Censorship of music
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Censorship of Music, the practice of censoring music from the public, may take the form of partial or total censorship with the latter banning the music entirely. The music in question may be a song, or part thereof, a collection of songs (such as a particular album) or a genre of music.
Both songs and albums have been banned in the past. It has become less common in western countries. However, the censorship of particular words deemed as profanity is still commonplace.
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[edit] Censorship of pop music
[edit] Airplay censorship
An early example of censorship of music on the radio is from the 1940s. George Formby's "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was banned from BBC radio due to the "smutty lyrics", though his wife Beryl managed to change BBC's opinion [1]. The ostensibly offending lyrics were:
- The blushing bride she looks divine
The bridegroom he is doing fine
I'd rather have his job than mine
When I'm cleaning windows
A classic example of censorship is when in 1956 ABC radio refused to play Billie Holiday's "Love for Sale" because the lyrics are about prostitution. They also forced Cole Porter to change the lyric of "I Get A Kick Out Of You", which was a hit for Frank Sinatra. Porter's original stated "I get no kick from cocaine". The cleaned-up version was "I get perfume from SPAIN".
The BBC banned the airplay of Come Together by the Beatles and the original version of Lola by The Kinks, as it believed that the two songs contained what might be construed as an advertisement for Coca-Cola.
Another example of partial censorship in the UK was over BBC Radio play of the Sex Pistols single "God Save the Queen" released by Virgin Records on 27 May 1977 to coincide with the Queen's silver jubilee celebrations. Sales of the single were not banned, but BBC's Radio 1 barred it from airplay. It had reached number two in the BBC's own charts, but the public service broadcaster — at that time the BBCs most popular radio channel — censored it because of its lyrics. It actually reached number one on the NME chart [2][3]. The band was harassed by police when it (loudly) performed the song from a boat on the Thames. (See the entry for Sid Vicious and God Save the Queen on the Sex Pistols page.)
- "God save the Queen / The fascist regime."
In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, saw the BBC ban airplay of Ian Dury's "Spasticus Autisticus" until after dark. Dury, who had suffered from polio, intended the song to be a positive message for people with disabilities. The chorus' refrain "I'm spasticus, autisticus" was inspired by the response of the rebelling gladiators of Rome, who — at least in the version of the story portrayed in the Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus — answered to the name of their leader, "I am Spartacus", to protect him.
Radio 1 in 1984 banned "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Radio 1 had concluded that the lyric "when you're gonna come" referred to sexual climax. In a famous incident, Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read took the record off the turntable and broke it in two. After this, but without consulting Read, Radio 1 decided to ban the record — which sent the record straight to number one for a five week stay.
The Beastie Boys received substantial publicity when they arrived in the UK in 1987. Headline stories of their activities in bars and hotel rooms, along with a tour featuring dancers in cages and a large inflatable penis, led to massive sales of "Fight for your Right to Party". A video showing the three bandmembers invade and trash a party was subsequently banned by Top of the Pops due to its portrayal of "loutish behaviour".
An interesting example of airplay censorship is Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How it Feels". The censored line is "Let's roll another joint". In the radio version the word joint is kept, but the line is changed to "Let's hit another joint". Therefore, instead of smoking marijuana, the song's couple are traveling to bars.
[edit] Word censorship
In order to allow songs to be played wherever possible it is common to censor particular words, particularly profanity. Some labels produce censored versions themselves, sometimes with alternative lyrics, to comply with the rules set by various radio and television programmes. Some channels decide to censor them themselves using one of seven methods:
- Blanking; when the volume is set to zero for all or part of the word.
- Bleeping; playing a noise, usually a "beep", over all or part of the word.
- Resampling; using a like-sounding portion of vocals and music to override the offending word.
- Resinging; removing the word or part of the word and keep the instrumental part of the song
- Backmasking; taking the offending word and reversing the audio, sometimes the whole audio is reversed (often to simulate a 'backspin' sound), but more usually only the vocal track is reversed.
