Intro:
Censorship is where certain elements of for example, a music video has been cut out or lyrics have been bleeped due to inappropriate behaviour from the artists that shouldn't be seen by young children, this is too protect them from viewing things such as drugs, sex and violence as we don't want to give them the wrong impression that it's ok to do when it's not.
Offcom is the regulator and competition authority for UK communication industries. It regulates TV and radio, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services and the airwaves which wireless devices use. People who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or defensive material. Ofcom has legal powers to enforce the law and penalties imposed by the courts can be severe. Offences tried in a magistrate's court attract a maximum penalty of (GBP) 5,000 and/or imprisonment for a maximum term of 51 weeks.
An example where censorship is used in an artists video is 'Eminem - The Monster', this video has explicit visuals as well as lyrics. Within the first 30 seconds of the explicit version it shows Eminem taking cocaine and pills, I then watched the clean version and i and noticed that the short 5 seconds of him taking drugs had been cut out. This is an example where censorship has taken place.
Main:
1) Eminem- I am against Censorship in every way, I will say what I want to say when I want, none can stop me. When i make my music, i sit and listen to the beat and see how it feels, I don't intentionally write aggressive music on purpose because thats not being true to who you are, artists that do purposely write aggressive lyrics shouldn't have the privilege to make music and attract a fan base. The music i have produced and brought out to my fans is the reason I am where I am today, and i thank them for that because I'm more successful than ever and I feel I have achieved all my inspirations, I want to get across to my fans that being motivated and self driven can be possible if you work hard. In the past I have had a hard up-bringing, which has brought me a lot of negativity, this is why sometimes the lyrics to my songs are depressing as I want my fans to know my story so they can relate to how I'm feeling, with censorship taking place on my music is defeating the whole point of why I write music, the song becomes off beat and then dosen't make sense, it is very frustrating. I don't say or do things to shock people, so i may talk about killing people and taking drugs but that's not to take literally, people should know that I am joking it's not my problem if they don't. This is why I am against censorship, as any negativity, I release through my lyrics as an artist you should be able to express what you want, it is the parents job to protect them.
2) Record label- The record label is named 'Shady Records' Eminem decided to make his own label as he felt under pressure about censorship, other record labels in the past wanted to change Eminems' music to another degree which is was really not happy about. The main reason we feel that music censorship is a complete waste of time is due to how successful Eminem has become due to his explicit lyrics and visuals, it is clear that the audience likes contraversy otherwise his music wouldn't be so popular. Books aren't censored so why should music be, a book is deeper so surely that would do more damage? Eminem had signed many popular artists to Shady Records such as 50 Cent, which is best known for his song 'Candy Shop' which is highly explicit and a clean version was never made, this should tell you by how popular and successful the song was that actually the public do not feel that censorship is relevant. Many acts from Shady Records have received lots of rewards.
3) Parent FOR- First of all, I don't want my child to be exposed to foul language and racist remarks, by protecting it, we are protecting the innocence of a child. I want my child to be able to view whatever music they wish to on sites such as YouTube without me having too worry about them viewing any inappropriate content. In this generation, children as young as 7 are listening to and talking about inappropriate music. If you raise your child to be brought up with rude music, then this could attract them to start swearing and getting involved in things such as drugs and sexual activity far too early. If you want to listen to it, then you can buy the CD or download it on iTunes instead of exposing it to young audiences. I personally feel that if it had to come down to it, 2 different albums should be made, 1 that is censored for the youth still developing, and one uncensored for the mature listeners. This only really applies to certain artists such as Eminem and Rihanna that I personally feel, take their music a step to far.
4) Parents AGAINST- The main point that I want to get across, is that children pick up on everything do easily, I feel that having artists feature things such as drugs and violence will help educate kids to understand that it is bad, after all we don't want nieve children. One thing that I would suggest to worried parents is to add pass-codes to websites and your TV so you can control what you children are viewing, you could also have the computer based somewhere like your living room, so you can constantly see what they are viewing online. However, to me I feel that this is a complete waste of time as your kids will eventually pick up on everything that could be shown in music videos so surely it's better now than later, this could turn into a positive thing as it teaches children what is right and wrong. Simply do not listen to it or keep it in your house -or just keep it away from your children. If u shelter a teenager that bad then you might as well take them out of school, as a teen, nowhere is safe for teenagers, so might as well let them like what they like!
