VIDEO GAMES: Duran Duran’s video for its...

VIDEO GAMES: Duran Duran’s video for its new single, “Electric Barbarella,” has been pulled off the air by Canada’s major music video channels, the French-Canadian outlet Musique Plus and its English-language sister Much Music. Programmers deemed that the clip--which has the band purchasing a curvy, female android to perform sexual and domestic chores--to be outside their bounds of good taste.

Members of the band and its management are crying censorship. The programmers say it’s no such thing.

“We have to make choices all the time of what we are going to air or not, and in this case it was just a matter of taste,” says Musique Plus music director Benoir Van Ness. “It’s not a matter of it being banned. It’s not banned. We have played it and we may play it again. But we do not feel it’s one of the best videos we have now. The song is OK, but the video is just not very tasteful.”

But Lou Mann, senior vice president and general manager of Capitol Records, Duran’s label, cites an “open forum” in which Musique Plus invited viewers to weigh in with their opinions on the video, with 80% supporting it.

“This is a video that is tongue in cheek, and 80% of the people are calling and saying they want to see it,” he says. “You have to ask if it’s a wise programming decision. I don’t think it is.”

Meanwhile, in the United States, the video has been played without problems on MTV and VH1.