- Repeating; repeating the word just said. One example is on the Kanye West song "Gold Digger". On the edit, instead of saying "broke nigga" they say "broke, broke".
- Skipping; deleting the word from the song without a time delay.
- Echo; instead of saying a word, it echoes the last word(s) said in the line.
- Disc Scratching; in Hip Hop, scratching on the word, making it sound like another word, or make the word said faster or slower.
The censorship of some of the less common swear words or obvious innuendo may differ between channels. The word ho in Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For?" was censored by some channels (for example MTV) while not by others (such as BBC Radio 1). Likewise, in Rihanna's "Unfaithful", some stations censor the word "Gun", but not others. Stefani's song "Hollaback Girl", where the word shit is repeated a total of 38 times, was heavily censored on English-speaking countries, and surprisingly, also on Brazilian radios. Most radio stations removed the "it" and allowed the "sh" sound. Some radio and TV stations censored the line "keep her coming every night" in Maroon 5's "This Love" because of the insinuation of the word cumming, a term for sexual climax. Maroon 5's song "Makes Me Wonder" contains the line 'If I ever give a fuck about you.' The word fuck is dropped every time it is used in the song. Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend has the line, 'I'm the motherfucking princess.' In the edited version of that song the word "fucking" is removed and the word "mother" is kept; alternately, another edit replaces "motherfucking" with "one and only".
Red Hot Chili Peppers's song "Tell Me Baby" contains the line 'Life can be a little shitty', but the radio replaces it to "Life can be a little Kitty. Another example is the Grease song "Greased Lightning", where the line 'It ain't no shit' is often never cut in daytime radio airplay.
Marilyn Manson's song "(s)AINT" in 2003 from there album The Golden Age of Grotesque. The "(s)AINT" music video was banned in the United States due to its scenes of drug abuse, self-mutilation, nudity, sexual content and bondage, Manson made another version appropriate for television and other sources. Along with the release of the album, Lest We Forget, Manson released a single DVD with the uncut, banned from the label, original version of the music video.
The Anarcho-punk band, Crass, hit controversy when a record pressing plant refused to press the song, "Reality Asylum", accusing them of blasphemy. Instead, they had a blank space with silence, which the band humorously dubbed "The sound of Free Speech" in protest. According to their drummer Penny Rimbaud, they were influenced by John Cage's 4:33. Their protest song against the Falklands war, Sheep Farming in The Falkland Islands, faced calls from a Conservative MP to be prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. The Times rock Critic said that it was "The most revolting and unnecessary record ever made", the irony being that the MP and critic were cousins.
Some words are censored not through their sexual or offensive nature but for other reasons. The 2001 release "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus had the word gun censored by some channels – it was felt that the line "He brings a gun to school" was inappropriate. Some channels also censored 2003'ss "Gay Bar" by Electric Six, removing the word war from the sentence "Let's start a war; start a nuclear war".
On September 10th, 2001, coinciding with the September 11, 2001 attacks, the video and single for the Rammstein song Ich will was released, portraying the band as terrorists who want to get a message across and receiving a kind of terrorist award for their "actions". After the attacks, the video clip was broadcast only late at night in the United States, although many media officials and politicians requested the video to be removed from television completely.[1]
Rapper Kanye West's song "Gold Digger" repeatedly says niggas in the line "But she ain't messin with no broke niggas" and has been censored to say "But she ain't messin wit no broke broke" repeating the word before it. The Jaywalks' song I Like Fat Chicks was banned from radio for "politically incorrect" lyrics, despite the fact the message of the song is essentially positive about overweight women.
As the word "goddamn" is often considered inappropriate while the term "damn" on its own is not, many censored versions of music that contains the term "goddamn" are edited to remove "god", but leave "damn", while others censor the "damn" portion only, and yet others remove "goddamn" entirely. An example is the Eagles' Life In The Fast Lane, which contains the line "We've been up and down this highway/Haven't seen a goddamn thing".
