"Every rock n' roller is dating someone who's naked"...Dyanna Lauren \n"Lunch meat's for fun"...Matt Zane
Are we seeing the re-enactment of the Fall of the Roman Empire right before our very eyes? Or is it just a phase we're going through? Discerning the cultural synthesis between rock n' roll music and porno may have you up and awake at nights thinking about it. But don't worry. You have company.
The rock-porn thesis has been the subject of current media attention. And while you may have read the book on the subject, now you can see the movie. Rolling Stone magazine several months ago did a huge feature on the merging worlds of rock n' roll and porn. VH1 this week, in Rankin File hosted by Rebecca Rankin, featured a special along those very same lines, not only stressing the connection but practically reciting the matrimonial vows as well. Funny thing is, it could have been the Rolling Stone piece all over again, as a roundup of the usual list of suspects for the VH1 profile would indicate.
And there were a couple of new wrinkles, too, such as a clip showing rock n' roll director Matt Zane hurling lunch meat at a woman's near-naked ass. Rankin thought such behavior was particularly degrading. Zane wasn't of that mindset. "Luncheon meat on someone's ass is not degrading?" Rankin asked again. "No, of course not," Zane said. "It happens in real life. The girls are volunteering for these things. I'm just re-enacting what's already occurring in real life."
"We're part of a society where it says it's okay for girls or women to be treated like sluts," said music critic Kevin Powell. "You have to look at the culture that's producing that," music critic Ann Powers added. Powers speculates how it's got to the point where the "dumbest" "most prurient thing" often is the thing that sells. "We're living in fast times," she says. "People want to party. They're saying we want our cash. We want our babes. We want to go to the strip club and have a good time. Sex is fun and money is just as important to these rock stars as sex is. Now Americans have grown a little more comfortable expressing their sexuality. Rock n' roll is running down the track right along with that development."
Accordingly, the VH1 story, featuring a who's who of porndom and the rock world, tells you pretty much all you need to know on that subject.
Observing the connection between the two giants to be huge, Rankin wanted to know why. "Sex sells," said critic Powell. "Porn is giving rock the edge it lost for a couple of years."
Kid Rock is credited with opening the porn connection, says Rankin. "Everybody watches it but nobody says that they do," Kid Rock says. The profile went on to mention the controversy that ensued when Rock planned to have porn star Jameson on stage with him for the Grammy Awards but the music academy wouldn't let him. Ironically, two other porn stars, Raylene and Kobe Tai [Tai along with Dyanna Lauren also sings back-up on Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals], went on instead. Kobe said if there's a chance to cross over into the mainstream, you take it. It's all positive, she says.
"It's [porn] a balance I have in my life," Kid Rock added. "I'm a single father. I raise my son. It's not like I put it on in front of him. It's not that I'm an ambassador. I do watch it. I do enjoy it. It's not bad. It doesn't corrupt me in anyway."
Vivid's Steve Hirsch says the union of the two worlds is accomplished because porn actors and rock stars are rebellious people. "Therefore, they're drawn to each other," Hirsch says. "People who watch music videos also rent adult movies. We're able to get the girls out there and have them seen in a different way then just an adult movie. That can only be positive for us."
Vivid's grand dame, Janine, now exhibiting a short coif, was singled out as having one of the highest porn-rock q ratings. She was asked about her appearance in Everclear's The Boys Are Back in Town and her cover stint on a top-selling Blink 182 CD. She said being on the cover certainly didn't hurt, but wouldn't take personal credit for the CD's brisk sales.
"It was fun to do the video [The Boys Are Back in Town]," she added. "Everclear is a very professional band. I don't think they gave one hoot that the adult stars were there." Art Alexakis of Everclear, which performed at a Vivid party last year, had this to say: "We're on the road. We're all in committed relationships. We watch a lot of these videos on pay-per-view. It keeps us honest.
"It's not like we're cavorting with everybody and having unsafe sex," Alexakis went on to say. "This is rock n' roll. It's just a show. These are [porn] people who have sex for money. Who cares?"