5) Fans- Music is a way to express Eminems' opinion, censorship is stopping him putting out what he wants and feels. Eminem had some bad press about a song that he wrote called 'Kim' where he talks about killing his wife, but I dont understand why people are being so negative about him as he doesn't actually do the things he says in his lyrics, the public should be clever enough to work that out. His raps talks about his personal life like an open letter, this is a bonus as fans are able to keep taps on him and constantly be in the loop with Eminem and his music. By censoring his songs leads to massive negatives, suggested meanings that aren't obvious to fans could cause people struggling to understand Eminems' lyrics, it can also make the song loose rhythum and takes the effect away. Eminem is clearly very passionate about his music, he enjoys to push the boundaries of his creative freedom which i think is a good thing as I feel many artists are too afraid to come out of their shell because their scared of what could happen to their reputation, this is what makes Eminem different he is real and truly stands for what he believes in. This should inspire people to be creative and to not hold back in life.
6) MTV FOR- We agrees strongly about censorship, they have to take into account that young kids are watching the music channel, because of this they censor the music videos, visual and lyrics all day until 9pm. Eminem's songs are controversial, because of this MTV doesn't play his songs often, in one of Eminem's songs 'Rap Game', it talks about him threatening to destroy the white house, due to how illegal it is what he's rapping about, the song had to completely be censored otherwise no music channel would play it, especially MTV. In another one of his songs, he talks about the shooting of the children at school in 1999, his lyrics couldn't be played at all due to how inappropriate it is. He is also very homophobic which is a lot more understanding nowadays, this can create a lot of haters which are Gay themselves. Also Eminem was seen in an interview saying that he should be able to 'illuminate women' which is highly offensive to women as we are all equals, and should be treated the same. Due to this we don't want to air this sort of person as it is not taken as a joke, and is very serious, Eminem needs to be careful what he says as one day it can get him into a lot of trouble.
AKA- We disagree that censorship should be used upon music videos. Our main aim as a music channel is we want to allow our artists to express whatever they feel, whether it is happiness or pain, if inappropriate language needs to be used then so be it we are completely supportive of the artists we air. Many of the artists we show are fresh and new so if we don't allow them to express themselves then they can't be shown fully who they are. We've learnt things from the past, that aren't acceptable to showing as we received an £18,000 fine due to airing something that was apparently 'too explicit' however this hasn't changed our mind about censorship if anything it has made us stand up for what we believe in and be proud. The music which we air is mainly urban and grime, from artists such as Skepta and JME. If their lyrics are censored, then ideas behind the dogs can't be shown to its full extent, a lot of the artists rap about past experiences and their life stories. The music is contriversial, if we don't allow this the artists struggle to get bigger as they are intact starting from the very bottom, with no stable platform to help them get their music out.
7) BBC Radio 1- Censorship is a very important aspect that we as BBC take very seriously, artists such as Eminem rap about things that we shouldn't glorify to the public, things such as rape and flattening women have been said in his songs which we feel is truly disgusting, why would we want to play this to the public, its an insult to think that anyone would question it. I'd rather the radio channel shut down then play music like that, it also reflects very badly on us. Children shouldn't be exposed to drugs as they don't know how serious it actually is, we also feel that some artists are just wanting promotion and a pay cheque and couldn't care less about their lyrics, so does not matter to them what gets said and if it is suitable or not.
Capital Xtra- Generally we don't take censorship that seriously, we tend to allow minor bad language to be aired. This station focuses on the chart music, but more specifically the rap genre such as urban and R'n'B, airing artists such as Drake, Notorious B.I.G and Nicki Minaj. We allow some sexual references but to a degree, so don't use strict radio versions. For example, Ushers song 'OMG' uses the words 'oh my god', but in some versions, 'gosh' is used instead so it doesn't offend people.
Conclusion:
From the 7 points listed above, the general view that I'm getting is more think that censorship is a bad idea then a good, which is something that I completely agree on, I think that censoring music defeats what artists are trying to get out to the fans, with many of them being able to relate what they are saying through their music, I think censoring all music would leave people angry and frustrated as they struggle to understand what the artist is trying to get across and therefore cannot build a relationship with the artist. If parents are worried about their child viewing it then they should block certain websites on the computer and also the TV, it is not fair on the other people that don't want to listen to censored music. I think that to a certain degree, I will censor my own music video for the fact that the genre is house so nothing inappropriate needs to be shown visually and through lyrics, however I won't know for sure until it comes to the production.