The song "Sunshowers", produced by M.I.A., contains a line that states "like PLO I don't surrendo", with "PLO" meaning the Palestinean Liberation Organization. MTV refused to air the video until the line was censored, however, M.I.A. refused to change the song.
The song Purple Pills by D-12, which is about drugs, has a radio-edit version of the song, changing the title to Purple Hills. The song title "I Wanna Fuck You" originally by rapper Plies, but by Akon featuring Snoop Dogg, has a censored version called "I Wanna Love You". Nas' song "Got Ur Self a Gun" has a clean version called Got Ur Self A..., so it echoes when they say that line, instead of saying "gun".
Rapper Eminem's song Without Me, has the line, "they tried to shut me down on MTV", censores MTV.
Some words have also been mistaken for inappropriates. In the Black Eyed Peas's song, "My Humps", the word "brothers" is mistaken for "fuckers". The word is censored. Also Fergie of Black Eyed Peas song "Fergalicious" censored the "cious" part of "delicious" in the intro, a mistake of saying "shit". In the Jurassic 5 song "A Day At The Races", the phrase "lick of" is mistaken for "niggaz" and was censored in the clean version of the album.
In many songs, the word "ass" is never censored, for instance Wizard Rock band Harry and the Potters' "Cornelius Fudge is an Ass" unless used as assault, like if saying "get your ass kicked", which both "ass kicked" would be censored, like in "Eminem's" song Without Me, also it would be censored if it's used sexually. The word "asshole" mostly censores the whole word, but sometimes, only "hole" is censored, while "ass" isn't, like in "Eminem's" song My Name Is. The word "crap" is normally censored in songs, like in the clean version of Hip Hop is Dead. When the word "sex" is used as a sexual intercourse way, it is normally censored, but not in songs like by rapper 50 Cent's like In da Club, or R&B love songs like if said like "making love". The word "pissed" would not be censored if used in a way meaning "drunk", like in Papa Roach's Scars, Lloyd Banks' Hands Up and Lil Kim's Lighters Up, but censored if used in a way meaning "urinating", which is also on Lighters Up.
The word "motherfucker" mostly censores the whole word, but sometimes, only the word "fucker" is censored, while "mother" is still kept, like Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend.
"Man Down", the third track in 50 Cent's album Curtis, censores all police references, but not profanity, but in the version that censores profanity and murdering, doesn't censore police references.
MTV censors the words "shoot" and "drug" by replacing them with "put" and clothes" in "The City Is At War" by Cobra Starship.
At times near midnight, radio stations play Hip Hop music uncensored, but they still censor the word "fuck".
Jadakiss song "Why" was edited on some radio stations when he said "Why did Bush knock down the towers?" Bush was censored in this lyric because it was stating that it was the President's fault that 9/11 occurred.
[edit] Self-censorship
Some artists or record labels choose to censor themselves in order to avoid negative publicity. This is sometimes due to the timing of events outside of their control, such as how the September 11, 2001 attacks affected audiovisual entertainment. The release and subsequent advertising of Michael Jackson's greatest hits album was delayed until after his 2005 trial; it is not known if a guilty verdict would have further changed the timing of the release.
[edit] Political censorship
Although not common in most democratic societies, more authoritarian governments censor music deemed critical of the government, the military, or other authorities. It does however occur even in countries like the USA. For example, MTV banned "Boom!" by System of a Down, that consisted of various demonstration against the Iraq War. In many societies without a well established free press, popular music is one of the few avenues to express and share ideas, even when those ideas are encoded in otherwise innocuous song lyrics. The mizik rasin band in Haiti, RAM, first played a song called "Fèy" in 1992. The song lyrics, from a traditional vodou song, describe a leaf falling to the ground, but were widely understood as a song of support for the exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The song was banned throughout the country by the military regime of Raoul Cédras until he fled the country in September 1994 and Aristide was restored to the presidency.
