Censorship has been around for years. Back To The late fifties and Sixties when I was a kid, Music, TV, Radio and some Books were censored.Yes kids, here in North America. Try to remember!
Don't you young adults remember when the US Government put warning labels on Rap CD's and all of a sudden all CD's came out with WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS plastered on the covers.
One of my musical heros, Frank Zappa went to the meetings and fought hard to stop this kind of censorship. Frank really didn't have anything to loose because a lot of what wrote and played never made it to radio and he still sold records and CD's. It's probably not true but I'm sure he was on the NO PLAY LIST somewhere in Washington DC.
Here's the thing, if Rock/Rap/Blues or Pop music wasn't a little edgey or open to interpretation we would all be listening to elevator music. Wouldn't that be fun. This reminds me of George Carlin's Seven Words you can't say routine. It also reminds me of Lenny Bruce, even though I didn't find him that funny but he did push the boundaries of censorship.
Now here we are in week two of 2011, 57 years after I was born and what are they doing? The CBSC is censoring Dire Straits song 'Money for Nothing', a song released 20 Years Ago. Have these morons been busy for the last twenty years? What's wrong with them? Yes the word "Faggot" is not socially acceptable but either is the "C" word and less than 4 days ago I watched the movie Kick Ass where an eleven year old girl says something like, "Okay you 'C's" whose next?" Why is this okay and the lyric is not?
Everynight on TV, we can see and hear most of George Carlin's Seven Words used. In 20 years are 'THEY' going to censor all the reruns? Boy that's going to keep them busy and cost us a bunch of money because in the end we are the ones paying their salaries. Why don't we save the money or use it for something that really matters instead of paying for some "Socially, Politically, Overly Sensitive BullShit!"
Zappa and the other boundary pushes are probably shaking their heads and wondering what's really going on. I want to know if this censorship is going stick.
If they substitute another word, what are we all going think? It's like saying, 'Whatever you do don't think about elephants!'
1 comment:
Hot Rats was one of the first lp's I bought. Apostrophe is a classic and a must listen for anyone who loves great music and an amazing story.
I agree wholeheartedly with you JG. What on earth is going on and how does it make sense to anyone? You can turn on Bell tv and at 9:00 in the evening there is full boar hard core porn going on. It seems to be the norm these days and quite acceptable, and yet we must blank out s**t in a song because someone may be offended? Utter insanity, and as you say, the worst of it is, it is paid for by our very hard earned dollars.
Post a Comment