Censorship on MTV

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Censorship on MTV has been the subject of debate for years. MTV, the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., has come under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive, censoring too much of their programming. MTV altered or removed shows from the channel's schedule and music videos were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

Contents 1 Political correctness 1.1 Religion and race 2 Censored music videos 2.1 Videos moved to late-night or obscure rotation 3 Banned music videos 3.1 From MTV in America 3.2 From MTV in Europe 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Citations

[edit] Political correctness

MTV came under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive when it came to censorship. This was most prevalent in the eventual decline of the hit show Jackass. The creators of Jackass often felt that MTV's producers did not let the show run its free course due to the excessive restraints placed on the Jackass team.

MTV's influence also affected its famous animated program, Beavis and Butt-Head. In the wake of controversy that followed a child burning down his house after allegedly watching the show, "producers moved the show from its original 7 p.m. time slot to a late-night, 11 p.m. slot. Also, Beavis' tendency to flick a lighter and scream the word "fire" was removed from new episodes, and controversial scenes were removed from existing episodes before rebroadcast.^[1] Some of the edits were so extensive that when series creator Mike Judge compiled his Collection DVDs he found out that "some of those episodes may not even exist actually in their original form".^[2]

The Parents Television Council has argued that much of the censored material on MTV can be easily discernible because of the context within where the material in question has been presented.^[3][4]

[edit] Religion and race

In the 1980s, parent-media watchdog groups such as the PMRC criticized MTV over certain music videos that were claimed to have explicit imagery of satanism. MTV has developed a strict policy on refusal to air videos that may depict devil worship or anti-religious bigotry.^[5] This led MTV to ban the videos for "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden^[6] and "Megalomaniac" by Incubus.^[7]

Usually, all ethnic and racial slurs are censored on MTV music videos^[8] and programming.^[9] MTV has emphasized racial tolerance and diversity awareness for people of all races and creeds. ^[10]

[edit] Censored music videos

MTV has also heavily edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs^[11], sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia, or advertising. ^[12] Examples of such edits have included:

• In the song "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, the word "suicidal" was censored, replaced with "in denial".^[13]
• In the song "Take You There" by Sean Kingston, they censor "sip piña coladas" because of the reference to alcohol.
• In Michael Jackson's single "They Don't Care About Us", MTV has replaced the words "Jew me" and "kike me" with "do me" and "strike me" in the line "Jew me, sue me... kick me, kike me; don't you black-or-white me". ^[14] Jackson, argued that the song used the words to describe prejudice and that it was poor judgment to select Jewish people as explanatory words.^[15]'
• Hawthorne Heights' song "Ohio Is for Lovers" has the word "cut" edited out in the lyrics "Cut my wrists and black my eyes, so I can fall asleep tonight."^[16].
• "This Love" by Maroon 5 had the word "cumming" edited out of the lyrics due to possible sexual connotation.^[17]
• The song "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance had the words "Gun", "Drugs", "Murder", "Shirt", and "Pay" censored because of the attack on Virginia Tech.

[edit] Videos moved to late-night or obscure rotation

To deal with criticism over risque content in certain videos, MTV moved certain videos to late-night rotation in censored format. Such videos included "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher and "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. ^[5]

In February 2004, following the controversial Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show produced by MTV in which performer Justin Timberlake caused the exposure of a breast of co-performer Janet Jackson, MTV made several efforts to limit daytime rotation of music videos that they felt had too much sexual content to be shown following the controversy. Such videos included "This Love" by Maroon 5, "Splash Waterfalls" by Ludacris, "The Jump-Off" by Lil' Kim, "Toxic" by Britney Spears, "I Miss You" by blink-182, "Salt Shaker" by Ying Yang Twins, and "Hotel" by Cassidy. By the middle of the month, MTV began playing edited versions of all the aforementioned videos. Additionally, the video for "Megalomaniac" by Incubus was pushed back not because of sexual content but because of depictions of Adolf Hitler and people drinking oil.^[7]

Also, the video for "Smack My Bitch Up" by Prodigy was moved to late-night rotation on the MTV2 special Most Controversial Videos, due to a fistfight, sexual scenes and consistent language in the lyrics.^[18] The song "Étienne" by Guesch Patti was moved to late-night rotation in MTV Europe due to a striptease scene.^[19] The video "Prison Sex" by Tool was shown only on MTV's former rock-oriented digital cable channel MTVX due to sexual and violent content^[20], but went on to be nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in 1995 for Best Special Effects.^[21]

[edit] Banned music videos

[edit] From MTV in America

• "Killing in the Name" (Rage Against the Machine)
• "A Tout Le Monde" (Megadeth)^[22]
• "American Life" (Madonna) (replaced with a second version)^[23]
• "Arise" (Sepultura)^[24]
• "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" (Twisted Sister)^[25]
• "Body Language" (Queen)^[26]
• "Erotica" (Madonna)^[27]
• "Ghost Ride It" (Mistah F.A.B.)^[28]
• "In My Darkest Hour" (Megadeth)^[29]
• "Jesus Christ Pose" (Soundgarden)^[6]
• "Justify My Love" (Madonna)^[30]
• "Lacquer Head" (Primus)^[31]
• "Reckoning Day" (Megadeth)^[32]
• "Vans" (The Pack) ^[33]

• "Spit It Out" (Slipknot)
• "Air Force Ones" (Nelly)
• "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Madonna)
• "Come to Daddy" (Aphex Twin)
• "Girls on Film" (Duran Duran)
• "(s)AINT" (Marilyn Manson)
• "Happiness In Slavery" (Nine Inch Nails)
• "Quote Unquote" (Mr. Bungle)
• "Smack My Bitch Up" (Prodigy)
• "Six, Six, Six" (DeGarmo and Key)
• "Joan Crawford" (Blue Oyster Cult)^[34]

[edit] From MTV in Europe

• "Amusement Park" (50 Cent) was banned in MTV UK ^[35], but MTV in the USA allowed an edited version of the video^[36]
• "The Prime Time of Your Life" (Daft Punk)
• "Bombs" (Faithless)

[edit] See also

• Censorship of music

[edit] References

• Nuzum, Eric (2001), Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America, HarperCollins, ISBN 0688167721 
• Williams, Casey (2005), MTV Smut Peddlers: Targeting Kids with Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol, Parents Television Council, <http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/mtv2005/MTV_Report.pdf> 

[edit] Citations