Research: Censorship

Censorship and music videos

Introduction 

Censorship is when music videos are having restricted access to certain age groups or blocked because they may be deemed inappropriate for some audience and the case for all audience. This can be done for a variety of reasons such as the music video maybe the music video was to controversial, received negative reviews, and the frequent use of bad language. And music videos maybe blocked in some countries because of political, religious, military and moral reasons which may be given a negative impact. Censorship can happen to any genre however its mostly likely to occur to certain genres such as Rap and Hip Hop.

The difference between explicit content and explicit lyrics.

The difference between explicit content and explicit lyrics is that content is what is shown to the viewers and lyrics is what the artist is singing. Explicit lyrics are when the use of profanity used in the music video/song or that they contain sexual content which is unsuitable for ages below 18. However, this would be depending on the context of the song and who’s the song aimed at, usually when this happens the music would be cut or “beeped” if it was aimed at audience that was less than 18. If the song was consistently having explicit lyrics this would lead the song to being banned because of non-justification of profanity for a music video. 

Explicit content is when the music video is showing the audience that may be deemed something that would be unsuitable to show the audience. This could include nudity, sexual content, graphic content and shock. This would depend on the context again however its more likely to be banned or cut. Even then these music videos would have to be 18+ because due to the nature of the content. There have been various music videos have been cut because of these reasons. Such as Robbie Williams “Rock DJ” - If the content gets censored on the CD or on the music video it would now get a parental advisory logo to warn parents that this music video/song may be unsuitable for younger audiences. This would also mean that it would be up to the parents or the child guardian if its suitable for that child to listen to.

What things get censored

Below is a list of that is was likely or is grounds for a song being censored or banned. 

• Excessive use of profanity 
• Explicit content
• Violence
• Religion
• Culture
• Race
• Sexual violence
• Incest
• Politics
• Shock
• Based on true events
• “Corrupting the young”
• Controversy

Songs that have got censored because of the content includes

• Like a prayer – Madonna - Banned in Italy for several years because of the religious mocking and included blasphemous imagery.
• Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke – Censored because of the nudity and sexual content.
• Rock DJ – Robbie Williams censored because of the gore shown in the music video. 

Lyrics and radio censorship.

Songs that are played on the radio need to adhere to Ofcom rules. One of them is to ensure that all music is suitable for all ages until the watershed which is at 9pm. To ensure that radio stations can adhere to the rules and that the song is suitable for all ages they are various in which the radio station can censor the song. The radio station can play a beep over the offending word another option is also put a scratching of a disk sound to cover the offending word. Which is seen in Chris Brown’s music video “loyal” to censor profanity to ensure that its suitable for all ages. Another option would be that the bad language would be cut from the audio this would mean there was no audio for a brief second 

Difference between cut and banned. 

The difference between a music video getting cut or getting banned depends on the context of that music video. If it gets cut it means that certain scenes in the music videos weren’t appropriate and that they should be cut to avoid offending people or for being too gory, sexual or because of the content however it would also have meant that its only certain parts of the music video weren’t appropriate. However, if the music video got banned it would have meant that the music video throughout was inappropriate and therefore cannot be released.

Advantages and disadvantages to censorship

They are various advantages and disadvantages for censoring music videos. The main reasons they should be censorship it because it protects children from watching music videos that may not be suitable for them to watch another reason it. The problem with any form of censorship it means that people have a right to listen to it even if it may unacceptable to some people. Another issue is that the government shouldn’t step in to regulate music and music video unless it’s necessary it should be up to the record labels, artist and the production company to self-censor the music video without action from the government. Another problem with censorship from the artist point of view is that restricts creativity for the artist if they have adhered to rules.

My opinion on censorship in the music industry is that they should be censorship up until a certain point. It should be to individuals about what is suitable for their children rather than the government censoring it for them. However, it should be up to the artist, record label and production company to ensure that music videos have appropriate warnings to warn the audience about any content that maybe seen as vulgar, sexual etc.

Conclusion

In the final music video I need to ensure that the song I chose and the context of the music video is suitable for all ages without having to resort to censoring the music video itself.  The genre I am aiming to use for my music video is pop which is known for the use of profanity however this would depend on the context of the music video as well the content within the music video. I would need to think about will the music video is likely to offend anyone and would also need to ensure that music I pick doesn’t contain any sexual content, nudity and/or violence.