This week in Music History we learned about censorship in music. I decided to do some research and learn more about it.
Music censorship dates back to the late 1800s, when Southerners were prohibited from singing Confederate songs after the Civil War ended. In 1940, NBC Radio released a list of 150 songs that radio stations were prohibited from playing because of obscene content. Many use the First Amendment (freedom of speech) to argue against censorship but obscene speech is not protected by it. Artist are allowed to use profanity in their music, radios/tv just cant play it because of the potential exposure to children. A song can be censored by the following: blanking, beeping, resampling, resinging, back masking, repeating, skipping, cutting, disc scratching, distorting, or by not being played at all.
Now, here are some examples of songs that got censored.
"Love Game" - Lady Gaga
This 2009 hit was not allowed to be played on the radio due to the line "I want to take a ride on your disco stick." Lady Gaga wouldn't censor it because the line was not intended to be subtle and felt that they were being too hard on her.
"My Generation" - The Who
In 1965 this song was banned from the radio not for it's lyrical content but because it has stuttering in the chorus. BBC prohibited the song from receiving any airplay because they didn't want to offend anyone with a speech impediment. However, once the song became a huge hit, they allowed in to be played.
"Rolling in the Deep" - Adele
This song was censored because they couldn't decided if she said the word "shit" or "ship" in the line "Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your ___ bare." Many online lyric sites have it as "ship" but Adele had it written down as "shit." Another line in the song that goes "reaching the fever pitch" has been replaced as well by some radios because it sounded like "bitch."
Sources: http://www.billingsschools.org/cms/lib3/MT01001765/Centricity/Domain/289/Grade%2010%20-%20Argumentative%20-%20Music%20Censorship%20articles.pdf
http://ncac.org/blog/turn-that-down-40-banned-and-censored-songs/
You rock, Kayla. Cool links, too. Great post. At the same time, I wanna know more about your own thoughts. What do YOU think and feel about censorship. Is it wrong, does it make you mad? If so, why? If you were in charge of the FCC and of censorship, what would you censor and why - if anything? See where I'm going with this? What does all this censorship mean to Kayla? That's what I want to know.
ReplyDeleteYou rock, Kayla. Cool links, too. Great post. At the same time, I wanna know more about your own thoughts. What do YOU think and feel about censorship. Is it wrong, does it make you mad? If so, why? If you were in charge of the FCC and of censorship, what would you censor and why - if anything? See where I'm going with this? What does all this censorship mean to Kayla? That's what I want to know.
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered about the Adel song…
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered about the Adele song as well but I'm also sure I've heard it on the radio before! Didn't know about the Lady Gaga song either.
ReplyDeleteI like this. I've never heard an problems about the Adele song, but I've heard Lady Gaga's song on the radio plenty of times.
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