Watch: naked musicians

Whether they stripped down for shock value or to make a statement; for laughs (looking at you, !); for the sake of vulnerability or for the art; or just because they wanted to feel sexy, singers who got naked for music videos prove that some musicians just know how to push the envelope.

Sometimes when working on my website I get side tracked, like when I put together a large collage of “Naked Musicians.” The first few are shown above, and are all early shots for which the code phrase was “physique” photos. They are not really naked, of course, because in the 1950’s it was illegal to sell magazines with totally nude models.

Which are the most important collaborations with other musicians for Balkan musician Naked?

is a scene in which a group of female musicians appear on-stage in various states of undress. It’s a fun scene; it isn’t especially important to the plot, but it is my way of paying tribute to the various women in music over the years who have chosen to make a statement by performing naked or semi-naked in front of an audience.

The idea of nude musicians has long been something I wanted to show in fiction. I think for several reasons. There’s the fact that, when I’m not A D Rowen, I’m a huge music nerd, with a massive record collection and a long history of going to gigs and listening to and reading about music of many genres, but especially in the ‘alternative’ camp (punk, heavy metal and hard rock). But more than that, I find that when female musicians perform nude or semi-nude, it’s usually rarely done in the name of sexiness or titillation. It’s more often a statement, an empowering, pro-feminine, anti-sexist, body-positive thing. I welcome this type of thing in art and culture, and I think it’s a strong message for a female musician, who most likely does not have the sort of body that one would find in, say, the pages of Playboy or on the Paris catwalk, to stand naked in front of a crowd.