Editing And Cencorship Of Music: What's The Point?

Editing and Censorship of Music: What’s the Point?

Wayne Wood

Axia College of University of Phoenix (2008)

Utilizing Information in College Writing

Instructor: Necole Floyd-Turner

Editing and Censorship in Music: What’s the Point?

In a valiant attempt to safeguard impressionable youth and society in general from music content deemed offensive by some, “Parental Advisory” labels and content editing were created; to counter-act this, artists have found and/or created ways to say the same thing without saying the same thing, leaving listeners to decide for themselves (and in some cases, everyone else) if they are offended.

Censorship’s History

For as long as man has been able to think for himself and create his/her own opinions, censorship has existed in one form or another. Certain forms of music, poetry, and dance were banned by Spartan rulers during ancient Greek times (Newman, Roger K. “Censorship” Civil Rights in the United States. Ed. Martin Jr., Waldo E & Sullivan, Patricia. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000). These sorts of actions towards material seen as objectionable have repeated themselves throughout history. Many people thought (and many people still do think) that the emergence of the Constitution and, more specifically, the First Amendment, would bring a halt to the obstruction of free speech and expression; these people would be wrong. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law representing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and petition the government for a redress of grievances”. If paying attention to the wording of the Amendment, one would notice that this only addresses government; leaving the door open for private companies, personal interest groups, and individuals to keep censorship alive and a concern for artists. Since the 1950’s, and continuing today, music listeners across the country have protested some of music’s content and/or lyrics. The following are just a few publicized incidents during that time frame:

1954- Webb Pierce’s, “There Stands the Glass”, is banned the radio as the lyrics are believed to condone heavy drinking./ ABC network bans the hit song, “Mambo Italiano” (Rosemary Clooney), saying the song didn’t meet their good taste standards.

1956- ABC bans Billie Holiday’s rendition of “Love for Sale” because of its prostitution theme.

1990- 2 Live Crew’s album, “Nasty as They Wanna Be” is pulled from shelves across the nation after several complaints about the album and the group.

1992- Rapper, Ice-T, drops the song “Cop Killer” from his Body Count album after continued intense public pressure regarding the song.

1993- Superstores Wal-Mart and K-Mart refuse to carry Nirvana’s album, “In Utero”, because they object to the cover art and one of the song title’s Shortly after becoming the number one selling album in America, Wal-Mart and K-mart agree to carry “In Utero”; unveiling the album’s back cover art, and changing the name of the objectionable song from “Rape Me” to “Waif Me”.

1999- The National Football League (NFL) drops a series of commercials based on the (then) hit song “My Name Is” by Eminem, saying the song was too controversial (even though the commercials contained none of the song’s original lyrics).

2000- A radio station in Colorado is taken to court and fined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) when a listener called in and complained after hearing a radio edit version of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady”./ The FCC fines a community radio station in Portland (OR) for playing a song by poet Sarah Jones and DJ Vadim entitled, “Your Revolution”. The song condemns rappers for demanding an equal society while, the whole time, fill their songs with misogynistic lyrics.

(Nuzum, Eric.”A Brief History of Banned Music in the United States”. http://www.ericnuzum.com/banned/index.html )

All of these incidents were brought on by individuals, or small groups of people, who believed that the content in the aforementioned songs might influence or offend society as a whole; this is what censorship in general is.

The Birth of Parental Warning Labels and Editing Creativity

In 1990, the censorship group Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC) pressured the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) into a universal system to label “offensive” music (“Parental Advisory” labels). To the dissatisfaction of the PMRC and several other organizations, the RIAA gave no specific criteria for the labeling of records. This eventually led to bills being passed in 20 states requiring more detailed labeling of records and the content contained therein. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 required that the FCC issue stricter guidelines for the labeling of material with sexual, violent, or mature content unless the entertainment industry agreed to self-imposed labeling; resulting in our current labeling laws (“Music Censorship”. http://www.nku.edu/~issues/music_censorship/laws.html. ).

The emergence of these labeling laws forced record companies to take second looks at the lyrics and content contained in upcoming releases, and ultimately has influenced artists into finding creative ways to say the same exact thing they want to in songs; using made-up words, or substituting words with different dictionary definitions (i.e. “skeet” and “brain”) for one’s that some look upon as unfavorable. Other than the lack of profanity (fuck, shit, bitch, ho) or the direct reference to drugs (words like “blow”, “blueberry”, and “smoke” are acceptable phrases or terms to use on the radio), it is hard for a listener to tell the difference