Research into censorship - Miss Miller

Censorship in the music industry

Censorship refers to the ways in which an audience is protected from learning about harmful information. For example, on television or in the music industry, swear words or harmful references are often bleeped out. Censorship is used in all aspects of the media, but the music industry has experienced a rise, especially since the growth of new technologies and artists that are willing to push their creative boundaries in order to express themselves has led to the creation of more music videos that are considered to be explicit. Ofcom has the purpose of regulating communications throughout the UK, this refers to televisions, radio and mobile networks. They aim to provide their customers with the best possible service by protect their communication networks from scams that have the potential to be dangerous.

Eminem (against)
As an artist, Eminem wants to be able to do and say what he likes without having to worry about whether it will require censorship. He wants to use his songs to motivate his fans to know that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything, like he feels he has done with his music. Eminem does not purposely go out of his way to offend anyone, he just uses his music as a way of releasing any negativity that he has inside of him. He listens and feels the beat of the music, and then writes down how the music makes him feel. Most of his songs are based on negative experiences that he has had in his life, as he wants his audience to be able to relate to his songs and make an emotional connection with them. He argues that even though the lyrics of some of his songs may shock people, for example, the refers to drugs and excessive drinking, but that he himself has never, nor would he ever partake in those kind of activities, therefore his audience should know not to take his lyrics literally. It is not the role of an artist to censor their music, parents are ultimately in charge of deciding what their kids can and cannot listen to. And at the end of the day, censorship is not a permanent tool for protecting kids from harmful materials. If kids want to listen to the explicit version of a song, they will find a way.

Record label (against)
Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg founded Shady Records following the extreme pressure he felt under to use censorship on his music. They believed that it was down to the parents to decide and 'censor' what their kids should listen to, not his as the artist. Shady records understands that audience's like controversy in music, otherwise artists like Eminem would not be as popular as they are. If the songs that these artists produce are really as bad as people make them out to be, and require censorship, then why do so many people buy into it? Also, music is just another example of an art form that is used to express how an artist is feeling, similar to art and books. However, artwork and books are not censored, so why should music? Shady records produces music that audience's wants to hear, which is made evident by the fact that over the years they have won several awards. Songs are just there for entertainment purposes, and audiences should know better than to take them literally.


Parents (for)
As a parent, they want to be able to let their children watch whatever they want to without having to worry about whether they are being exposed to harmful materials, such as drugs and alcohol that are often referred to in rap music. They want to be able to protect and trust their innocent children without feeling like they are being to restrictive and controlling concerning what their kids can and cannot watch. Censorship provides parents with the peace of mind that young children are being prevented from listening to inappropriate materials that should only be available to the more mature listeners.
Would an artist want their own children to be exposed to material similar to the material that they could potentially be exposing other children to? Another possible reason why a parent might want certain genres of music to be censored, in this case the rap genre, is because they understand that their children will look up to and be influenced by the artists that they listen to, therefore they do not want these influential artists to expose their children to, or put a positive light on potentially harmful situations. For example, the lyrics "But i may fight for gay rights, especially if that dyke is more of a knockout than Janay Rice/Play nice? Bitch I'll punch Lana Del Rey right in the face twice, like Ray Rice in broad daylight in the plain sight of the elevator surveillance/ 'Til her head is banging on the railing, then celebrate with the Ravens." from his song 'Shady CXVPHER' that caused a lot of controversy given the sensitivity of the Ray Rice altercation that happened not long before the release of his song. The lyrics clearly make references to abuse, and the term "dyke" is one that many people consider offensive. Children, especially young children are very impressionable and pick up on works and terms very easily, which is why parents often seek to protect their children from these types of materials. However, they also understand that they cannot protect their children from everything, therefore the knowledge that censorship exists gives them some peace of mind.

(Against)

Ultimately, parents are responsible for what their children can and cannot listen to. However, they need to understand that children pick things up easily, and not just from the music industry, but also through watching the television, by reading the newspaper, and just through events that take place in their everyday life. The fact needs to be accepted that there are some things that cannot be censored. Therefore, children should be educated to know what is bad, otherwise parents will end up with naïve children.
There is no evidence to support the statement that music creates negative children. If a child has a mental illness, this can not be made worse or influence by explicit music videos. Furthermore, a child cannot be forever protected by their parents, as they get older and become more independent they will eventually learn about these things. It could be argued that it would be better for a parent to warn their children about the dangers mentioned in rap music, and teach them wrong from right rather than hide them away. There will be some parents who understand that with their knowledge or permission or without, it is likely that their child is going to listen to the type of music that artists like Eminem produces, whether it be through the media of through their friends at school who's parents allow them to listen to it. A child will be more rebellious in terms of wanting to listen to this style of music if their parents go to extreme lengths in order to keep it hidden from them, therefore, it could be argued that it is safer for a parent to expose their children to the likes of Eminem themselves because this allows them to protect them by showing them what they believe their child should try to avoid in the future. Also, this will help to build more of a trust between a parent and their child in terms of the parent trusting their child to respect their opinion and not listen to this style of music, and therefore the child reciprocating this trust by not listening to this style of music and understanding why their parent does not like this music. Furthermore, at the end of the day a parent should encourage their children to do what they want and what makes them happy as long as it's not illegal or harmful to other people and listening to music of any kind is not a harmful act.