On the flip side of the coin, Vivid's Brian Gross and Dave Schlesinger made crossovers-in-reverse. Gross did publicity for Elektra while Schlesinger handled artist relations for Arista Records. Gross said people were shocked at first when he made the quantum leap to porn but are accepting it. Schlesinger observes that, 'People are now more receptive and a little more open about saying I do like adult movies."
According to Rankin, "Matt Zane might be most extreme example of the rock/porn star merger." Zane, says Rankin, is best known for his Backstage Slut series featuring guys talking about life on the road with groupies. Zane swears it's all true. "We have a lot more fun than most rock stars do," he stresses. Noting that there are 27,000 bands in LA who all want to make it, Zane acknowledged the need to reinvent himself. "I started with porn which is also very creative and I used that to springboard into music," he said. "All of a sudden it's a totally cool thing to do - about a rock star who's singing in a band and making porn movies."
Also noted is the fact that some of the top performers including Jonathan David of Korn, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, Kid Rock, Orgy and Insane Clown Posse are featured in Zane's Backstage Sluts series.
It's also porn critic Kevin Powell's contention that ours has become a twisted culture, sexually. "It's very male-centered, very testosterone-driven. It's very let's live for pleasure now," Powell says.
Juli Ashton, whose nude walk-on in a Counting Crows video is segmented, said that Greg Dark is the personification of the crossover. Dark has directed over 20 music videos in the last three year including some for Counting Crows to The Verve Pipe to Ice Cube.
AVN's Paul Fishbein says this about Dark: "It doesn't really matter much whether you're shooting porn, a music video or a big budget movie," Fishbein says, "talent is talent, and Greg is loaded with talent." Though Dark himself wouldn't take part in the profile, it was observed that he's been directing some of the hottest names in teen pop which includes the making of Brittany Spears' From the Bottom of My Broken Heart music video. According to critic Powell, the bubblegummers have legitimized Dark, and he, in turn, has legitimized them, making them "edgy".
Says Juli Ashton: "We just chose this particular route [porn] to get to our goals." Ashton doesn't think the crossover would have been possible five years ago. "A main studio would not touch an adult actress with a ten foot pool," she says.
"I think the rock world is looking for that edgy kind of bad boy reputation," Danni Ashe, who's made a small fortune off her website, notes. "It's now gotten to the point where they can publicly associate themselves with porn stars because it's edgy enough for that bad boy image but acceptable enough to where it's not career threatening."
Ashe's website, according to Rankin, now boasts 7 million hits a day. When releasing their live album, Motley Crue was looking for ways to promote it. They did so by performing a live broadcast on Danni's Hard Drive where people could hear the album for the first time and also watch Julian Ann, Vicca and Devinn Lane strip to the music.
Vince Neil of Motley Crue added, "We're in some way linked to pornography anyway, we might as well go ahead and do it. For the fans, it's just an expected thing. All the rock guys get all the hot porn chicks. Credibility has nothing to do with it. There's no reason to lie about it anymore. They see bands like us who've been around for twenty years, it's okay if we do it. Why not everybody else."
Porn star/director Dyanna Lauren who sings with Thousand Year Itch in their just-released first CD, said she's been in the music business all her life but took a break from it. "I decided if I was going to get screwed, I was going to get paid for it," Lauren says of her porn career. Lauren acknowledges that her name isn't blasted on the cover of the "Itch" CD. "I don't want to be judged because I'm a porn star," she says.
"We do what we do and make a lot of people happy," she adds. "All we're asking is for just a little respect, baby. Sex is okay, it's a good thing." Also mentioned was the fact that ten-year veteran Lauren has been cozying up to the mainstream a lot lately by virtue of appearances on VH1's The List and another program, Karaoke Cabaret.
As other examples of the crossover, it's pointed out that Midori and Ginger Lynn have singles on the CD, Porn To Rock, a compilation of songs from 13 porn stars; and, though she doesn't sing, Jenna Jameson has released her own CD, a collection of her favorite bands that includes Kid Rock and Korn.
