Censorship of music
Encyclopedia
Censorship
of music is the practice of restricting free access to musical works
. This censorship
may stem from a wide variety of motivations, including moral, political, military or religious reasons. Censorship can range from the complete government-enforced legal prohibition of a musical work, to private, voluntary removal of content when a musical work appears in a certain context. An example of this latter form of censorship is the radio edit
.
. Some music labels or artists produce censored versions themselves, sometimes with alternative lyrics, to comply with the rules set by various radio and television programs. Some stations decide to censor them themselves using one of several methods:
radio due to the "smutty lyrics", though Formby's wife Beryl managed to change BBC's opinion. The ostensibly offending lyrics were:
Another example of censorship is when, in 1956, ABC radio refused to play Billie Holiday's "Love for Sale" because the lyrics are about prostitution, but "Love For Sale" would be on the radio again. ABC also made Cole Porter 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".
Another example is when the Rolling Stones went on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan asked them to sing their hit song “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, but he asked them to change the lyrics to Let’s Spend Some Time Together so it would be considered more appropriate. (Napier)
Due to its position as a public broadcaster, BBC Radio
has a policy of not playing songs that contain product placement
; Ray Davies
of the British rock band The Kinks
was forced to travel back to the United Kingdom
during an American tour in order to change references to Coca-Cola
to "cherry cola" from their hit song "Lola
" in order to allow it to be given airplay in the country.
BBC Radio was also involved in a controversy surrounding their 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 prohibited, but BBC
's Radio 1
banned 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 — pulled it because of its lyrics. In fact, the single reached number one on the chart. 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.)
In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, saw the BBC pull 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 gladiator
s 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 pulled the "Relax" single by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
. Radio 1 had concluded that the lyric "when you're gonna come" referred to sexual climax. However, FGTH has refused that their song's lyrics were sexual. 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 pull the record — which sent the record straight to number one for a five week stay.
In Tom Petty
's "You Don't Know How It Feels
", the line usually censored from airplay is "Let's roll another joint". In MTV's airings and on many radio stations, the word "joint" was reversed, obscuring it.
On September 10, 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.
In Rage Against the Machine
's 1992 song "Killing in the Name
," towards the end of the song, the frontman, Zack De La Rocha
, screams out "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" sixteen times before the screaming of "Motherfucker!". Some radio stations block out the whole part, some just censor the word "fuck", and others play a shortened version (clocking at 4:06) which removes this section (going straight from the end of the guitar solo to the outro) along with the intro. However, in the same year, BBC Radio 1
was flooded by 138 phone call complaints by offended listeners after DJ Bruno Brookes
accidentally played the uncensored version of "Killing in the Name" on BBC Radio 1's Top Forty Countdown show on a Sunday afternoon.
Some words have also been mistaken for inappropriate ones. In The Black Eyed Peas
's song, "My Humps
", the word "brothers" is mistaken for "fuckers", and in [Keri Hilson's Knock You Down
, Ne-Yo's line "pimp ship flying high" was censored on radio due to ship being mistaken for shit'.
without permission from the original material's copyright holders is prohibited in the United States as copyright infringement
. As a result, there are a few cases, particularly in hip hop music
, where record labels are forced to reissue material with anything ruled to infringe on existing copyrights removed. An early example, before the 1991 US court case, is the recall of the Euro n?) by The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu. The album, full of unauthorized sampling, was recalled under the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society by a complaint from the band ABBA
.
societies, more authoritarian governments censor music deemed critical of the government, the military, stores, TV stations, or other authorities. 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.
After Fidel Castro established his communist dictatorship, Che Guevara suggested a ban on country music, jazz and rock & roll; which he saw as "imperialist music".
's song "Judas" (from her album Born This Way
) which was banned in Lebanon
in April 2011 for being "offensive to Christianity
", according to the Daily Star
, a Lebanese newspaper. Moreover, VH1 India censored the word 'Jesus' itself from the track.
and John Lennon
's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
provoked an outrage, prompting distributors to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper.
German heavy metal
band Scorpions
' 1970s album Virgin Killer
s artwork had to be changed because the original cover art showed a nude prepubescent girl, with a glass crack obscuring her genitalia
. Simply, the alternative cover art depicts the members of the band in various poses.
or a Parental Advisory
label. 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.
and often has the effect of drawing more attention
to the song than it would have received had it not been banned. Equally, the censorship of a word can highlight it 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 Walmart 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.
The Ages. True Endeavors, n.d. Web. 3 Nov 2010.
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of music is the practice of restricting free access to musical works
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. This censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
may stem from a wide variety of motivations, including moral, political, military or religious reasons. Censorship can range from the complete government-enforced legal prohibition of a musical work, to private, voluntary removal of content when a musical work appears in a certain context. An example of this latter form of censorship is the radio edit
Radio edit
In music, a radio edit is a modification to make a song more suitable for airplay, whether it be adjusted for length, profanity, subject matter, instrumentation, or form...
