The music video for Stress, by French electronica duo Justice, is creating a furor. The video, directed by Romain Gavras, depicts gang members “wreaking havoc as they swarm from their neglected homes in the outskirts or banlieues of Paris into the heart of the city, all to a grueling, nightmarish electro beat.” Followed by a camera crew from their housing project to Sacre Coeur to Charles de Gaulle airport, they harass women, break a bottle over a café owner’s head, fight with the police and commit a carjacking. The video ends with the car set aflame and the cameraman apparently beaten unconscious. The screen goes black, and a final, garbled voice screams in French, ‘Does filming this get you off, you S.O.B?’” According to Justice, the video isn’t a glorification of gang violence, but “a parody of the way the major television channels treat the news.” What do you think? Does this have any artistic merit, or do you think Justice is just trying to use shock to generate some hype? And how about that “grueling, nightmarish electro beat”? Kinda cool, eh?

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