A music video is a fantastic promotional vehicle for a new single or album. It's also a potential revenue earner in the age of YouTube as advertisers attach themselves to the content. In fact, according to Vevo (via Music Ally), brands tend to shine brighter when they're associated with music videos because of the emotion that's stirred from the artist's music. In the case of Rammstein, they certainly evoke something from the audience; it's called shock. After all, there's a reason they're able to have an entire list of the most controversial videos based purely on their work.
In March 2019, Rammstein released the nine-minute-plus video for their new single "Deutschland," which was off their self-titled album, and it didn't take too long for it to ruffle a few feathers. Per BBC News, Emmanuel Nahson, then-spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, was unimpressed by the video — at one point, the band was dressed up as Nazi concentration camp prisoners with nooses around their necks. In a now-deleted tweet, Nahson called the video "shameful and uncalled for." Dr. Alexandra Lloyd, a lecturer at the University of Oxford, broke down the video's meaning to Louder, explaining that it's actually an accurate depiction of German history — showcasing the brutal honesty of the country's past. The question is, was Rammstein using art to address the band's complicated relationship with their own country's past, or was the "Deutschland" music video deliberately created for shock value?
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