.
Censorship of pop music
In order to allow songs to be played wherever possible, it is common to censor particular words, particularly profanityProfanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
. Some music labels or artists produce censored versions themselves, sometimes with alternative lyrics, to comply with the rules set by various radio and television programs. Some stations decide to censor them themselves using one of several methods:
- Blanking; when the volume is muted 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; Replacing a word with a more appropriate word.
- Backmasking; taking the offending word and reversing the audio, sometimes the whole audio is reversed (often because it is a home-made job), but more usually only the vocal track is reversed.
- Repeating; repeating the word just said before the explicit word was used.
- 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 hopHip hopHip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
, scratching on the word, making it sound like another word, or make the word said faster or slower. - RoboVoicing; making the word totally non-understandable by overpowering a robovoice effect (usually used as a last resort for home-made jobs).
- Distorting; Usually in Hip-Hop, less offensive words such as "shit" or else is distorted. It is usually done by shifting down the pitch.
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 BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio due to the "smutty lyrics", though Formby's wife Beryl managed to change BBC's opinion. 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
Another example of censorship is when, in 1956, ABC radio refused to play Billie Holiday's "Love for Sale" because the lyrics are about prostitution, but "Love For Sale" would be on the radio again. ABC also made Cole Porter 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".
Another example is when the Rolling Stones went on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan asked them to sing their hit song “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, but he asked them to change the lyrics to Let’s Spend Some Time Together so it would be considered more appropriate. (Napier)
Due to its position as a public broadcaster, BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
has a policy of not playing songs that contain product placement
Product placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
; Ray Davies
Ray Davies
Ray Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
of the British rock band The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
was forced to travel back to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during an American tour in order to change references to Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
to "cherry cola" from their hit song "Lola
Lola (song)
"Lola" is a song written by Ray Davies and performed by The Kinks which details a romantic encounter between a young man and a transvestite he meets in a club in Soho, London....
" in order to allow it to be given airplay in the country.
BBC Radio was also involved in a controversy surrounding their play of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
single "God Save the Queen
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)
"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
" released by Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
on 27 May 1977 to coincide with the Queen's silver jubilee
Silver Jubilee
A Silver Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, ruling anniversary or anything that has completed a 25 year mark...
celebrations. Sales of the single were not prohibited, but BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
banned 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 — pulled it because of its lyrics. In fact, the single reached number one on the chart. The band was harassed by police when it (loudly) performed the song from a boat on the Thames. (See the entry for Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
and God Save the Queen on the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
page.)
- "God save the queen! / The fascist regime."
In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, saw the BBC pull airplay of Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
'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 gladiator
Gladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
s of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, who — at least in the version of the story portrayed in the Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
film Spartacus — answered to the name of their leader, "I am Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
", to protect him.
Radio 1 in 1984 pulled the "Relax" single by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood were a British dance-pop band popular in the mid-1980s. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson , with Paul Rutherford , Peter Gill , Mark O'Toole , and Brian Nash .The group's debut single "Relax" was banned by the BBC in 1984 while at number six in the charts and...
. Radio 1 had concluded that the lyric "when you're gonna come" referred to sexual climax. However, FGTH has refused that their song's lyrics were sexual. In a famous incident, Radio 1 disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Mike Read
Mike Read
Michael David Kenneth Read is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter.-Early life:...
took the record off the turntable and broke it in two. After this, but without consulting Read, Radio 1 decided to pull the record — which sent the record straight to number one for a five week stay.
In Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
's "You Don't Know How It Feels
You Don't Know How It Feels
"You Don't Know How It Feels" is a song and the lead single from Tom Petty's 1994 album Wildflowers. It reached number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100....
", the line usually censored from airplay is "Let's roll another joint". In MTV's airings and on many radio stations, the word "joint" was reversed, obscuring it.
On September 10, 2001, coinciding with the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, the video and single for the Rammstein
Rammstein
Rammstein is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band from Berlin, formed in 1994. The band consists of members Till Lindemann , Richard Z. Kruspe , Paul H. Landers , Oliver "Ollie" Riedel , Christoph "Doom" Schneider and Christian "Flake" Lorenz...
song "Ich will
Ich will
"Ich will" is a single by Rammstein. It was originally released in Germany on September 10, 2001. Since it was released the day before the September 11, 2001 attacks, many channels did not air the music video...
" 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.
In Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
's 1992 song "Killing in the Name
Killing in the Name
"Killing in the Name" is a song by American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, featured on their self-titled debut album, and was released as the lead single from the album in November 1992...
," towards the end of the song, the frontman, Zack De La Rocha
Zack de la Rocha
Zacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine.-Early life and childhood:...
