Censorship is used for many reasons in order to keep regulations on the television and the radio. It allows music videos/songs to have certain exploitations within their videos and still let them be aired and shown past a certain time. Watershed was introduced so that audience of a younger age were protected from harmful or offencive material at a later time in the evening. This was introduced so that elder/adults are able to listen and watch music that was not deemed appropriate for the younger generation.
OfCom are the regulator and competition authority for the UK communication industry. It is the company that regulates television and radio, fixed telecoms, mobiles, postal services and the airwaves in which wireless devices are used. This either enables or stops people accessing videos/music that are not appreciate for their age or that are.
Some music videos are have been censored for particular reasons. For example,"Guilty Conscience" by Eminem. The rapper's lyrics were censored by MTV and the final scene in the video was cut due to where a murder takes place and was taken out entirely by the music network.
Another example, is How We Do (Party)" by Rita Ora. MTV changed some of the words to her hit single to make them more audience-friendly. This means that the music video had to be censored.
S&M" by Rhianna was censored due to the sexually suggestive content in the video, MTV first restricted the video's air time and later banned it altogether due to too many sexual references and sexual content. T.G.I.F." by Katy Perry. While the video's content remained untouched, the term "ménage à trois" was entirely cut out of the song as this was a term used for sexual activity involving three people at the same time also known as a threesome.
Record Label for Eminem-
Eminem belongs to the record label Shady Records that in which was founded in 1999 by the rapper Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg after the highly successful release of Eminem's debut album The Slim Shady LP (1999). The record label has suffered due to the fueds that Eminem has been in and this has resulted into some bad reputation for the artist and the record label as they had to stand by for Eminem in a counter of arguments he and other artists may have caused due to their behaviour. The label has also seen positive times when being part of the successful international Anger Management tours and, in 2006, released an album showcasing its then-roster on Eminem Presents: The Re-Up. It was also the label to be contracted for putting together the soundtrack to the Eminem-starring film 8 Mile, which had the lead single "Lose Yourself". The song went on to take the first ever Academy Award for Best Original Song given to a song in the hip hop genre.
One video that stands out from all the rest and has a bad reputation, despite being one of his greatest hits and best selling music videos and songs of all time, 'Stan' by the rapper Eminem was criticised for the outrageous behaviour seen throughout the music video, and this is why it had to be censored. There were many things that were deemed to be offensive and inappropriate, and his record label' Shady Records, in which he founded himself . This could be deemed as bias due to r fact all of this record label managers themselves are bias towards Eminem as hey are apart of his own branded recording label so they will need to support Eminem through what he has to do. This could possibly effect certain censorship due to them having to incorporate the ideas of Eminem which some people believe to be too inappropriate to air or play on the television or the radio. Some of the different aspects in the music video Stan is that you can hear his girlfriend's scream as Stan decides to drive the car into the bridge. This helps towards the thought behind the censorship as this could influence children with suicide and makes suicide look like something that can be represented as fun and something that looks easy to do. It can influence people that despite the horror (through screaming) about the fascination with suicide and how easy it would be to commit to it. This then could set of a bad image and a bad reputation for Eminem as somebody who may think of suicide on a day-day basis and as a role model to some teenagers and some his particular niche audience, they may think if Eminem does it they need to do it aswel, so this particularly can have a strange influence of some people.
Some people may criticise the censorship of this video as they believe that in this music video/song there is much talk about sex and suicide and the difficulties of obsessed with an artist. Sexual references in songs are deemed to be seen as inappropriate to some audiences as they believe it to be 'too realistic' to the every day life. They decide to cut out many sexual references and profanities which are in most of the song. But should this song really be censored when in a traditional classic Romeo & Juliet they talk about thrusting maids up the wall, and nobody thinks this is inappropriate , I believe that this is actually targeting rappers as a whole and judging them as one instead of individuals. Any references Eminem makes in this video is aimed at one person, possibly his own experiences as a child/teenager and doesn't aim any of his lyrics to any particular group. This therefore shouldn't mean that he should have his songs censored when he is trying to show his anger and frustration at his experiences (or other peoples experiences), he wants to explain and show everybody. different audiences his experiences and show how to overcome them. Although it doesn't show that he has overcome his troubles in 'Stan' but the message is clear on how suicide can effect all the people around you and that you should talk through your emotions and not commit and take your own life.
