Source: VH1
By: Company Press Release
(NEW YORK, NY) — At the dawn of the new millennium, rock & roll is a huge mainstream industry characterized by big stars, bigger bucks, worldwide audiences and the promise of living out your fantasies. So is the porn industry. And now, they’re coming together.
Correspondent Rebecca Rankin examines the growing connection between these two billion-dollar industries in the VH1 News special “Rankin File: Rock & Porn,” premiering Monday, March 27 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
In this second installment of “Rankin File,” Rebecca Rankin reports on how and why the two worlds of rock and porn are increasingly intersecting, from rock stars hanging out with porn stars, to porn stars crossing over to music careers, ex-porn directors at the helm of teen pop videos, and rock stars talking about backstage sex on best-selling videos. Rankin explores relevant issues like the roles of money, censorship, marketing and exploitation in this marriage of mainstream entertainments, and goes one-on-one in exclusive interviews with music stars Kid Rock, Vince Neil and Everclear’s Art Alexakis, adult film stars Danni Ashe, Janine, Dyanna Lauren and Juli Ashton, and director Matt Zane, as well as adult video industry executives and rock music critics.
Among the interview highlights:
— Kid Rock, on porn: "Everybody watches it, but nobody will say they do."
— Steven Hirsch, president of Vivid Video, on the basic dynamics of the current trend: "The rock industry and the adult industry work together because the people – the actors and the rock stars – are rebellious people. Therefore, they’re driven to each other."
— Kevin Powell, music critic, on rock’s embrace of the porn industry: "Sex sells. Sex sells albums. For rock, porn is giving it a little bit of the edge it had lost over the past couple years."
— Art Alexakis of Everclear, on playing at an adult video company party: "This is rock and roll – it’s just a show. There are people who have sex for money. Who cares?"
— Ann Powers, New York Times critic, on why the rock-porn marriage is now being consummated: "We’re living in fat times. People want to party. We want our cash, we want our babes, we want to go to the strip club and have a good time. And sex is fun. And money is just as important to these rock stars as sex is."
— Danni Ashe, adult film and internet superstar, on her innovative marketing cross-promotions with top rock acts: "The rock world definitely is looking for that edgy, bad-boy reputation … It’s acceptable enough to where it’s not career-threatening."
— Vince Neil of Motley Crue, on rock’s enduring outlaw image: "I think that, for the regular fans out there, it just is kind of an expected thing — ‘All the rock stars get all the hot porn chicks.’"
— Dyanna Lauren, porn actress and singer, on her dual careers: "I’ve been in music my entire life. I have a B.A. in music. But I hate record companies, so I took a break from it. And I decided that if I was going to get screwed, I was going to get paid for it."
“Rankin File: Rock & Porn” is a production of VH1 News. Executive producer, Bill Brand, news director, Stewart Kasloff; producer, Aliza Rosen.
VH1 produces and programs a wide variety of music-based series, specials, live events and acquisition-based programming that keep viewers in touch with the music they love. VH1 is a registered trademark of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc. MTV Networks owns and operates the cable television programming services MTV: Music Television, MTV 2: Music Television, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land and VH1 as well as The Suite from MTV Networks, a package of ten digital services, all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also has joint ventures, licensing agreements and syndication deals whereby its programming can be seen worldwide.