, screams out "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" sixteen times before the screaming of "Motherfucker!". Some radio stations block out the whole part, some just censor the word "fuck", and others play a shortened version (clocking at 4:06) which removes this section (going straight from the end of the guitar solo to the outro) along with the intro. However, in the same year, BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
was flooded by 138 phone call complaints by offended listeners after DJ Bruno Brookes
Bruno Brookes
Bruno Brookes is a British radio presenter who became prominent in the 1980s.-Early life and career:...
accidentally played the uncensored version of "Killing in the Name" on BBC Radio 1's Top Forty Countdown show on a Sunday afternoon.
Some words have also been mistaken for inappropriate ones. In The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
's song, "My Humps
My Humps
"My Humps" is the third single by The Black Eyed Peas from their fourth album, Monkey Business. It samples a section of the song "I Need a Freak" by Sexual Harassment, as well as the 1989 song "Wild Thing" by Tone Lōc and "It's Automatic" by Freestyle. Released in 2005, it reached number three in...
", the word "brothers" is mistaken for "fuckers", and in [Keri Hilson's Knock You Down
Knock You Down
"Knock You Down" is a song by American singer-songwriter Keri Hilson, taken from her debut studio album, In a Perfect World... . The song features guest vocals from American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo and American rapper Kanye West. The song was written by Hilson, West, and Ne-Yo along with Kevin...
, Ne-Yo's line "pimp ship flying high" was censored on radio due to ship being mistaken for shit'.
Censorship due to copyright infringement
In 1991, Grand Upright v. Warner clarified that samplingSampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
without permission from the original material's copyright holders is prohibited in the United States as copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
. As a result, there are a few cases, particularly in hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, where record labels are forced to reissue material with anything ruled to infringe on existing copyrights removed. An early example, before the 1991 US court case, is the recall of the Euro n?) by The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu. The album, full of unauthorized sampling, was recalled under the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society by a complaint from the band ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
.
Political censorship
Although not common in most democraticDemocracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
societies, more authoritarian governments censor music deemed critical of the government, the military, stores, TV stations, or other authorities. 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.
After Fidel Castro established his communist dictatorship, Che Guevara suggested a ban on country music, jazz and rock & roll; which he saw as "imperialist music".
Religious censorship
A recent example is Lady GagaLady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
's song "Judas" (from her album Born This Way
Born This Way
Born This Way is the second studio album by American recording artist Lady Gaga that was released on May 23, 2011, by Interscope Records. The album is a follow-up to her internationally-successful albums The Fame and The Fame Monster...
) which was banned in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
in April 2011 for being "offensive to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
", according to the Daily Star
Daily Star (Lebanon)
The Daily Star is a pan-Middle East English language newspaper edited in Beirut. It was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mrowa, the publisher of the Arabic daily Al-Hayat to serve the growing number of expatriates brought by the oil industry...
, a Lebanese newspaper. Moreover, VH1 India censored the word 'Jesus' itself from the track.
Censorship of artwork
The original cover of nude Yoko OnoYoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins is an album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968. The result of an all-night session of musical experimentation in Lennon's home studio at Kenwood, John and Yoko's debut album is known not only for its avant garde content, but also for its cover...
provoked an outrage, prompting distributors to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper.
German heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Scorpions
Scorpions (band)
Scorpions are a heavy metal/hard rock band from Hannover, Germany, formed in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker, who is the band's only constant member. They are known for their 1980s rock anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and many singles, such as "No One Like You", "Send Me an Angel", "Still...
' 1970s album Virgin Killer
Virgin Killer
Virgin Killer is the fourth studio album by the German heavy metal band Scorpions. It was released in 1976 and was the first album of the band to attract attention outside Europe. The title is described as being a reference to time as the killer of innocence. The original cover featured a nude...
s artwork had to be changed because the original cover art showed a nude prepubescent girl, with a glass crack obscuring her genitalia
Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia
On 5 December 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation , a British watchdog group, blacklisted content on the English version of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia related to Scorpions' 1976 studio album Virgin Killer, due to the presence of its controversial cover artwork, depicting a young girl posing...
. Simply, the alternative cover art depicts the members of the band in various poses.
Self-censorship
Some artists or record labels choose to censor themselves in order to avoid negative publicityPublicity
Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people , goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion which is one...
or a Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory is a message affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to audio and recordings in the United States containing excessive use of profane language and/or sexual references. Albums began to be labeled for "explicit lyrics" in 1985, after pressure from the Parents...
label. This is sometimes due to the timing of events outside of their control, such as how the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
affected audiovisual entertainment. The release and subsequent advertising of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
'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.
