News music videos.

The cartoonish music video director smokes in "Don't Lose My Number," by Phil Collins.

Also, a cartoonish music industry character smokes in the video for "Goin' Crazy," by David Lee Roth.

Here's a weird fact though, which sort of confirms your initial suspicions: "Smoking in the Boys Room" by Motley Crue was the first thing I thought to look up when I read your OP, and unbelievably enough, as far as I could tell, there isn't a single person smoking in the entire video.

Although there's no smoking shown as far as I know in any of the videos for this (this is just a still), Bowie's classic does begin with a lot of smoking imagery, and the fact that it's also concerned with suicide, well...

I imagine there are a few reggae videos showing people smoking (probably not cigarettes or cigars, though.) :D

And The Beatles always loved to light up at every opportunity...

the Beatles smoking blog

Near the end...

Poison - Every Rose Has It's Thorn - YouTube

Also, Billy Joel smokes in the video for "The Longest Time."

One member of Aerosmith smokes in "Angel."

Mick Mars and probably other people smoke in the video for "Girls, Girls, Girls," by Motley Crue.

A woman smokes in "(She's) Sexy & 17," by Stray Cats.

I'm noticing some trends, re types of videos that show smoking. And I suspect that one reason smoking is rarely shown is how it technically affects filming.

As Psy Fi mentioned, and since this is the General Music subforum, if you included Reggae or especially much commercial Hip Hop, there'd be a lot of blunt smoking. I don't know about Rock though; i do remember that in Thank You for Smoking they mentioned that, in movies, it seemed like only villains and foreign people would be caught smoking cigarettes, which was bad for press.

It could also be an advertisting thing. After all, who supplies the cigarettes being smoked? And aren't they likely to want their product front and centre? Then you're into the whole issue of product placement...

I'll raise your people having a smoke and include a video of a monkey having a smoke......

A bad guy seems to smoke in this (although I'm not sure if that's a cigarette he's spitting out).

Warrant - Uncle Tom's Cabin - YouTube

As for why few music videos show smoking, I think there's one obvious reason: viewers are mostly teenagers, and networks wouldn't want to be accused of being advertising vehicles for cigarette companies trying to hook minors.

i feel it's pretty obvious that when posting videos from the 80s and early 90s you are going to find smoking

the reason why you don't see your precious idols hacking their lungs out in videos is actually because of this guy

http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/om89cyhs35d815.jpg
Mr. Joe Camel

see in 1997 there was a lawsuit against R. J. Reynolds by a "concerned" lawyer....at the time there were polls that said that Joe Camel came second only to Mickey Mouse as "easily recognized" by six year old children....of course Reynolds denied that it was ever their intention to get young smokers hooks are their garbage product

ironically at the same time as this lawsuit was in litigation....congress was performing it's own investigation on RJ Reynolds....and after internal documents leaked to congress from with in the company stating that it was their sure intention to start attracting smokers at the age of 14

this ended with RJ Reynolds settling out of court (10 million to the state of CA) and removing all of their Joe Camel campaigns

i think that the aftermath of what happened in the mid 90s is simple....esp. since you are dealing with "popular" music....which is more about money than music....you can have smoking on you r album covers, videos etc etc....but less stores/channels are going to play these due to corporate sponsorship backing out of such things....tv networks could give two shits as to whether kids smoke or not....matter of fact they could make a killing on commercials for cigarettes...but i doubt very much that Sony or Disney what to be affiliated with tobacco in any way

on that here is a video that has been release in the last 10 years that depicts a pop star smoking

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1244737)

I wonder if there is an informal policy among video directors or companies not to snow it in videos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob. (Post 1244933)

i feel it's pretty obvious that when posting videos from the 80s and early 90s you are going to find smoking

the reason why you don't see your precious idols hacking their lungs out in videos is actually because of this guy

Mr. Joe Camel

see in 1997 there was a lawsuit against R. J. Reynolds by a "concerned" lawyer....at the time there were polls that said that Joe Camel came second only to Mickey Mouse as "easily recognized" by six year old children....of course Reynolds denied that it was ever their intention to get young smokers hooks are their garbage product

[...]

i think that the aftermath of what happened in the mid 90s is simple....less stores/channels are going to play these due to corporate sponsorship backing out of such things

My guess is also that music video directors now (as compared to the in the '80s and early '90s) are more adverse to showing smoking in music videos. I think bob.'s hypothesis sounds reasonable: corporate sponsors for TV stations may back out of supporting stations that give playtime to such videos, as kid-friendly corporations are probably sensitive to the efforts of societies and governments to eliminate smoking.

