Should music videos be censored - Miss Miller

Censorship is the suppression of speech, communication or other information within media which may be considered harmful, disrespectful or too explicit. It may be used on the radio, music channels and on the internet in order to protect the audience. Censorship will bleep out or remove either explicit of harmful words that could be taken to offense by the audience. 
Ofcom is the regulator and competition authority for UK communications industries. It regulates the radio, fixed line telecoms, mobiles and the airwaves that wireless devices use. Many artists within the music industry have had their videos censored for various reasons such as taboo language, nudity, violence, drug/alcohol use etc. Examples of music videos that have been censored from the music channel MTV include the following:

"S&M" by Rihanna. This is due to the sexually suggestive content in the video. Rihanna also portrayed women as being a sexual object which is degrading to women which then may cause offense to the audience. MTV first restricted the video's air time and later banned it altogether.

"Justify My Love" by Madonna. This is because the video featured sadomasochism, as well as voyeurism and bisexuality. It was pulled from the air by MTV completely.





Eminem on Censorship

Rap artist Eminem's opinion on censorship is against as he states within the interview above that "kids are way smarter than what we give them credit for" meaning that lyrics of songs aren't going to affect the actions of the youth negatively as they are smart enough to know right from wrong unless as he states "unless they're crazy already". Eminem believes that "Kids are gonna get it regardless of what happens, and they're going to make their own decisions" meaning that lyrics or explicit music won't influence their decisions in life as they have moral instincts. He uses personal evidence to support his opinion on censorship as he says that he grew up listening to all sorts of explicit artists such as 'Ice-T, N.W.A, Two Live Crew' and that hasn't effected the way he chose to be as a person as he quotes "I went out I never raped no girl, I never shot nobody". He then goes on to compare his personal issues to real life situations- the Marilyn Manson massacre "I got picked on as a kid and I didn't do nothing. As far as shooting anybody that was the parents, the parents should've been watching the kids, parents should've been blamed, not Marilyn Manson; Marilyn Manson was not their father". Eminem sums up his negative opinion on censorship by saying "It's only music. It's only entertainment" meaning that music is there to entertain the audience and not to threaten or harm them in any way.

1.) Artist - Eminem
Rapper Eminem is a controversial artist that is disputed by many due to the explicit content of his lyrics which is why many of his songs are censored by the media when being played to the public. Eminem's song 'Stan' was one of many censored, on the original explicit track there is a woman cursing loudly being played, but when broadcasted on the radio it was censored and removed off of the track completely due to the inappropriate use of language. During the song Eminem then quotes in his lyrics 'Shut up bitch i'm trying to talk'. This was of course bleeped out as it can be seen as offensive towards females as it portrays a sign of dominance that men have over women therefore making them seem weak, which is not a good message to send across to the public. The song 'Stan' contained other words which had to be cut out, such as 'slit' 'suffocate' and 'die' which are all words linked in with violence/crime and can have a bad influence on the younger generation. Overall Eminem is one of the most criticised artists in the industry due to his carelessness and boundry overstepping within his freedom of speech when rapping about his life experiences in which some people can relate to.

2.) Record Label
One of the biggest criticisms of Eminem's songs is that they include him rapping negatively on homsexuals, which is seen as homophobic. This includes him rapping about what happened to homosexuals in the past when being gay or lesbian were seen as non acceptable and wrong. One of the reasons why Eminem has such a big fan base is because his lyrics are relateable and about everyday life experiences, this is because Eminem raps about his personal reflections on events that have occurred in his life- generally about family or society. His lyrics provide escapism for the audience as he raps with passion and sincerity whilst expressing how he is feeling through his emotions which enables him to tell his story to his audience. Eminem may have sent a bad message across with homosexuals but within his lyrics he raps about racial discrimination to make people more aware of it and example of this is "When you're a little kid, you don't see colour, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap" Here Eminem is addressing a society based issue and relating it to himself which bring more realism to the song for the audience. Record labels can be against censorship as today, many artists deal with pressure from their record labels to censor their CD’s.

