Diane Martel, Music Video Director of ‘Blurred Lines,’ ‘We Can’t Stop,’ Dies at 63

Diane Martel, a beloved, prolific euphony video manager who helmed iconic clips for Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, among galore others, has died astatine property 63. According to Rolling Stone, Martel’s household said she died peacefully successful New York astatine Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital surrounded by friends and loved ones aft a agelong conflict with bosom cancer.

The autochthonal New Yorker with a chemoreceptor for unique, sometimes provocative visuals was champion known for a brace of 2013 videos that pushed the boundaries of the medium, the arguable “Blurred Lines” clip from Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell and the mind-bendingly weird location enactment video for Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop.”

Speaking astir the interaction of that uncommon double-double headline-grabbing duo successful 2013, Martel told RS, “My s–t is connected constituent close now. I bash person to admit I similar being provocative. That’s punk, that’s stone & roll, that’s hip-hop. It’s passionate. We’re not doing pharmaceutical ads.” 

“Blurred Lines” spent 33 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 during its monolithic run, but it was the lascivious video that drew astir arsenic overmuch attraction arsenic the song’s lyrics, which were criticized astatine the clip for objectifying women and playing excessively escaped with notions of intersexual consent. The video featured a sprig of mylar balloons that spelled “Robin Thicke Has a Big D–k,” successful summation a parade of astir bare models cavorting with the afloat clothed antheral performers.

Martel told Grantland that her volition was propulsion backmost against the “misogynist, comic lyrics” successful a mode successful which the women overpowered the lascivious antheral gaze, forcing the men to consciousness “playful and not astatine each similar predators” by asking the models to look straight into the lens to amusement that they were successful control. She said she didn’t deliberation the resulting clip was sexist due to the fact that the lyrics were “ridiculous” and the men looked “silly arsenic f–k,” calling her enactment “meta and playful.”

Several years later, however, 1 of the models, Emily Ratajkowski, claimed successful a memoir that Thicke sexually harassed her connected set, grabbing her breast, an relationship Martel seconded, saying she asked the visibly upset exemplary if she was good during the sprout and screaming “in my precise assertive Brooklyn voice, ‘What the f–k are you doing, that’s it!! The sprout is over!!’”

Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” drew attraction arsenic good for its bold, suggestive imagery from the vocalist who was transitioning from Disney royalty to hip-hop-adjacent provocateur. Wearing golden grillz and writhing connected a furniture successful a achromatic bra and blistery pants, the clip featured the past 21-year-old Cyrus surrounded by friends eating sandwiches made retired of $100 bills, gathering gallic fry skulls, twerking, butt-slapping, pretending to portion disconnected their fingers and soiled dancing with elephantine teddy bears.

Cyrus’ clip has much than 1 cardinal views connected YouTube to date, with “Blurred Lines” connected the cusp of that mark.

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