Yet I'm not sure if that pressure is strong enough to affect music video directors' and bands' choices. Consider this:

Unfortunately, the mention and use of smoking in songs and music videos appears to be on the rise and still is very high, according to a California study done in 2010 (50% of the most popular music videos showed smoking imagery): :(

Quote:

Music Videos and Songs Addicted to Smoking, Study Says | FairWarning

Half of the most popular music among youth in the San Francisco Bay Area includes references to smoking or tobacco, according to a new City of Berkeley study.

The researchers analyzed 79 of the top-playing songs on radio stations catering to listeners in the 12-to-24 age group in the Bay Area. It found that 49.4 percent of the songs had references to smoking in the lyrics, and 51.3 percent included smoking imagery in their music videos.

Conducted by the city’s Tobacco Prevention Program, the study found that smoking is so pervasive in music videos that, even among songs with no references to smoking, 30 percent of the videos had smoking scenes.

The Berkeley study’s authors worry that, after decades of being stigmatized as uncool, smoking is once again gaining strength as a sign of sophistication among young people. The impact of this could be significant; a Dartmouth study referenced by Berkeley found that when comparing youths who had witnessed a great deal of smoking in movies to those who had seen very little, the former group was three times as likely to begin smoking.

FairWarning reported in July that after close to a decade of significant drops, the number of high school smokers has hovered around 20 percent since 2003.

One possibility is that the tobacco industry may be marketing cigarettes (by making deals with directors?) in music and film media since advertising tobacco on television is illegal in the U.S.

I'd be interested to see how strong of a correlation exists between smoking references in songs, smoking imagery in music videos, and smoking rates among teens and young adults as a function of song or video release year. I'd expect a close correlation, because I think young people are much more susceptible to "doing what is cool and acceptable" than they realize they are.

* * *

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1244743)

"Madness" by Muse heavily features smoking.

I was really disappointed by Muse's video for "Madness," and not just because I dislike the song. :p:

I can't fathom why Muse would go to all that effort to create a video in year 2012 that portrays smoking as if it were cool or sexy, when so many people are working hard to spread the anti-smoking message so that children and young adults won't start ( With Teen Smoking in Holding Pattern, Health Officials Seek to Revive Anti-Tobacco Campaigns | FairWarning ).

A close friend's dad, a lovely and funny man, just died of smoking-induced emphysema last week. My friend's (non-smoking) mom died of lung cancer several years ago. What a horrible addiction smoking is that causes people to do that to themselves and their loved ones.

Thinking of how un-loving smoking is reminded me of the one video I can think of that shows smoking: Cheap Trick's "If You Want My Love" (1982).

I saw the video for the first time last year and was shocked, amused, horrified, and then incredulous to see the set filling up with smoke from that drummer! It's ironic that anyone could sing about love while that smokestack of a man is puffing away behind him.

When I see someone smoking, it's as if I hear him whispering, "Yes, I'm going to die a horrible death, and my smoking is going to kill you, too!" That's the opposite of love. (And we haven't even gotten to the issue of how awful it smells and tastes to kiss someone who smokes. :eek:)

The smoking in the video made me think at first that perhaps the band was trying to be intentionally ironic and funny by juxtaposing smoking with love...but I don't think they were. :/

Cheap Trick - "If You Want My Love"

Cheap Trick - If You Want My Love - YouTube

Here's the UN-censored version of a clip that had a bit of controversy on Muchmusic back in the day (45 seconds in is what caused controversy).

Show an armed bank robbery being planned? OK
Show a gritty reflection of a violent crime? OK
Show a terrified security guard covering the camera before being murdered? OK

Show thugs smoking cigarettes while planning the crime? WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!??!

I remember they even had a special one hour call-in show about the clip when it was first released to compare the original and censored cuts. I figured it would for sure be about the final scenes with the security guard. It wasn't until the host pointed it out that most of the people noticed. It's not like the smoke glamourized anything, it seemed appropriate for the nature of the clip but due to legislation against advertising it in anyway shape or form it had to be changed.