Fans (against)
Music is an artists way of expressing themselves to their fans, but censorship is arguably blocking the creative freedom that artists have, and preventing Eminem's fans from getting to know more about him. In his song 'Kim', Eminem raps about murdering his wife, which most people understand to be an illegal thing to do, and Eminem has made it clear that it is something he himself would never do. All he wants is for his fans to be able to make an emotional connection to his songs, and for people to respect his opinion and freedom of speech regarding these serious topics. Most artists sing and rap about topics that they themselves have no real experience with, and they understand that some topics, including rape and alcohol are sensitive and should not be taken lightly, this could be why rap artists sing in a way that comes across as very aggressive, and in a preaching type way. When he raps, Eminem often opens up about his personal life which appeal to his fans who want to keep a tabs on him and be able to get to know him more. The use of censorship may restrict the information that Eminem can put across to his fans.
Furthermore, some of Eminem's songs have more of a suggestive meaning, which may not be too obvious when the use of censorship is blocking out some key parts to his songs. Also, censorship often ruins the rhythm of the song because it forces artists to change the lyrics and bleep out some of the rhyming words, which therefore takes away from the effect and enjoyment. Eminem himself does not encourage violence, he just likes to see how far he can push the boundaries of his creative freedom within the music industry and he wants to inspire others to do the same. He does not want to be judge by the things that he sings about, rather by his actions. However, the tameness of Eminem's more recent songs tells us that censorship is beginning to take a toll on his music and his writing style.

Music television channel (MTV, for)
MTV have always been strict on their use of censorship. During the day, most of the songs that MTV play are censored as they know that there is a higher chance of kids listening. In contrast, during the evening censorship is not as strict. In one of his songs, Eminem threatens to kill a congressman from the white house, which is obviously an illegal thing to do. Also, in 1999 following a shooting that took place at a high school in America, censorship was necessary to prevent artists from exploiting the sensitive issue in order to make money. This was proof that some of his views cannot be taken as a joke. Eminem has also released songs that make homophobic references, which arguable shows just how backwards Eminem is as an artists. Especially now that gay marriage has been made legal in all 50 states in the USA, which shows us that times are moving forward. It could be argued that Eminem uses the controversy of his songs as a marketing tool. People want to listen to his music just to see how far he is willing to push his creative freedom, and to see what his boundaries are.
AKA (against)
AKA aims to establish unknown artists and allow and respect an artists creative freedom. They understand that most artists, Eminem included, use their music as a way to express their often life stories, and that the use of censorship often prevents artists from saying what they want to say. In 2005, the AKA channel was fined £18,000 by Ofcom due to the fact that it played a song that contained inappropriate material. The channel argues that it has learnt from this mistake as they have not been fined since, so clearly the music they are now playing is not inappropriate.

BBC radio 1 (for)
Radio 1 is own by the BBC, which is also home to channels such as CBBC and CBeebies. The BBC is a family channel, therefore parents will have an expectation that the radio channel will play music that is 'family friendly' and suitable for any younger children to listen to. There has been a lot of controversy over the years regarding Eminem's music, especially the lyrics that often include references to drugs, alcohol, abuse in relationships, inappropriate language, and offensive references about rape, and some misogynistic lyrics, all of which should not be glorified by the public. For example, his song "Kill You" is primarily about rape and he often uses words such as 'slut' and 'whore'.
A benefit of censorship on the radio, especially when it comes to artists such as Eminem is that children are protected from learning about things that could be very harmful to them (drugs, alcohol and rape). Censorship also prevents young, impressionable children from being exposed to materials that they may not understand the severity of. Also, the radio station can never be sure who their listeners are, and therefore they should play music that is suitable for all age groups. The station could risk achieving a bad reputation if they begin playing music that may offend their old listeners, and they could potentially lose loyal listeners. At the end of the day, producing and selling music is an artists job, therefore their main goal will be to make money/a profit. Even if BBC radio 1 does use censorship on Eminem's songs, his songs will still be receiving the same amount of promotion as they song will be appropriate to play on the radio and listened to, which could ultimately boost sales while preventing children from harmful materials. Also, it could be argued that censorship makes people curious. It may cause them to go home and listen to the song again to see why the censorship was necessary. This could benefit an artist like Eminem as it will result in their song receiving more views and more publicity. A radio station may need to censor thing, firstly because they can never be sure who is listening to the music that they are playing, whether it be 7 or 70 year olds, therefore they need to play music that will not offend people or will introduce the younger viewers to sensitive materials that they should not be learning about at such a young age. For example, the lyrics "Slut, you think I won't choke no whore/'Til the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more?!/Shut up slut, you're causin' too much chaos." and "Oh, now he's raping his own mother, abusing a whore/Snorting coke, and we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?/You god damn right bitch, and now it's too late/I'm triple platinum and tragedies happen in two states." from his song 'Kill You' caused much controversy due to the fact that the lyrics clearly refer to the idea of abuse in relationship and include the repetition of words such as 'slut' and 'whore' that most people refrain from using, and most parents do not want their children to use. However, a radio station may only feel the need to censor certain things because there may be some songs that may have been considered inappropriate several years ago when they were first released, but when compared to the music that is being produced nowadays seems quite tame. For example, "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys was refused to play in some radio stations because the song had the word 'God' in the title.

Censorship is a very controversial topic and as someone who enjoys listening to music, I can see both the pros and cons of using censorship in the music industry. While it does protect young music listeners from learning about harmful materials, I do not think artists are responsible for enforcing the censorship. It is not the fault of an artist if a child purposely seeks out their music to listen to, therefore it is up to us as individuals to know when certain materials are inappropriate. Also, parents of younger children should take more responsibility for the type of music that their kids listen to. My personal opinion is that artists should be entitled to their freedom of speech and should be allowed to use their music to express how they are feeling. However, they should have the understanding that they cannot take advantage of this freedom to, for example, make homophobic or racist remarks. If someone does not like a certain music genre or a certain artist then they do not have to listen to it, there is so much more music out there.