Is censorship of music on the radio still relevent in today’s society ?
Censorship refers to partly or completely censoring a song from the public to ensure profanity or any insinuation of drug or sexual activity does not offend the public.
Online news reports and articles debated over the topic, it depended on the audience they were trying to satisfy. An article from the, The Age, argued ‘Why take the risk?’ Censor your music before it has the chance to offend. This ‘offensive’ lyric the writer is referring to is the word, ‘Goddamn’, mentioned in the Fall Out Boy single ‘This ain’t a scene, It’s an arm’s race.’ However, a new single circulating commercial radio now is called, ‘Sexy Bitch’, isn’t that considered profanity?
Further, The Sydney Morning Herald published an article with the title ‘Puff out free speech’. The title is in reference to the controversial song ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’, which was ridiculed for having pro-marijuana lyrics. The article centred on the idea that with every new trend there will always be the new threat of influence on youth culture and censorship needs to be dropped for musicians to have the creativity freedom when writing their music.
While an article from Adelaide Now, focused on a conservative family view, arguing that censoring music allows a parent and their child to listen to the radio without feeling ambushed. It is argued that songs like Britney Spears, ‘If U Seek Amy’, should have appropriate timeslots and not be aired on commercial daytime radio.
However, while looking through an online forum, the majority of the public seemed confused with how and why censorship is used. One mother argued that while driving with her 6 year old, the word ‘crack’ was bleeped out during a song however it was immediately followed by an ad containing information on erection problems. There seems to be an inconsistency in censorship and sometimes they are ruining a perfectly good song.
A majority cited that ‘censorship was stupid’, that even songs that sound similar to profanity are being censored. Just recently the Kanye West and Ne-Yo hit, ‘Knock You down’, the word ‘ship’ was censored in case it was confused with the word ‘shit’.
An article I found on an academic database made an interesting point, the unknown author argued that ‘by boycotting love songs, kids won’t have sex and beeping out the word ‘cocaine’ or ‘pot’, no one will ever get into drugs.’ He adopts a sarcastic tone to push the idea that by removing everything controversial and pushing it aside, will it really stop society’s problems?
With censorship you cannot please everybody. The relevance of censorship in society today will depend on who you are talking to. For example, the Australian society seems more laid back and let these ‘offensive’ words slip while the US take precautions by censoring any lyrics that may offend, even bleeping out the word ‘gun’ when the shootings overseas took place. However what is questionable is whether censorship will still have a place in society after another ten years?
Te Koha, Nui (2007) Curfew demands for sexy song lyrics Adelaide Now
[Accessed: 12th August 2009]
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0„25289144-5006301,00.html
Sydney Morning Herald (2004) Taking puff out of free speech
[Accessed: 12th August 2009]
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/11/1084041394990.html
Ziffer,D (2007) ‘God-damn’ song censored The Age [Accessed: 12th August 2009]
http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv—radio/goddamn-song-censored/2007/03/16/1173722724394.html
Whirlpool forums (2005) Censorship Gone mad! [Accessed: 13th August 2009]
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=987242
Saint Paul Pioneer Press (2000) Censorship in music? My, what a wonderful idea! NA. Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Wollongong Library. [Accessed: 19 Aug. 2009]<http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.
Pastorek, W (2004) Bleep Year: Behold a new age of music censorship Entertainment Weekly 775 12. Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Wollongong Library. [Accessed: 19 Aug. 2009]<http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.
