Artists are notorious for designing elaborate album rollouts and music videos full of shock value when they release a new project.
In 2010, to promote herfifth studio albumNew Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), singer Erykah Badu dropped “Window Seat” as the lead single, and it sure shocked the country.
“Window Seat” was released on iTunes on February 9, 2010, and was a fairly run-of-the-mill track about longing for a lover.
READ MORE:Erykah Badu (Finally!) Working on First Album in 15 Years
The trackfound moderate success onBillboard‘s music charts and received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans.
And then the music video dropped.
Badu filmed the impromptu “Window Seat” music video in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza historic district “guerrilla-style.”
The location is famous for beingthe place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Not only did the singer strip nude in public as she walked the streets of Dallas, but shewas also shot by an assassin in the video.
Badu tweeted that the video “was shotguerrillastyle, no crew, 1 take, no closed set, no warning, 2 min., Downtown Dallas, then ran like hell.”
Shesaid at the time that she was inspired by indie duo Matt & Kim, who stripped naked in Times Square for a music video.
Badu explained that her video is a criticism of “groupthink” and that she wanted to do it “in a way that compared[JFK’s] assassination to the character assassination one would go through after showing his or herself completely. That’s exactly the action that I wanted to display.”
Upon the video’s release on March 27, 2010, it was met with intense criticism and backlash from fans and the general public alike.
Many people felt like Badu’s use of Dealey Plaza was tasteless because it was the site of JFK’s assassination.
Badu was subsequently investigated for filming without city permits by Dallas officials, as well as public nudity.
In April, she was charged with disorderly conduct for the nudity, which is a class C misdemeanor in Texas.
Badu attempted to challenge the charge by pleading not guilty rather than pay a fine of $500 by mail, but by August, she agreed to pay the fine and serve a six-month probation.
Similarly, Lady Gaga was accused of creating a tasteless, tone-deaf video in 2013 for her song “Do What U Want” which featured disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly.
The video featured many sexually suggestive scenes with Kelly, who had not yet been officially exposed by the 2019Surviving R. Kelly documentary but was widely known as a predator.
Fans and critics found the music video’s concepts disturbing given the song’s collaborator and his repulsive reputation.
Singers Who Went Naked in Music Videos
See the most iconic, most infamous and most outrageous naked music video moments, below.
Gallery Credit: Taylor Alexis Heady