Research: Censorship

What is music censorship?

Music censorship is the process of which a music video or a song will be censored by having the explicit section cut out, or in worse cases moving to ban the entire song through a main censorship institution. The BBFC control anything that is allowed or suitable to be produced and viewed in the United Kingdom and not global. They are the general commanders or head inspectors of the British film industry in terms of deciding whether a film should be banned, cut or censored. They have a main role and that is to protect the British viewing public from any offensive material or anything that could possibly cause harm to society, such as the visible promotion of violence and sexual assault. The BBFC are important in terms of providing safety and protection to a mass audience, and protecting those watching from viewing something so bad it may have the power to psychologically damage the viewer. For the music industry, there are different ways in which music can be censored, mainly by the label or the institution distributing it, this is to ensure that the reaction and feedback is less negative than how it would be if the uncensored version was released. An example of this is where ‘Judas’ by Lady Gaga, was banned in Lebanon as it was deemed an offense towards Christianity. 

Difference explicit content and explicit lyrics

Explicit content is anything in a music video seen as inappropriate for viewers under the age of 18. Content of an explicit nature is most likely to be evidently seen within the structure of a music video, whether it is a scenario or an action between the characters in the video. Examples of this would be the representation of violence, nudity, sexual content and realism, this could include a scene in which a male character is violently inflicting sexual assault on a female character, this would require censorship due to the content. An another example of this would be Serge Gainsbourgs’ Lemon Incest video, in which French music artist Serge was in bed with his 12-year-old daughter at the time, Charlotte. It caused controversy due to its glamorizing of pedophilia and incest, both due to her age and their relation. MIA’s Born Free video also caused controversy, as the 9-minute video showed red headed young men being dragged away by armed men wearing gas masks, with the youngest of the men later shot in the head. It was removed entirely as it was deemed too violent for user uploaded content, however it still managed to receive positive critical acclaim in 2010. The ‘Parental Advisory’ logo is seen on the back of CD covers, and allows the buyer to understand that the CD contains explicit content and/or explicit lyrics. Due to this being there, it allows the audience to challenge their decision to buy the CD and risk anyone under the age of 18 to view the content.

Explicit lyrics is any lyric in a song viewed as inappropriate for listeners under the age of 18. Lyrics of an explicit nature will most likely be evident in a song without the video as it is within the song structure and not the video structure, this could include a section or the entire song. An example of this is Eminems’ Mosh Pit lyrics where he indirectly mocks President George W. Bush at the time of the song, ‘Let the president answer a higher anarchy, strap him with an AK-47, let him go, fight his own war’, described as a protest song by Eminem in reaction to the presidents fight with the Middle East. Because of this, the explicit version was censored and re-released as a clean version in order to appease audiences and viewers, it was so explicit the CIA were involved. The ‘Parental Advisory’ logo is often displayed on the back of a CD cover, with the intention that the buyer will see this and understand they are exposing their mind to explicit content. The logo is used for both content and lyrics because they are still under the ‘explicit’ category.

Further Examples...

The type of things that get censored, is content that promote and glamorize unsuitable representations of violence, sexual orientations and excessive nudity. In some cases, the representations may not be too explicit to be censored, and instead be mildly explicit allowing for viewers under the age of 18 to view and listen to the content. The artist may say words like ‘shit’ or ‘f***’ once or twice, and language of this nature wouldn’t be particularly censored as in some songs it may not be used often and could come across just once or twice in the song.  There are many songs in the music industry being censored with the explicit version kept somewhere away from the audience in order to protect them, or younger audience being exposed to this, offensive taboo words get replaced with something cleaner or just ‘bleeped’ and the explicit visual sections are either trimmed or entirely removed.

Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us, caused huge controversy due to the content originally shown to the audience. Initially a protest song over the way the government looked down and dealt with the less advanced civilians, the lyrics were what encouraged a censorship in the song. It was considered antisemitism, which as a sort of hate crime against the Jewish community, ‘Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/ Kick me, k-ke me, don’t you black or white me’. Due to persistent public complaining over the clear explicit lyrics, the lyrics were then changed to, ‘Do me, sue me, everybody do me/ Kick me, strike me, don’t you black and white me’, with Michael Jackson having to apology for this.

Another example of a song censored from the audience due to its explicit nature is Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night, it may seem like a happy go lucky song and video but due to the way in which Katy Perry shows off her body to the media, it isn’t all as it seems. The song had a line, considered very naughty, cut from the song due to its deeper meaning and link with the song, ‘ménage a trois’ which in French means a threesome was not allowed to air with the song because a threesome is a matter which isn’t allowed to be promoted due to the common age of the audience of singer Katy Perry.

Radio Censorship/Edit

Radio censorship is the process of the lyrics of a song being edited before playing on a radio station, this has become a common thing with radio edits of songs being released away from the radio station. This is the same thing as a clean version, yet rather than it being done by a bigger broadcaster, it is done through the radio to be played through the radio. It goes through a modification where the explicit lyrics are trimmed out to make the song suitable for airplay. Offending words may be censored, trimmed, reversed, bleeped and even blanked to keep the rules imposed on them by the national communication commissioners of different countries.

An example of radio censorship is the conversion of the lyrics, “F*** You” to “Forget You”, due to the risk of the age of the potential audiences listening to these lyrics and preventing any problems within the radio broadcaster. Some words may not be replaced based on the demand of the record label, with just the most profane lyrics being trimmed and edited. “Let’s Get It Started” by Black Eyed Peas, was originally “Let’s Get Retarded”, but changed due to the risk of negative public outcry, being ‘retarded’ can be considered as being linked with mental health, which could lead to the audiences deeming it a mockery towards the disabled community.

Difference between cut and banned.

There is a distinct difference between content being cut and content being banned. Where content is cut, it is the process of which explicit content will be trimmed, or blanked, or replaced with something cleaner as suggested before to prevent the audience from being exposed to such content. To ban something is to completely prohibit the broadcasting and release of it, and this often happens only when content is incredibly provocative and deemed as an offense. Cut content has more of a chance of being distributed than banned content, yet artists still make music with explicit lyrics and content with the slim hope that it will go through the cutting process and not be banned.

Advantages

It allows for the younger audience to be guarded from overly explicit content, allowing for their young, innocent minds to be kept safe from content they may be way too young to see or experience.

It also prevents backlash from audiences towards the artist as their star image can be modeled around the type of music they release, whether explicit content or explicit lyrics, the audience and the media can generate enough skeptical feedback over the future treatment and reaction to the artists’ productions.

Disadvantages

Totally censoring a song will often be covered in mass media, potentially drawing even more attention towards the song than it would have received if left untouched. This could increase the fame for an artist and generate a star image of the artist, potentially opening the door for artists to purposefully produce songs of an explicit nature.

Conclusion

In terms of content in lyrics and video, I will make sure they are moderately explicit in terms of what is said and what is shown to the audience. The target audience will be a factor in the use of censorship on my song, as it will be more for the young adults of society and not those who are sensitive over taboo words, and get overly touchy because of footage of cleavage or anything influenced by the notion of looking. I am planning to do Summer Friends by Chance the Rapper featuring Jeremiah and, Francis and The Lights. I will read over the lyrics and check out what is explicit and what may harm the audience, however, it may not need to be censored as it isn’t a cause for concern in its own right, there is only one version and it hasn’t been censored which is a clear indication that my take on it may not need to be censored.