Video Lust: Jennifer Lopez's 'I'm Glad'

While we're on the subject of Ms. Lopez and Flashdance, let's take a look at the visual feast of Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Glad".

Performance Lust : Britney Spears' 'I'm A Slave 4 U' for MTV

To know the significance of Britney Spears' "I'm A Slave 4 U" is to know Britney Spears before the media sensation that attempted to overshadow her career. Prior to "I'm A Slave 4 U" the world only knew Britney as the sweet, bubble gum pop, girl next door. "I'm A Slave 4 U" was what some call a musical attempt to leave that image behind and embrace a spot on the sticky dance floor for the twenty-one and older.

Written and produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, "I'm A Slave 4 U" appeared on Spears' third studio album, Britney. Afer reading the lyrics for the first time, Spears said it was, "about me just wanting to go out and forget who I am and dance and have a good time. That's kinda where I am right now. I love working, but at the same time, I love having a good time." [The Lust List loves when Britney plays coy!]

Some two weeks before it's official release, Spears debuted the song at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Tan, sticky, bejeweled, and wearing an embellished barely-there-outift, she commanded the stage telling the audience, "all you people look at me like I'm a little girl". By far, not her most provocative appearance for MTV, but definitely one of her best.

The performance included an actual white tiger and a Burmese Python entangled on her shoulders when she asked, "don't you wanna dance with me?". The snake-clad Spears has become one of her most iconic images and some called it a play on the Garden of Eden and "the Last Temptation".

Just one of the many performances that established Britney Spears as a legend. Lust with your eyes below and slither over to LuStylist to get the look.

Video Lust : Madonna's 'What it Feels Like for a Girl'

Lust Icon Madonna's third and final single from the album, Music, was "What It Feels Like For A Girl". The song describes the pressure women feel to conform to social norms of "politeness and subservience".

The music video that eventually followed is not in fact the actual single, but a trance remix by Above & Beyond. This remix only contains a sampling of the original lyrics, including the opening line "Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots. It's okay to be a boy. But, for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But, secretly, you'd love to know what it's like, wouldn't you? What it feels like for a girl."

It was mostly popularized by this music video which was directed by Madonna's then husband, Guy Ritchie. Her depiction of violence and abuse for the music video caused it to be banned by both MTV and VH1 before 9PM. In it, Madonna suits up in bullet proof vesting, picks up an elderly women from a retirement home, and causes violence and chaos on the streets of Los Angeles [including grand theft auto, setting a gas station on fire, and shooting a police officer with a water gun]. You'll have to see what finally happens for yourself.

Madonna responded to the controversy saying that her character was acting out a "fantasy and doing things that girls are not allowed to do". The decision to ban the video was in itself controversial, since it appeared to be no more violent than some television shows that aired at the time. Ironically, the video went into heavy rotation on "Oxygen" and was streamed on "America Online" frequently.

Lust with your eyes below.



Performance Lust : Madonna's 'Vogue' for MTV

Probably one of the most successful songs ever from a soundtrack album, "Vogue" is from Lust Icon Madonna's I'm Breathless album which is music from and inspired by the movie "Dick Tracy". However, the background on the song doesn't seem to be inspired by the film at all.

Lyrically, Madonna was inspired by vogue dancer and choreographers Jose and Luis Xtravaganza from the Harlem "House Ball" community, the origin of the dance Vogue. They introduced "Vogueing" to her at the New York City club "Sound Factory". Prior to the singles release of the song, Vogue was only performed in bars and disco of New York City in the underground gay scene. Madonna made it mainstream.

One would venture to guess that Madonna did find inspiration from "Vogue" from the movie based on the role call of old Hollywood glamour about midway through the song. The music video also depicts the material girl in a style similar to her character in the film, "Breathless Mahoney".

The success of "Vogue" not only boosted sales of the I'm Breathless soundtrack, it also generated massive publicity for the movie "Dick Tracy".

In 1990, Madonna once again made headlines on MTV at the Video Music Awards. She performed "Vogue" with several dancers in 18th-Century French costume a la Marie Antionette. Her costume was actually originally worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in the film, "Dangerous Liaisons". During the performance, Madonna and her dancers did more than flash undergarments. She not only pushed the faces of two male dancers into her breasts, she actually had one of them fondle her breasts on stage.

Lust with your eyes below. Prance over to LuSylist to get the look!

Performance Lust : Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' for MTV

The Lust List is going through the wilderness to celebrate Lust Icon Madonna's birthday! I've been touched many times by the Queen of Pop, starting with the performance that put her on the map.

Madonna performed "Like A Virgin', the first single from her second album, at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards. She began atop a giant wedding cake dressed in a wedding dress with her now infamous "Boy Toy" belt buckle adorned in pearls and a tulle veil. It wasn't long before she had her fill of cake, and was rolling around and humping the stage. Which at the time was pretty controversial [one of the many reasons I love her].

