The music video director Diane Martel died on Thursday, September 18, in New York, her household instructed Rolling Stone. “Diane handed away peacefully at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital—surrounded by family and friends—after an extended battle with breast most cancers,” the household stated. “She is survived by her aunt, Gail Merrifield Papp (spouse of Joseph Papp, founding father of the Public Theatre), her three beloved, loyal cats (Poki, PopPop, PomPom), and lots of loving lifetime mates.” Martel was 63 years outdated.
Martel directed her first music video, for Onyx’s “Throw Ya Gunz,” in 1992. She continued to work primarily within the hip-hop world, filming Methodology Man’s “Bring the Pain,” Gang Starr’s “Mass Appeal,” and extra. She additionally did a whole lot of movies for Mariah Carey, together with “Dreamlover,” “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and “Whenever You Call.” Martel continued to work steadily within the 2000s, collaborating with Clipse, Jennifer Lopez, the Killers, Britney Spears, Franz Ferdinand, Ne-Yo, and others.
Martel started the 2010s with movies for Beyoncé’s “Best Thing I Never Had,” Alicia Keys’ “Brand New Me,” and extra. It was 2013, nevertheless, that turned her right into a family title, because of her headline-grabbing music movies for Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop.”
The “Blurred Strains” video starred Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I. with fashions Emily Ratajkowski, Elle Evans, and Jessi M’Bengue. The minimalist video featured the boys and the fashions dancing in entrance of a white background, and Martel defined the overall idea to Grantland in a 2013 interview: “Robin requested me to make a white cyc video. I heard the music and cherished it. Right here was a chance to check out a few of my concepts about gross sales and craft working in unison.”
“I needed to cope with the misogynist, humorous lyrics in a method the place the ladies had been going to overpower the boys,” Martel continued. “Take a look at Emily Ratajkowski’s efficiency; it’s very, very humorous and subtly ridiculing. That’s what’s recent to me. It additionally forces the boys to really feel playful and in no way like predators. I directed the ladies to look into the digicam, that is very intentional they usually do it more often than not; they’re within the energy place.”
Regardless of Martel’s intentions, the video was broadly seen as sexist and misogynistic, with many seeing the ladies as being objectified by the three male artists. (The music’s lyrics had been additionally seen as “rapey,” as Williams said in reflection in 2019.) Not serving to issues was a second, unrated model of the “Blurred Strains” video by which the ladies had been largely bare.