Bun E. Carlos smokes in other Cheap Trick videos - and obviously he wasn't aging well and now in fact has health problems.

There's smoking in this, one of the stranger videos I've ever seen.

Jefferson Starship-no way out - YouTube

There also is smoking in here.

Gregg Allman ~ Slip Away - YouTube

I haven't noticed a recent increase in smoking in music videos. If that's so, I suspect it's concentrated in rap videos and some of it is marijuana smoking. It's, er, highly unlikely that weed smoking would be sponsored. Meanwhile, I doubt that cigarette companies would pay for product placement, since how would viewers recognize specific brands?

First video I thought of was The Police: "Every Breath You Take," although
it's just the image of a cigarette in an ashtray and not in someone's mouth.

I believe the Rolling Stones have featured smoking in their videos, this is
one that I found right off the top--I'm sure there's plenty more:

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1245058)

Bun E. Carlos smokes in other Cheap Trick videos - and obviously he wasn't aging well and now in fact has health problems.

I haven't noticed a recent increase in smoking in music videos. If that's so, I suspect it's concentrated in rap videos and some of it is marijuana smoking. It's, er, highly unlikely that weed smoking would be sponsored. Meanwhile, I doubt that cigarette companies would pay for product placement, since how would viewers recognize specific brands?

I investigated a little to see how cigarette companies have historically paid for or encouraged the use of cigarettes in music videos.

I found an informative abstract of a research paper that looked at the connection between the tobacco and entertainment industries. Researchers read more than 1500 documents on the relationship between the entertainment industry and Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Brown and Williamson/American Tobacco, the Lorillard Company and the Tobacco Institute from 1972 - 2001.

They found that tobacco companies used to have contracts with producers and celebrities (whom they paid to use their cigarettes) but now simply offer free products as props since the introduction of a 1980's Cigarette Advertising and Promotion Code:

* * *

Mekemson and Glantz (2002) "How the tobacco industry built its relationship with Hollywood," Tobacco Control, vol. 11, pp. 1-11
How the tobacco industry built its relationship with Hollywood

"The tobacco companies have found product placement in movies, television and music videos to be good advertising for the young audiences. In addition, the reports showed that the tobacco companies frequently give free products to celebrities in the hopes that they will be seen smoking them. The tobacco companies have had contracts with movie producers and with specific celebrities for use of their products. While the public appeal of cigarettes waned over the years, the tobacco companies tried to keep their image alive by giving away free products to industry leaders.

"When the Cigarette Advertising and Promotion Code was introduced in the 1980’s, these companies stopped paying for product placement and advertisement and switched to providing free props and items with the company logo.

"Conclusion: The tobacco industry has been able to find a way around the laws saying that they cannot pay for advertising in movies and television targeted toward young audiences. They have, instead, chosen to give away free products for use by celebrities in movies and in daily life. As the reputation of cigarettes goes down in society, the efforts of the tobacco industry increase."

* * *

My suspician is that cigarette companies view smoking in music videos as a good thing even if the company's logo doesn't show up, because smoking in videos creates a norm where smoking is acceptable. From the perspective of a cigarette company, the fact that *any* positive smoking imagery (attractive people smoking; beloved and admired rock stars smoking) is included in music videos probably helps maintain cigarette sales, so it won't matter if the cigarette brand doesn't show.

Bun E. Carlos...I had wondered what the drummer's name was and if he was still alive given all his smoking!

Someone who saw him in concert years ago wrote, "Bun E Carlos was chain smoking when I saw him in 81 and every now and then the cig would go flying and the sparks from the head would flow all over the area by the drums." Cheap History | San Diego Reader. Sad. Seeing Bun smoke reminds me of being caught in my grandma's car as a child while she smoked and I snapped at fresh air through the window I cracked open. :(

* * * * *

Quote:

Originally Posted by kidney_thief (Post 1245140)

First video I thought of was The Police: "Every Breath You Take," although
it's just the image of a cigarette in an ashtray and not in someone's mouth.

Oh, good catch with "Every Breath You Take"!

I know the song well but never saw the video until tonight. And there it is: the long cigarette smoldering in the round ashtray containing many butts until the ashtry converts into the head of the snare drum. This would be the perfect image for portraying the sinister linkage between smoking and music videos.