During the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, MTV repeatedly refused to air any anti-war music videos or statements made by music artists like Moby, NOFX, Anti-Flag and many others.
[edit] Artists
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Examples of artists who are or have been censored:
- Eminem, USA - Blacklisted by several radio stations - and censored by himself
- Farhad Darya, Afghanistan - Banned by the Taliban
- Fela Kuti, Nigeria - Imprisoned and harassed by Nigerian authorities
- Ferhat Tunc, Turkey - Censored and imprisoned by Turkish authorities
- Gorki Carrasco, Cuba - Censored by the Cuban Government. Imprisoned August 2003 [4]
- Judge Dread, England - The Guinness Book of World Records credits Judge Dread for having the most banned songs of all time on the BBC Radio.
- Junoon, Pakistan - Banned by religious authorities in Pakistan
- Madonna, USA - Several videos banned and boycott of her 2006-concerts in Russia, Italy, etc
- Marilyn Manson, USA - Blacklisted by several radio stations and Several videos where banned - and the after-effects of the Columbine High School massacre
- Miguel Angel Estrella, Argentina - Banned, imprisoned and tortured by the Argentinean military junta [5]
- Matoub Lounès, Algeria - Assassinated in 1998
- N.W.A, USA - Blacklisted by many radio stations after releasing the song Fuck tha Police
- Ozzy Osbourne, England - Several songs where banned and boycott of stage decorations that are portrayals of "devil worship" and "glorified Satanism". - and the after-effects of a California teenager John McCollum who committed suicide
- Parissa, Iran - In the Islamic Republic of Iran, female singers are often facing severe restrictions
- Pearl Jam - AT&T#Censorship controversy
- Thomas Mapfumo, Zimbabwe - Several songs banned by Zimbabwean authorities
Also see the longer list at freemuse.org
[edit] Bands
This lists Bands considered controversial based on specific types of content deemed offensive, especially by the censorship crowd.
- Slayer (for extremely graphically violent lyrics on all albums and Satanic themes on the first three albums)
- Rammstein (for strong sexual content and alcohol usage in the lyrics, and strong language)
- Cannibal Corpse (for extremely graphically violent lyrics)
- Sex pistols (for the song God Save the Queen)
[edit] Censorship in classical music
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For many years Wagner and even Beethoven were never played in Israel, though they were not formally banned, because of their association with the Nazi era (even though both died long before the Nazis came to power, and Beethoven at least could not conceivably be considered to have held fascist or anti-semitic leanings). The conductor Sir Simon Rattle provoked controversy by performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Israel. Jewish conductor Daniel Barenboim has also done a great deal to make German classical music acceptable in Israel, but caused controversy on July 7, 2001 by conducting Wagner in Jerusalem. Unlike Beethoven, Wagner was an anti-semite. After protests by holocaust survivors and pressure from the Israeli government the original programme was changed in an act of self-censorship. Barenboim agreed not to play Wagner's Die Walküre, replacing it with pieces by Robert Schumann and Igor Stravinsky. At the end of the concert Barenboim announced his intention to play the Prelude to Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde as an encore, and that those who did not want to hear it should leave first. This statement was greeted with loud applause by the majority, and the disapproval of a minority. Barenboim was denounced as a fascist in the press, though some would argue that fascism was actually to be found in the act of censorship. Barenboim wanted to play the music because of the great quality of the music in itself.
[edit] Criticism
The total censorship of a song is often reported in the mass media and often has the effect of drawing more attention to the song that it would have received had it not been banned. Equally, the censorship of a word can highlight it in to such a degree that it makes it more obvious what the singer has said.
In 1993, when Nirvana's In Utero album was released, it was forced to be censored by their label as well as by distributors Wal Mart and Kmart. Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain, responded by saying "I just feel bad for all the kids who are forced to buy their music from big chain stores and have to have the edited music". The name of the song "Rape Me" was changed to "Waif Me" for these stores. The name change only appears on the back cover. The original title is still stated in the liner notes and the album insert.