3.) Parents: FOR 
 Some parents argue that music videos should be censored as most music videos use explicit words or phrases within their in which they may see to be a threat to the younger generation and influence their own idiolect and use of language negatively. There are two songs in which have inappropriate/disturbing titles which lead to these negative outbursts brought upon by parents. The first name is called 'Rape Me' which is by Nirvana and there is also 'Turn Me On Mr Deadman' which is by Union Underground. The reasons as to why these two titles are so negatively looked upon and seen as wrong is because rape is a crime that some women have unfortunately suffered so therefore by bringing such phrases into a song the audience can be offended as they may believe rape is being glamorised and seen as 'casual'. There is an organisation named 'Parents Music Resource Centre' (PMRC) who look into the media, particularly music and how they have a major influence on children in society today. This organisation believes that the harmful messages and explicit words that some songs use may cause children to become violent, drug users, take part in premarital sex and become a rebellious teenager. Parents are permitted to comment to express and put out their opinions about how music videos should be censored to share with other parents with the same concerns. One parent commented on the influence and effect that artists have nowadays to express their feelings, they said, "Some people believe that various artists cannot handle freedom of speech. They abuse their power by putting lyrics that are not appropriate, into the song."  

4.) Parents - AGAINST
In contrast to the previous point, many parents say that the censoring of music videos containing strong language and adult themes is unnecessary due to the moral standards that they teach their children which includes their moral instinct and knowledge in the difference of what they consider to be right and wrong. Some children may have had a disciplined upbringing by strict parents and therefore have the knowledge of what is right or wrong which means that harmful lyrics and explicit videos will have no effect on any bad choices they may make. An example of parents finding it acceptable for an artist to express themselves freely without the criticisms of being a bad influence is a comment made by one parent which said, "Free speech. If someone grows up in a violent environment, that would be all they know. It would be the only way they knew how to express them selves. Taking that away from them would be like banning their language. Some people that listen to explicit music went through violent situation: so, this is reality for them. Violence in the lyrics is their way of honestly telling their stories to the world". There have been other parents who have also expressed their issues with censorship said, 'parents should control what their children listen to and if they do not like the words used then they shouldn't allow their children to listen to it'. 'I believe that children are independent, children are made to do everyday tasks by themselves, go to school, do homework and help around the house, so, choosing what music they listen to should be solely down to them and their choices.'

5.) Fans
The music industry today has introduced artists that have built up the amount of fans from the younger generation both children and teenagers. The music genre most associated with the younger children is Pop and for older children and teenagers Rap or Rock has been introduced to them which tends to be more explicit and threatening than that brought upon by Pop artists. The youth in whom listen to Rap may be influenced to speak in a bad manner or inappropriately due to their music taste and wanting to be like the artists they listen to. This is why censorship was introduced, in order to stop this and to protect explicit words being exposed to the ears of the young generation. However, fans of particular artists argue that this is wrong as the artists emotions and anger are portrayed through the harsh lyrics and words which makes it more relatable to them and by taking this away from them means they are not able to connect as much or have the full sense of realism from the music. The Pop genre can also have a bad influence on the younger fans through artists music videos as Pop artists who dress provocatively such as Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry can effect the way in which young boys view girls or how girls may choose to display themselves in what is seen to be an inappropriate manner for their age.


6.) Music TV- MTV
The music channel MTV has a wide range of audience as it is a very popular well-known music channel which plays a consistent stream of different artists from primarily the genres Rnb, Rap, Dance and Pop. MTV is one of many music channels to use censorship in order to protect their audiences from unacceptable viewing and language. MTV censored "This Love" by Maroon 5. The band's video wasn't altered much, but MTV had the words "coming" and "sinking" edited out to ensure the material was appropriate. Another music video which was censored/adjusted by MTV was "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. This is because there were sounds of guns shooting in the chorus which were then replaced by MTV to cash register noises in order to remove any references to murder.

7.) BBC Radio 1
The target audience for this radio station is teenagers ages 14/19. A Christmas song named 'Fairytale of New York' by the Pogues ft. Kirsty Macoll was only allowed to play on the radio station after 7pm as it played the word 'faggot' which the radio station and producers deemed as a homophobic word and so are not allowed to expose the younger listeners to this language. 

Conclusion
Overall the main overview of censorship on artists is positive. This is due to the strong argument that it protects the naive youth from threatening images or lyrics that may influence them in a bad way. In my opinion, I believe that censorship has a positive impact on society today by ensuring that the younger generation aren't hearing any harsh exposure. I think that music videos that are explicit or inappropriate in any way should be shown after a specific time when children tend to be asleep therefore allowing adults to listen and watch the full extent and explicity of music videos at a time it is protected from children. I will not follow censorship rules within my music video as our targeted audience is that of teenagers or adults in their youth and by censoring out the use of drugs, alcohol and violence I would be restricting the target audience to the realism of the narrative being told meaning the audience would not be able to connect nor relate to the music video in a more realistic sense.