Therefore, in order to allow for music to be played ans therefore consumed by audiences, it is common for the institution that is the platform between music and the audience to censor certain things, such as profanities (swear words). Also some artists may release two versions of the song, one usually being a clean version, which therefore allows it to be played on the radio, television stations and other music platforms. It is in the interest of the artist to be able to have there music played on every platform possible, as it means more people will in turn hear there music, so most artists will ensure if there song could be classed as offensive, a clean version is also released.
Other ways of ensuring music stations won't refuse to play artists music is by artists doing some of the following:
However, although most artists try and ensure there track can be played on every platform available, there have been many tracks that have been rejected and not aired by large music platforms, for example MTV. An example can be found below.
Sex Pistols- God Save The Queen. It was released by Virgin Records in 1977, this coincided with the Queens Silver Jubilee. Some stations considered the lyrics to be offensive and therefore did not play the track. The main station being BBC Radio 1 that banned it from airplay.
Other songs have to have some words changed or cut out in order to be played on some music stations, this is more popular than banning a song completely. Some examples of this are:
Kayne West- Gold Digger. It was released in 2005, the song lead to controversy regarding a certain line in the song. The lyrics were 'She ain't messing with no broke nigga'. Many stations, due to the racist term, would not play this, and therefore the lyric was changed to 'She ain't messing with no broke bloke'. This then made it acceptable to play.
James Blunt- You're Beautiful. This song had expletive lyrics in it, which were changed from 'She could tell from my face that I was f*****g high' to 'She could tell from my face that I was flying high'.
Lady Gaga- Finally, Lady Gaga's song 'Love Game' was one of the most controversial songs to recently be played on radio. Some of the lyrics can have potential sexual suggestions to them, for instance, 'I wanna take a ride on your disco stick'. This lead to certain radio stations having bad press, regarding the times they were airing this song (during peak listening times and times when younger audiences tend to listen) and whether it was acceptable or not to do so.
Other reasons for censorship are:
Religious Issues- Lady Gaga, Judas. It was banned from playing in Lebanon, a country in Western Asia as the lyrics were seen to be offensive to Christianity.
Political Issues- In D12's song Rap game, Eminem uses lyrics which can be interpreted as him threatening to destroy the White House and also to kill a member of the United State Congress. This is illegal and meant on both his explicit album version and radio version, this had to be censored.
Music Video Censorship
Not only the track itself have to be censored, sometimes the music videos for these songs have to be censored as well. The main reasons for this is if music videos contain anything related towards drugs, sex, nudity, violence, weapons, homophobia and racism. Some examples of this are:
Robbie Williams Music Video for the song 'Rock DJ' which was released in 2000. The ending to the music video was censored as it saw Robbie removing his prosthetic skin, however this was seen as being 'heavy gore' which could potentially harm viewers. Therefore, this was heavily censored.
Rihanna's music video for her 2011 hit 'We Found Love' was censored after viewers complained about distressing and potentially harmful and influential scenes to younger audiences that she attracts and is a role model too. The music video contained scenes of Rihanna getting undressed, throwing up on the streets, the use of pills and drugs and moving images of her and her boyfriend, at the time Chris Brown, fighting. This therefore lead to music video platforms censoring it, for instance MTV changing and censoring parts, while French authorities actually banned the music video from being played in France before 10 pm on television.
Some music videos have actually been banned from being played at all, MTV for example have banned certain music videos, examples include:
'S&M' by Rihanna was initially restricted from certain times of being aired, however was later banned due to 'suggestive sexual scenes'.
The song 'Justify My Love' by Madonna was banned from being played on MTV. This was due to sexual scenes and references as well, however, the music video later became a 'bestselling' video single when it was released as a VHS (Video Home System) which allowed audiences to buy and view it if they wished too.
Music Videos are nowadays similar to films. They get age ratings based on the music video, making it easier to stop younger people from accessing explicit images. Currently there is only 3 UK record labels who participate and are carrying this process out as part of a 3 month trial into the system. If this overall seems to have been successful, we could see it being bought in across the entire music video market. The main problem with this system is that it is hard to enforce such a rule, and to carry this out for every single music video.
Overall, this helps me when making my music video because it helps me understand how censorship is important, and the problems that can arise should your music video not meet expected standards and therefore not be aired on music video platforms such as MTV. It means when producing our music video, I must ensure nothing offensive or any of the other reasons music videos can be banned or have specific air time hours which leads to reduced airtime and therefore reduced total viewings. If this was to happen, it could affect the way the music video engages with audiences and instead of engaging audiences and make them want to see it, do the opposite and deter them as they may find it offensive.
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