Censorship

Should music videos be censored?

Ofcom takes complaints about communication services such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers etc. They have a wide range of powers across these regions. It has a statutory duty to represent the interests of the citizens and consumers and aim is to protect the public from what might be harmful or offensive material. The main areas of Ofcom preside over licensing, research, codes and policies, competition and protecting the radio stations from abuse. Whenever viewers and listeners complain about a program they’ve seen or heard. The Ofcom assess it against the code. 

Music artists such as Eminem, Rihanna, LMFAO, Lady gaga etc have had their music videos censored because they have broken boundaries. The reason for doing this is to stop audiences from hearing or seeing what they don’t want to know. In Rihanna’s video ‘Man Down’ it promotes the idea of murder as being a way to battle rape.

We held a class debate in order to get the views of the parents of children who like Rihanna’s songs and allow them to listen to her and those parents who want her videos to be clean and censored in order to allow their children to listen to her safely. We also looked at the views of the fans, the artist, the music producer, and the music radios etc.

The parents who believe Rihanna’s music and videos should be censored believe this is not what children should be listening to parents do not want their children to be fighting fire with fire. They don’t want their children thinking that if Rihanna can shoot a man then it must be ok for them to do so also. Parents ask that she would tone down the drug use, violence and the skimpy clothes in her music videos, to realize she is a role model for little girls and they are going to look up to her so she is causing parents issues. Kiss radio will only play clean-censored music; Rihanna should cut back and stop breaking boundaries.

Rihanna does not believe that her music should be censored because otherwise the music being played to the audience is not a true reflection of the message she is trying to get across, she believes artists have a freedom of speech and should be able to sing whatever they like and not have every other word in their song blanked out because some people may not like it, if you don’t like the music simply don’t listen to it. The narrative is really up to the viewer as to how they interpret the music and the feeling it gives them and what they lyrics mean. The music videos simply present what the artists intentions where when making the song. The record producer states that Rihanna’s fan base isn’t aimed at children but aimed at teenagers and young adults that clearly understand her lyrics and will not copy what she does in her music videos but listens to and watches her for entertainment value.

Parents who allow their children to watch and listen to Rihanna say that if you educate your children properly they will understand that they don’t need to copy Rihanna or idolize her in any sense but that her music is purely for entertainment and that her music shouldn’t be treated any differently to television shows. You don’t ‘ban’ or censor television shows because the main character isn’t an ideal role model. No music artist is going to be perfect and Rihanna isn’t going to change the way she produces music in order to please those who want to listen to her ‘clean’. If you want to listen to her it will have to be how the song was originally wrote.

I can understand that some children or young teenagers are going to listen to Rihanna’s music and enjoy it, they will sing the lyrics and could possibly idolize her. But if their parents teach them the clear difference between right and wrong then there really shouldn’t be a problem. The children probably wont understand the lyrics and if they do then their parents should have taught them whether they think it is ok for them to sing them, if they don’t like the lyrics then they shouldn’t let their children listen to the artist. The artist’s fan base was not made for children it was simply made to get out her messages as an artist in hope that people will agree and appreciate her lyrics. It doesn’t need to be censored; by censoring music you are destroying the song and ruining the artist’s message. Censorship puts a mask over the image of the artist and only portrays them as what Ofcom wants them to be.

When watching the music video for ‘Slim Shady Eminem’ the song is full of bad language racist comments, rude comments, mocking the mentally insane etc. The artist is an awful role model for children and his music is aimed at older teenagers and young adults the humor in his songs can be viewed as offensive and people really do take it seriously. But I believe that the artist is entitled to have his own music the way he likes it, his music but be enjoyed otherwise he wouldn’t be as popular as he is. His own lyrics are talking about how children known far more than we think they do and they already know about sex and violence so music isn’t going to make a difference at all.