Censorship

Censorship

Censorship is monotoring the content in books, magazines, on the internet and in things produced by the entertainment industry such as music videos and films. For instance a lot of films have certificates of 18 along with video games like Vice City and Resident Evil. The same sort of thing also applies to the music industry and the videos and lyrics of artists. Censorship can affect almost every artist in most genres - for example the music videos of Rock artists are sometimes too violent to be shown on a television network such as Scuzz before the watershed because it could run this risk of younger children seeing it and getting frightened. Another example of the music industry being censored is on radio and its lyrics, if a song has lyrics considered to explicit for radio listeners at a certain type of day lyrics will either be blanked or won't be played. Examples of songs that have had this procedure are:

- Clique by Jay-Z, Big Sean and Kanye West For excplicit language
- S&M by Rihanna For sexual references and suggestive visuals in her music video
- Run the World (Girls) by Beyonce For insinuating the beginning of a swear word, "who run this mother-"
- Niggas in Paris by Jay-Z and Kanye West For excplicit and innappropriate language
- R.I.P by Rita Ora and Tinie Tempah For explicit language and innappropriate language
- Peacock by Katy Perry For sexual metaphors throughout

The reason that songs are censored is to protect any younger or inappropriate audiences that it may not be socially acceptable for them to hear lyrics such as swearing and younger people or racist words that others may find offensive like "Nigga" which is featured in a lot of R&B/Rap songs.

During a lesson we looked closely at Eminem and his music, debating on whether he should be censored or not. We had students stand in as Eminem himself (the artist), his record label, his super-fans and a dedicated fan that'd grown up listening to his music for a lifetime who were all against him being censored. On the other side we had students standing in as parents, fans who didn't agree with the swearing and radio companies who were for him being censored. Some of the arguments we heard for Eminem not being censored were the following:

- He raps about things that are real to him: If artists are rapping about things that are 'real' to them and teaching their fans and listeners to stay true to themselves then surely that's a good thing as oppose to rapping about superficial things like fame, money and sex. It also helps fans and young people understand that it's okay to go through struggles.

- Young children shouldn't be listening to Eminem anyway: There are a variety of radio stations avaliable and if people are listening while around little children they have the option of turning over. There's no need to censor Eminem because he's clear that he isn't around to parent and has a very specific audience therefore there isn't any excuse to be listening to him.

- If you censor Rap and Eminem then people will digest explicit natures from other genres of music: Artists such as Katy Perry and Britney Spears who are a completely different genre from Eminem still have been censored which means that there's explicit content in other genres which could also have a negative influence on their audience such as revealing costumes, sexual references and contriversial concepts and narratives in videos. 

In contrast, we also had arguements against Eminem which were:

- Violence isn't acceptable from any artist, ever - One of the big arguments was that violence isn't accepted in society so why should we accept it from one of the most influential people in Rap who a lot of young adults and teenagers look up to? A song that definitely sparked up a lot of controversy was "Kim" by Eminem since he rapped about actually hurting and murdering his ex-wife. People try to teach the younger generation that this behaviour isn't acceptable and Eminems violent lyrics aren't making it any easier.

- Not only does Eminem swear but he insults other artists - In Eminems lyrics he insults many other artists such as Michael Jackson, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Hillary Duff and Sarah Palin. A lot of people said that they had a problem with him being so rude and insulting towards other artists and public figures because they're also fans of them and it was uncalled for. It also contributesd to Eminem's negative image that he is associated with a lot until this day.

In my opinion I think that Eminem and other artists should be centered to a degree because there are certain things that could be seen as offensive or inappropriate the music industry does often go viral and it's very hard to stay away from certain things. Also, I agree that music videos with explicit content should be banned but not so they're removed from television completely. It'd work better if there was some sort of watershed in place to filter these videos until a later period where young children and pre-teens might not be watching TV or able to see them, like a lot of television shows such as Big Brother, Skins and Geordie Shore. As for the internet, that shouldn't censor music or music videos as there are filters users can set so that content considered for over 18's is removed.

Looking at censorship has made me consider the content we put in our music video because we want to appeal to our young adult audience but don't want to have too many offensive features that may turn viewers away from watching or be unattractive.