I ran across this article on an upcoming TV documentary. I wonder if deaf kids eschew sex...
Fire down below
VH1 looks at the link between sex and rock music in star-studded miniseries that airs this week
By Gene Armstrong
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Which came first: the sexual revolution or rock 'n' roll?
Neither, according to "From the Waist Down: Men, Women and Music," a new documentary miniseries that begins at 7 tonight on VH1.
Popular music and attitudes about sex concurrently exploded in Western civilization during the second half of the last century, mutually influencing and fueling each other over the decades.
With this as its premise, "From the Waist Down" continues each night this week through Friday. (See accompanying box.)
In tonight's episode, viewers will travel in one hour's time from Elvis Presley's gyrating hips and chaste couple dancing on American Bandstand to the shaking bonbons of Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez.
"Without rock 'n' roll, we would never have had a sexual revolution," says Fenton Bailey, co-producer of the series, in a telephone interview from his office in Los Angeles.
Bailey's producing partner, Randy Barbato, claims that the approximate inverse also is true: without sex there would be no rock 'n' roll, the generic term the show uses for 1950's and after music.
The point is hammered home tonight. As teen-pop sensation Britney Spears bumps and grinds in a music video, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge says of rock music, "It's this rhythmic beat that everybody's programmed for; it's sex."
Another interviewee reminds us that rock 'n' roll originally was a - wink-wink, nudge-nudge - euphemism for sexual intercourse.
The producers of "From the Waist Down" actually had a hard time lining up interview subjects.
"You would imagine that given the fact that the history of sex and rock 'n' roll are so intertwined, not to say perhaps co-dependent, it was surprisingly difficult to get some of our interviews," says Bailey.
"Although sexuality is so much a part of some of these performers' lives and of their music, it was extremely hard to get them to sit down and talk about sex."
More than 50 musicians finally consented. Among them are Janet Jackson, K.D. Lang, Stevie Nicks, Ted Nugent, Chuck D., Boy George, Tommy Lee, Garbage's Shirley Manson, Dave Navarro, Little Richard, Sheila E. and members of Aerosmith, Stone Temple Pilots, the Go-Gos and Destiny's Child.
The series also includes interviews with such non-musician commentators as film director John Waters, rock critics Peter Guralnick and Ann Powers, choreographer David Roussève and sociologist Camille Paglia.
In fact, the subject of sexuality and rock music long has fascinated scholars.
Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, an assistant professor of media arts at the University of Arizona, says her classes often deal with such subjects.
"I think music is a very good vehicle for sexuality, for issues about sex and emotional and physical contact. They have always gone hand in hand," she says. "In many ways, music has always changed what is said, how it is said and what we know about sex."
She also points out that mass media such as television have made the visual representations of sexuality and music more accessible to the public at large.
Elvis certainly would not have been as popular had he been born during a period when there was no TV, Smith-Shomade concedes.
Sound defined generations
Naturally, "From the Waist Down" contains hundreds of video clips from MTV.
It also uses archival footage from the 1950s through '90s to demonstrate how sex and rock helped define more than one generation of teen-agers.
"Sexuality is the very thing that threatened our parents about rock 'n' roll," says Angela McCormick Owen, owner of Svengirly Artist Management and an employee of San Jacinto Records, both Tucson music businesses.
A manager of several local rock bands, Owen is a 39-year-old mother of three boys.
But she recalls how, as a shy teen-ager, the worlds of rock music and sexuality collided in her life, with dramatic results.
"Here was a whole world of ball-busting braggadocio that I could access in my bedroom. I learned how to kiss with a photo of Marc Bolan (of the glam-rock group T. Rex)."
Owen also notes that androgyny and the burlesque always have been a significant part of the popular music world.
Once on stage, she says, the most thoughtful songwriters and musical artists can become "like an old stripper."
"I believe every single one of us has a little of that in us. Some may deny it, but it's true."
Those are sentiments that might be shared by "From the Waist Down" producers Bailey and Barbato, who profess to being in their "late 30s to early 40s."
"We are obsessed with popular culture," Barbato says. "We are also obsessed with music and with sex. That's what ties all our projects in common."
* Contact reporter Gene Arm-
strong at 573-4158 or
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Here's a schedule of installments in the documentary miniseries "From the Waist Down: Men, Women and Music." Each segment will air at 7 p.m. on VH1 (Channel 51 or 52 on Cox Cable, 41 on Comcast).
* "Dance to the Music" traces the parallel histories of social dancing, pop music and sexuality. Tonight.
* "Whole Lotta Love" examines rock as the domain of the man as strutting alpha male, king of the jungle. Tuesday.
* "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" explores the complex images of women in music, and the battle for control of the message. Wednesday.
* "Are You a Boy or a Girl?" investigates rock's traditions of androgynous sexual roles and gender-bending imagery. Thursday.
* "I Fought the Law" looks at the changing patterns of permissiveness, censorship and government regulation, as related to popular music. Friday.
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