Artists
Examples of artists who have had their work edited or censored:- Fela KutiFela KutiFela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
, Nigeria - Imprisoned and harassed by Nigerian authorities - Ferhat TuncFerhat TuncFerhat Tunç is a Zaza musician from Turkey.The Turkish kurdish Alevi singer Ferhat Tunç was born in 1964 in the city of Tunceli, in Turkey's eastern Province of Tunceli ....
, Turkey - Censored and imprisoned by Turkish authorities - Gorki ÁguilaGorki ÁguilaGorki Águila is a Cuban punk rock musician and dissident, who has publicly criticized communism. He is the leader of the Porno para Ricardo band....
, Cuba - Censored by the Cuban Government. Imprisoned August 2003 - Judge DreadJudge DreadAlexander Minto Hughes , better known as Judge Dread, was an English reggae and ska musician. He was the first white recording artist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica, and has the most banned songs of all time.-Career:...
, England - The Guinness Book of World Records credits Judge Dread for having the most banned songs of all time on the BBC Radio. - MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, USA - Several videos banned and attempted boycott (usually by religious groups) of several of her concerts (such as her visits in 1990 and 2006 to Rome, her visit in 2006 to Russia, her visits in 2009 to Poland and Bulgaria, etc.). When American television network NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
aired a concert from the artist's Confessions TourConfessions TourConfessions Tour was the seventh concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It supported her tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor. Madonna confirmed the possibility of going out on a tour as early as November 2005. Jamie King, Madonna's longtime collaborator, was then hired on...
, the part of the show where Madonna stages a crucifixion was censored and replaced with images of orphaned African children (images that were part of the live performance involving the crucifixion, but which were displayed on the on-stage screens behind the singer). - Marilyn MansonMarilyn MansonMarilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
, USA- His release of "(s)AINT" is banned in many countries due to its content including BDSMBDSMBDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...
, cunnilingusCunnilingusCunnilingus is an oral sex act performed on a female. It involves the use by a sex partner of the mouth, lips and tongue to stimulate the female's clitoris, vulva, or vagina...
and drug use along with masturbationMasturbationMasturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
. - Miguel Angel Estrella, Argentina - Banned, imprisoned and tortured by the Argentine military junta
- Matoub Lounès, Algeria - Assassinated in 1998
- Parissa, Iran - In the Islamic Republic of Iran, female singers often face severe restrictions
- Pink FloydPink FloydPink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
s album The Wall was banned in South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1980 after the song was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting racial inequities in education - Rolling Stones When they were to perform the song "Let's Spend the Night Together", Ed SullivanEd SullivanEdward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 , which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S...
famously challenged the Rolling Stones to change the line to "let's spend some time together." - Thomas MapfumoThomas MapfumoThomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo is a Zimbabwean musician known as "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of President Robert Mugabe...
, Zimbabwe - Several songs banned by Zimbabwean authorities
Criticism
The total censorship of a song is often reported in the mass mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and often has the effect of drawing more attention
Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
to the song than it would have received had it not been banned. Equally, the censorship of a word can highlight it to such a degree that it makes it more obvious what the singer has said.
In 1993
1993 in music
This is a summary of significant events in music in 1993.-January–February:*January 8 – The U.S. Postal Service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. The design was voted on in February 1992....
, when Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
's In Utero
In Utero
In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American grunge band Nirvana, released on September 13, 1993, on DGC Records. Nirvana intended the record to diverge significantly from the polished production of its previous album, Nevermind...
album was released, it was forced to be censored by their label as well as by distributors Walmart and Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
. Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
, 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
Rape Me
"Rape Me" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana, written by frontman Kurt Cobain. The song was released as the second single from Nirvana's third album In Utero in 1993, packaged as a double A-side along with "All Apologies"...
" 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.
See also
- Degenerate musicDegenerate musicDegenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art...
- Censorship on MTVCensorship on MTVCensorship 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...
- List of songs banned by the BBC
- List of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks
- Music and politicsMusic and politicsThe connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in music, has been seen in many cultures. Although music influences political movements and rituals, it is not clear how or even if, general audiences relate music on a political level...
Further reading
- Banned In The UK, Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV series, 7 March 2005 – 10 March 2005. - Hecox, M.J. "True Endeavors". Cover Your Ears! Censored Music Through
The Ages. True Endeavors, n.d. Web. 3 Nov 2010.
- Napier, Kristine, “Antidotes to Pop Culture”. Policy Review (1997): 12. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.
External links
- FreeMuse - Freedom of Musical Expression: the world's largest knowledge base on music censorship
- Timeline of music censorship world-wide from ancient time up til 2000
- MySpace.com/musiccensorship - Freemuse's MySpace profile about music censorship
- National Coalition Against Censorship - (from USA): Music
- First Listing of Undesired Musical Works – German leaflet from 1939
- Frank ZappaFrank ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
- PMRC United States SenateUnited States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Hearing 1 2 3 4. youtube.com