[edit] International forum on music censorship
Freemuse – The World Forum on Music and Censorship - is an independent international human rights organisation which advocates freedom of expression for musicians and composers world-wide. Its website, www.freemuse.org, is the world's largest database on music and censorship. In 2007 Freemuse reported news about music censorship from 57 different countries. [6]
Freemuse is a membership organisation with an executive board consisting of members from all over the world. Its secretariat is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2004 and up til 2009 Freemuse receives its core funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA, which is a part of the Swedish foreign ministry. [7]
In a SIDA publication entitled 'Sida’s Work with Culture and Media' it is stated that "at the global level, Freemuse is a notable example of an initiative that contributes to social debate at global and national levels and, not least, to freedom of expression." [8]
The UNESCO-study entitled ‘The Protection And Promotion Of Musical Diversity’ from 2006 underlines the importance of freedom of musical expression and praises Freemuse for its work:
"Freemuse is a wonderful organization based in the relative safety of Copenhagen that draws public attention to acts of musical suppression around the world. The website gives a continually updated list of acts of musical censorship and suppression – and not all of them are acts by governments. For Freemuse, it appears that suppression of music or text for any reason at all is regarded as censorship and is to be opposed."
Musical diversity depends on whether there is freedom of musical expression. As such, the full first chapter of the UNESCO-study, entitled ‘Musical diversity and human rights’ is devoted to giving the reader an overview of the situation for musicians in a number of countries.[9]
[edit] Freemuse's History
The idea to establish an organisation such as Freemuse was born at a conference about music and censorship which was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in November 1998, on the occasion that it was 50 years ago that the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[edit] Global 'Music Freedom Day'
3 March 2007 marked the first-ever commemoration of musicians’ freedom of musical expression. [10] 'Music Freedom Day' is now to be held every year on 3 March as a day where musicians and broadcasters world-wide are invited to participate [11]. In 2007 it became a global event on the subject of music and censorship, and in 2008 an award [12] is given to musicians, individuals or organisations that “have worked for freedom of musical expression in a remarkable way”.
[edit] Freemuse's Publications
Freemuse has produced eight in-depth quality publications on music censorship in countries such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, USA, a regional study on the Middle East, and Gypsy Music from Romania. Freemuse also conducted a minor survey on Latin America. In 2007 a report was published about Music Censorship in Belarus.
Its documentary film, “Stopping the Music”, has been shown at several seminars, film festivals and conferences.
Freemuse published the book 'Shoot the Singer! Music Censorship Today', which surveys for the first time contemporary cases of music censorship worldwide. (Review) [13]
[edit] Freemuse's Activities
Freemuse has conducted a number of campaigns to support musician who are or have been imprisoned. Recently a campaign was raised for the Kurdish musician Ferhat Tunc who was in court in Turkey in October 2007, and acquitted.
Suppression of musicians is often clearly politically motivated, and Freemuse has documented hundreds of cases where musical expression or musical diversity have been repressed by action of government. [14]
Freemuse has organised or attended over a dozen seminars, conferences and debates in nearly as many countries on the topic of music censorship. [15] In November 2006, Freemuse held its third World Conference on Music Censorship in Istanbul, Turkey, which was attended by more than 200 people from 22 different countries, and which received substantial media coverage.
[edit] Notable Members of the Freemuse Network
[edit] See also
- Music and politics
- Censorship on MTV
- List of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks
- Daniel Barenboim
- Swing Kids
- Freemuse
[edit] References
- ^ Rammstein.com (Timeline). Rammstein. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
[edit] External links
- Freemuse - Freedom of Musical Expression: the world's largest database on music censorship
- MySpace.com/musiccensorship - MySpace profile about music censorship
- First Listing of Undesired Musical Works – German leaflet from 1939
- Frank Zappa - PMRC United States Senate Hearing 1 2 3 4. youtube.com
- Timeline of music censorship world-wide from ancient time up til 2000