Now when I hear the song, all I can think of is the woman replying, "When I'm with you, every breath I take is labored because of the smoke from all those damn cigarettes you smoke!! Your poor heart is probably aching not because of me but because of the COPD you're developing! Please, please, please quit, because until you do, I can never belong to you." COPD - MayoClinic.com

The Police - Every Breath You Take - YouTube

Classic Beatles clip from Help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by wisdom (Post 1244737)

The lack thereof is strange, considering that smoking isn't rare among musicians (even though it's a bad habit that singers especially should avoid).

i think that that's a very good point

i've turned to focus on my singing now and find lighting up incredibly obtrusive to my singing

i've decided to quit smoking

Quote:

Oh, good catch with "Every Breath You Take"!

I know the song well but never saw the video until tonight.

It's official - VEGANGELICA lives under a rock :)

I noticed smoking by Lana Del Rey and at least one other person in this. I hope cigarette product placement is theoretical only.

Lana Del Rey - Ride (OFFICIAL VIDEO) HQ - YouTube

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1245293)

It's official - VEGANGELICA lives under a rock :)

I didn't bother watching the "Every Breath You Take" music video until now...because I heard the song preformed live in the '80s. :cool:

* * *

Devo - "Whip It" (1981)
Smoking is featured briefly, along with beer-drinking fake cowboys and cowgirls.

Oh yes, and then there's the video plot of whipping off a woman's clothes, which is apparently based on the true tale of a man who whipped off his wife's (velcro-attached) clothes for the entertainment of visitors to his dude ranch, according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_It_(Devo_song.

Devo - Whip It (Video) - YouTube

Interesting. Somehow I never read that before, despite reading about Devo on Wiki a while ago. I heard that the Asian woman in the video truly is cross-eyed (or was - nobody should have to walk around like that).

Anyway, continuining on my quest, my gut feeling about Kid Rock was right.

Kid Rock - Cowboy (Enhanced Video) - YouTube

If I liked his music and had more time, I could probably find other videos with him smoking.

And a great song that I plan to watch via On Demand soon...

Alice In Chains - Down In A Hole - YouTube

There's also smoking (of what seems a strangely-shaped cigarette) in this forgotten, amusingly sleazy video for a great sleazy song...

Great White - Mista Bone - YouTube

Smoking finds from recent years - "Ass Like That," by Enimem (hilarious song and video) and "Find Your Love," by Drake.

Unusual because it shows a black woman smoking.

Common - Testify - YouTube

OT: If someone could explain the plot to me, muchos gracias.

Does a hookah count?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1245537)

Smoking finds from recent years - "Ass Like That," by Enimem (hilarious song and video)

:laughing: It took me a while to realize that the cheeky, brazen puppet dog has a cigar in its mouth. (I was distracted by the whole scenario.) At least the puppet dog wasn't lighting up. :) The puppet voyeurs are smoking near the end, though.

So has "ass" sometimes really been censored from Eminem's "Ass Like That" song on the radio? That's amusing, because my child tells me even a few kindergarten kids at his elementary school know "f***" ...and most elementary school kids know "ass." So I'm wondering whom censoring is supposed to protect.

I didn't know Eminem was such a comedian. My favorite line: "I'm not your wife!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lilja (Post 1246687)

Does a hookah count?

I'd say, yes, a hookah counts. (And also: Whoa! I had no idea the video for the song looked like that!)

unrelated, but here's a TV commercial for KOOL's, and maybe it will help you if you're using multiple references to make a documentary on the subject of smoking and subliminal/video advertising.

youtube.com/watch?v=caBflMHpTR4

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazyaga (Post 1247944)

smoking is gross

Smoking rules. It means that you get to get paid to take smoke breaks at work. Not to mention, they can't draft you if you can't run ten feet without coughing out a lung (probably).

I have seen many videos but with smoking of marijuana in the video

Post #20 since has become sadly more interesting.

Anyway, I finally saw another example.

Hall And John Oates - Out Of Touch - YouTube
(be careful if prone to seizures)

No wonder the guitarist (whose name turns out to be G.E. Smith) looked old for his age. Holy cow, the Wiki page says he was married to Gilda Radner.

I THINK in Trina Braxton's video "Party or Go Home" her sister smokes a cigar.