Lady Gaga removes track featuring R. Kelly from Apple Music and iTunes amid sexual assault...
In what appears to be a response to a host of sexual assault allegations against hip-hop star R. Kelly, Lady Gaga this week pulled a collaborative track with the artist from Apple's content distribution services.
Track 7 is conspicuously absent from Lady Gaga's Artpop album on iTunes.
As noted by Engadget on Thursday, Lady Gaga's "Do What U Want (With My Body)," from the album Artpop, is no longer available for streaming on Apple Music, nor can the song be purchased from iTunes.
Interestingly, the album itself is still live on both services with track seven -- "Do What U Want" -- conspicuously absent. The change suggests Gaga was able to retroactively remove a single song from a currently available album, an uncommon occurrence in the digital music business. Typically, music labels or artists pull entire albums when external issues arise.
The pop star seemingly addressed the takedown on Twitter yesterday, saying she planned to remove the song from iTunes and "other streaming platforms." Gaga cited what has become a laundry list of sexual assault and abuse allegations facing Kelly as an impetus for pulling "Do What U Want" from Apple's catalog. Kelly has consistently denied those allegations.
"I intend to remove this song off of iTunes and other streaming platforms and will not be working with him again," she said. "I'm sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner."
The post suggests "Do What U Want" was styled as a commentary on sexual assault.
"As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I still hand't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life," she said.
Gaga has partnered with Apple in the past, including a headline performance at the iTunes Festival in 2013.
Track 7 is conspicuously absent from Lady Gaga's Artpop album on iTunes.
As noted by Engadget on Thursday, Lady Gaga's "Do What U Want (With My Body)," from the album Artpop, is no longer available for streaming on Apple Music, nor can the song be purchased from iTunes.
Interestingly, the album itself is still live on both services with track seven -- "Do What U Want" -- conspicuously absent. The change suggests Gaga was able to retroactively remove a single song from a currently available album, an uncommon occurrence in the digital music business. Typically, music labels or artists pull entire albums when external issues arise.
The pop star seemingly addressed the takedown on Twitter yesterday, saying she planned to remove the song from iTunes and "other streaming platforms." Gaga cited what has become a laundry list of sexual assault and abuse allegations facing Kelly as an impetus for pulling "Do What U Want" from Apple's catalog. Kelly has consistently denied those allegations.
"I intend to remove this song off of iTunes and other streaming platforms and will not be working with him again," she said. "I'm sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner."
The post suggests "Do What U Want" was styled as a commentary on sexual assault.
"As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I still hand't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life," she said.
Gaga has partnered with Apple in the past, including a headline performance at the iTunes Festival in 2013.
Comments
The most important thing that needs to be discussed is the issue of race around sexual assault & rape. Yes, you all know what I’m talking about. Black men get the maximum penalty under the law while white males—specifically from the upper class just get a slap on the wrist. If they do get prison time, it’s at a country club.
Thankfully, things are changing.
Rape has nothing to do with understanding personal boundaries. Rape is all about power. It is perpetuated by men and women who are sick, not men and women who weren’t taught boundaries.
She didn’t care. She wanted the money and fame.
I keep running into music I'm looking for that isn't there. But worse, there are tracks missing from some of the albums that are there. I'm not sure why this is, as the stuff I'm looking for isn't controversial (as if that should matter?). It's probably some kind of licensing thing, but if I bought the CD, it would be there.
Rape and sexual assault are not esoteric.
Subscription services leave availability up to the vendor, as you say. We were watching a series on Netflix a while ago, and midway through season 3, it disappeared as licensing expired.
That's what you get for wanting access to millions of dollars' worth of content for next to nothing, as opposed to building a library.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Lots of kids who were sexually abused "consented", as well. They may not have done so to receive "advancement" or "fame and fortune", but for love or appreciation, or simply because it seemed like the expected thing, and they had no alternate reality to compare to.
And it's not like underage kids couldn't say "no", either — I know people who managed to do just that when they were in their teens, and others who couldn't.
People who abuse positions of power tend to prey on those who can't, or won't.
They tend to be very selective when it comes to their victims.
No it doesn't. Get your feminist BS out of here. Also, being a White Knight isn't gonna get you laid. lol
I thought she chose the title for controversial reasons as she always does (releasing Judas on Easter etc.)
Most likely she has gotten some negative feedback and was told to remove it to protect her integrity. Selfish of course.
BTW Just came back from youtube.
"Do What U Want" is the #1 searched Lady Gaga result and you guessed it. The video has been taken down.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I did before Apple ruined iTunes family sharing, to force us into subscribing to Apple Music. Now, it's just one huge mess. If I find another great app so I can have a central 'server' of all our content shared across devices, I'll dump Apple Music and go back to my library. I just haven't found such good solutions, yet, and don't have time right now to experiment.