Music censorship
Songs are often edited for broadcast on radio and television to remove content that may be considered objectionable to an outlet's target audience—such as profanity, or references to subjects such as sex and drug usage.
[4][2] By contrast, some radio stations may relegate unedited versions of tracks containing objectionable content to airplay during time periods deemed appropriate, such as late-night hours.
Insane Clown Posse faced similar issues after they signed to Disney-owned Hollywood Records; despite compliance with the label's demands to censor specific songs and lyrics, The Great Milenko was recalled almost immediately after its release (but not before selling 18,000 copies out of 100,000 shipped).
[22][21] Meghan Trainor recorded an alternate version of her debut single "All About That Bass" for Radio Disney and conservative adult contemporary music stations, which removed the song's suggestive metaphors.
He had personally condemned the attacks, and announced that he would donate a portion of the royalties from his compilations to a fund benefitting the families of victims[27]), and John Lennon's "explicitly pacifist anthem 'Imagine'".
[30] Also that month, Madonna's then-upcoming music video for "American Life" generated controversy due to its politicized and "unpatriotic" imagery in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, such as a fashion show featuring women dressed in military gear, and a scene where the singer throws a grenade-shaped lighter to a George W. Bush lookalike to light his cigar.
[50][51] In late 2019, a number of New Zealand and Canadian radio stations reversed pulling Jackson's music from their playlists, stating "positive listener survey results"[52] Songs and albums may, in some cases, be censored due to copyright problems (particularly related to sampling) or other legal issues.
"[64][65] Australian consumer law also bans the import of any product that "describe[s], depict[s], express[es] or otherwise deal[s] with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults".
[67][68] In May 1990, Nick Franklin, acting news director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio station Triple J, was suspended by the ABC's management after having played a portion of N.W.A's song "Fuck tha Police".
[81] In 2011, the Atlantic panel of the CBSC, in response to a complaint against CHOZ-FM, ruled that a version of Dire Straits' 1985 single "Money for Nothing" containing the homophobic slur "faggot" violated the ethics code.
The CRTC called upon the CBSC to review the decision with a national panel, as it "elicited a strong public reaction and created uncertainty for private radio stations across the country."
National Post columnist Chris Selley described the CBSC's new ruling as a "comedy classic" and "colossal waste of time", explaining that "it's one thing for a censor to decide whether something is legitimately artistic; it's another for it to declare whether or not it enjoys the art, as if it somehow mattered.
This resulted in many artists associated with shidaiqu, including Li Jinhui (who had been credited as a leading figure in the genre) and Chen Gexin, being branded as "rightists" and persecuted.
Many Shanghai artists fled to Hong Kong, where the genre reached its height in the 1950s until the late 1960s, when it was superseded by Taiwanese pop (Mandarin adaptations of Japanese enka songs), and later by Cantopop.
In 1966, Tian Han—writer of the Chinese national anthem "March of the Volunteers"—was imprisoned over his allegorical play Xie Yaohuan (which was critical of Mao's regime) in one of the opening salvos of the Cultural Revolution.
His works were banned, leading to "The East Is Red"—a song which glorified Mao's cult of personality, being used as the de facto national anthem at this time.
[96] In 2013, German electronic music band Kraftwerk were denied entry visas over their intent to perform at a 1999 Free Tibet concert in Washington, D.C., which was cancelled due to inclement weather.
[117][118][119][120] In Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, local law prohibits radio stations from playing songs that are "offensive to public feeling" or "violate good taste and decency".
[132][133] In July 2015, it was reported that Kim Jong-un had issued a directive calling for inspectors to destroy music CDs and cassettes containing prohibited content, as well as adding additional songs to the blacklist (such as the entire soundtrack of the historical drama Im Kkeok Jeong).
The SABC also banned "Cry Freedom" written by George Fenton and Jonas Gwanwa due to its association with Nelson Mandela, and Roger Lucey's "Lungile Tabalaza" and "You Only Need Say Nothing.
[155] The telecommunications regulator Ofcom has the power to reprimand broadcasters for playing songs and music videos that breach its guidelines on harmful or offensive content pre-watershed.
[165] "God Save the Queen" was banned by the BBC and all Independent Local Radio stations, but still peaked at #2 on the UK singles chart during the week of the official Jubilee celebration.
[167][4][166] In December 2007, BBC Radio 1 began to play a version of The Pogues' popular Christmas song "Fairytale of New York" that censored the words "faggot" and "slut" from one of its verses.
The action led to complaints that the BBC were deliberately censoring the song due to its negativity in this context, noting that Notsensibles' "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher" (which also charted, as part of an effort to counter the "Witch" campaign)[173] was played in full earlier in the show.
[185][186] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) opposed these proposals; during a Senate hearing on the matter in September, musicians such as John Denver and Frank Zappa argued that such guidelines would inhibit free expression.
Zappa, in particular, argued that the PMRC's proposal for a method to "assist baffled parents in the determination of the 'suitability' of records listened to by 'very young children'" would reduce American music to "the intellectual level of a Saturday-morning cartoon".
[189][190][6][191] In 1990, Floridan political activist Jack Thompson targeted the Miami-based 2 Live Crew and their album As Nasty as They Wanna Be—which featured songs such as "Me So Horny"—claiming that it was obscene.
Due to its violent content, MTV and sister channel VH1 only played "What It Feels Like for a Girl" once in late-night hours for its world premiere, and refused to add it to their regular rotation.
Madonna's label subsequently sought other outlets for the video: the women's cable network Oxygen aired it during its music program Daily Remix, AOL streamed it online, and it was released on DVD.
Some rock radio stations removed or censored certain songs so they would not run afoul of the stricter enforcement,[206] while MTV moved several videos with sexually suggestive imagery to late-night hours.