To this day, the performance is noted as one of the most iconic and biggest performances in MTV's history. Madonna has commented that she was actually terrified of the whole experience. She recalled, "I remember my manager Freddy shouting to me, 'Oh my God! What were you doing? You were wearing a wedding dress. Oh my God! You were rolling around on the floor!' It was the bravest, most blatant sexual thing I had ever done on television."

Lust with your eyes below and walk down the aisle with LuStylist to get the virginal look.

Video Lust : Rihanna's 'Hard'

Leave it to Lust Icon Rihanna to take all the elements of military and make them couture. Before Beyoncé was roling in the dirt in high fashion, Rihanna took designer gowns to the mud and the battlefields with explosions all around.

"Hard" was the second single from Rihanna's fourth studio album, Rated R. The video premiered on MTV in December of 2009. Described as a cross between Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" and Christina Aguielra's "Dirty", the video features Rihanna in a number of miliarty scenes; ordering troops while firing a machine gun, riding atop a tank in a Mickey Mouse-esqué helmet, stomping through the desert among field mines, and in an ammo storage center in a nude bustier with black electric tape X's on her breasts [my favorite scene].

Rihanna explains, "It's couture-military. Everything is surrounded by the whole idea of something military. We have tanks, we have troops, we've got helicopters, we've got explosions…tight gear, lots of cute outfits, lots of bullets. Crazy."

We wouldn't expect anything less. Lust with your eyes below and head over to LuStylist to get the look.

Lust Icon : Madonna

Yes. The answer is yes. I'm extremely intimidated with the idea of tackling Madonna as a Lust Icon. How could I convey to the world how iconic and amazing Madonna is? What photos would I even use? Should I pick someone else this go-around? Someone easier, like say, Lady Gaga?

I sometimes strangely loathe the fact that I even like Madonna [oh-kay LOVE Madonna]. It all just sounds so cliché for a gay man to love Madonna. But, I don't love Madonna the way we all at some point love her. Without sounding like a fanatic, I worship Madonna. Now I know that sounds extreme but, I'm not a crazy person. Madonna is an icon of music, film, fashion, art, and lifestyle. I don't need millions of record sales and awards to prove that. Who she is and what she does in the way that she does it, to me, seals the deal. How does she do that? With absolutely no regrets.

Madonna Louise Ciccone is a child of Italian decent from Bay City, Michigan. Of her youth, she recalls herself as a "lonely girl who was searching for something. I wasn't rebellious in a certain way. I cared about being good at something. I didn't shave my underarms and I didn't wear make-up like normal girls do. But I studied and I got good grades.... I wanted to be somebody." It was that ambition that drove her to drop out of college and pursue a dance career in New York City. She moved to New York in 1977 with only $35 in her pocket and describes the decision as "the bravest thing I'd ever done."

Video Lust : Madonna's 'Justify My Love'

While we're on the subject of Madonna's Justify My Love, should we take a moment to highlight one of my all time favorite Madonna videos? I'm sure there will be many more to follow.

Justify My Love was featured on the Immaculate Collection, Madonna's first Greatest Hits disc, and released in 1990. The song was one of four singles to be released from that album, and was produced by Lenny Kravitz.

The video for Justify My Love was filmed primarily on Laserdisc in grainy black and white in the style of a 1960s European art film. The action takes place in an elegant hotel that apparently caters to alternative lifestyle couples. Madonna enters looking tired and distressed as she walks down the hallway toward her room where she has a romantic fling with a mysterious man [yes, Tony Ward]. Some of the doors to the other rooms are open and you catch glimpses of various couples cavorting in BDSM fetish outfits [leather, latex bodysuits, and corsets].

In a dream-like sequence, Madonna rolls around in bed wearing skimpy lace underwear while various figures come and go. The only nudity [which led to the video being banned by MTV] occurs when a topless dominatrix-type woman [suspenders partially covering her breasts] appears and roughly grabs a bound man by the hair. Her outfit, which includes a peaked leather hat and black gloves, copies the iconic ensemble worn by Charlotte Rampling in the controversial film The Night Porter. The theme of androgyny is also briefly alluded to when a woman who closely resembles Madonna's lover is seen in men's clothing with a drawn-on pencil mustache. The overall presentation is surreal and deliberately ambiguous.

In the end, a rejuvenated Madonna rushes out of the hotel room smiling and laughing. The video then fades to a black screening with a written phrase shown, "poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another".

Justify My Love was the first ever single by Madonna to be released on VHS [remember those?] after it's ban by MTV. On December 3, 1990, ABC's Nightline played the video in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video's sexual content and censorship. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on MTV, she shrugged and answered, "Yeah, so? Lucky me." She also mentioned that the banning was hypocritical as male artists were able to show music videos on the channel which contained sexist and violent imagery.

Lust with your eyes below and justify your look with LuStylist.