In September, The Rolling Stones announced their new album, Hackney Diamonds, with a Sydney Sweeney-starring video for “Angry.” In the visual, vintage imagery of the band performing can be seen on billboards as Sweeney, wearing chaps and a corset, dances and sings along, driven down Sunset Boulevard in a convertible. Some thought the video sexually objectified Sweeney, and now she has responded in a new Glamour interview.
Of starring in the video, Sweeney said, “I felt hot. I picked my own outfit out of racks and racks of clothes. I felt so good in it.”
When asked about the claims of sexual objectification, Sweeney responded:
“One of the questions I get is, ‘Are you a feminist?’ I find empowerment through embracing the body that I have. That’s sexy and strong, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I’m in a Rolling Stones video. How cool and iconic is that? I felt so good. All the moves, everything I was doing was all freestyle. I mean, who else gets to roll around on the top of a convertible driving down Sunset Boulevard with police escorts? It’s the cool things in this career that I had no idea I’d get to do.”
This comes after Blur and Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn shared some criticism of the video, saying, “I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”
Check out the “Angry” video below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.