Justice is viral

Two years after bum-rushing the MTV awards stage and announcing the brand had ‘lost credibility’ for handing the Best Video title to Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, the French knob-twiddlers who form electro act Justice, Kanye West premiered their latest video on his official blog – which subsequently became one of the most watched virals of the year. Three weeks later and ‘Stress’ is still causing a fuss in France.

Scenes of a gang of young ethnic minorities charging through Paris, destroying whatever they can get their angry little hands on are a little too soon and a tad close to the bone after French riots in 2005 and 2007, which ignited over the police-complicit deaths of north and west African teenagers.

In what you can imagine were wonderfully nonchalant Gallic tones, Justice’s record label shrugged their shoulders and claimed there was no ‘communication strategy’ behind the video.

Of course that’s been universally dismissed as bollocks, not least considering they roped in Romain Gavras (who had tanks massed and Russian troops facing west in The Last Shadow Puppets’ ‘Age of the Understatement’ video) to direct it. Gavras has a history of social commentary on angry French kids, young immigrants and how shitty life is in the banlieues. Alongside his ‘film collective’ Kourtrajme, he documented much of the French riots from the front line.

Predictably, ‘Stress’ has been denounced throughout the French media as aestheticisation of violence, racist and irresponsible. Equally predictably, French broadcasting regulators have debated whether to ban the video – although that wouldn’t make a difference as the channels have already refused to air it.

The publicity hasn’t all been negative though. Aside from its stunning cinematography, the clip has been applauded in some circles as a satire on media exploitation. As a comment on another blog observantly pointed out, the final scene is reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson having the shit kicked out of him by the Hells Angels. He’d been rolling with them for a year as research for what became his breakthrough novel, getting chummy as they gang-fucked and beat people up, before eventually receiving a leather-clad slap himself once the bikers realised he stood to make money from the escapade.

In a funny way, they felt they were being exploited. The media have always sidled up to groups on the social periphery, offering them a voice in return for something that’ll eventually be spun into a sensation.

It reminded me of Ann Widdecombe vs The Hoodies from a couple of years ago: ostensibly offering herself as an intermediary between the disaffected kids on the street and the scared folk at home, the bowl-cut sporting MP sauntered through the UK’s housing estates with a face like a robber’s dog, liberally using kids’ own ignorance against them. It was an exercise in self-aggrandizement, entertaining, but – regardless of whether the subjects were dislikeable little shits or not – exploitative.

Justice’s video does what any worthwhile piece of social commentary should do; provoke us into asking questions and forming opinions by laying down the disturbing reality of things. But any debate is pretty much eclipsed by 6 punch-tastic minutes it takes obvious delight in.

Gavras, Auge and de Rosnay clearly think they’ve handled the affair with a bit of media savvy, recently fuelling the debate by claiming they put the video out there ‘just to see what would happen’. But they’ve missed a trick. If they wanted a real media frenzy, stating their intent from the start would’ve been the best way to get it – then we could judge the video on the merits that, despite being uncomfortable viewing, it does have.

Without clarification in the YouTube generation though, alongside the happy slapping footage, recordings of girls beating each other up in their living rooms and trailers for GTA IV, ‘Stress’ is just another cynical endorsement of violence – and just another viral.