Eminem is scared of what he writes in his songs and his lyrics as he thinks they will get censored due to the passion behind all of the words. He isn't being allowed to express himself and then therefore has to limit his passion for rapping and limit his freedom of speech. The purpose of censorship is to protect and hide the bad elements of songs from the audiences; but is the censorship of 'Stan', despite different reference, should it be allowed to be censored just because Eminem is trying to take advantage of his freedom of speech, although he doesn't have any? People always criticise Eminem before they get to know him, and this therefore puts a downer on his career. This can effect an artist in Any ways as they start to question their own abilities, their own talent just because their music isn't being allowed onto the television or the radio. This therefore limits the artist to the conventions of a rap video, and cannot let them be individuals and subvert the conventions of it, instead they are limiting what the artist can do and therefore not let them experiment and test censorship as a whole.
Eminem used to listen to uncensored music when he was a child and he hasn't turned out to be your stereotypical 'hood rat' or 'criminal' as they like to call him, he in fact inspires the younger generation to express themselves the way he does, through song and emotions and not to be held back despite the censorship and the hurdles they may come across in life.
Parents for censorship'
Parents may believe in the censorship of Eminems music video as the graphic content used may exploit children to certain things that parents do not want their children knowing about at the present time. For example he used 'rape me' in lyrics in part of his song and this can therefore set off a bad image and horrific messages about a very traumatic experience. This also may effect people who may have been raped and may let them think that he believes rape to be entertaining and willing, despite it being a traumatic experience for the victim and also something they were push and forced into. This can make his reputation bad and make children believe that rape is acceptable. Parents would agree to censorship to Eminem as they believe the content to his songs and videos are disgraceful and misleading to the younger generation.
The Parents Resource Centre (PRC) says that the music industry has a bad effect in children making them have sex and do drugs etc at a very young age. This they believe is due to inappropriate content of music videos, teaching children about them. In a stereotypical rap song, drugs and sex is the norm, and make the effects of having drugs look entertaining and positive and fun, and by having stereotypically lots of girls by your side, having sex with all of them is what makes you something in life, despite it being the opposite. Children look up to artist and this therefore makes them want to be exactly like their artist and believe that everything they do is real and normal, hence the influence that it may give them is negative.
They also believe that censorship is a good thing as too many profanities are used when rapping, 'They cannot control their anger, they oo many bad words and give bad messages'' - this typically makes children believe that profanities and constant anger and hatred is good, and that by doing this lets your relieve everything. This may in somewhat be true despite the artist taking it to a level which is to far, that in which leads to something bad happening to the person they are taking their anger out on. This then therefore creates the wrong image for children and this is all why they believe in censorship and why they believe censorship is good, as they want the protection for their children against typically the real world.
Against Censorship
Censorship isn't always a good thing. Watching music videos with your children is better than having them watch music videos by themselves. By watching uncensored music videos with your children, you are able to teach them the wrongs and the rights within it. This enables the children to see the things they should and shouldn't do when dealing with a certain situation. This then doesn't exploit them, but teaches them and still allows Eminem to represent himself and give himself the freedom to let out all of his emotions when rapping.
He can also be a influential person and role model to many of his audience as he had a very hard upbringing and people decide to criticise him due to the experiences he has as a child and as a young adolescent. He did take drugs but overcame this and took advice and help, and went to rehab and people can use him as an example of over coming terrible and hard situations. He always mentions his own personal experiences in his songs and by censoring this he isn't able to connect with his audience and show them that even if you cannot get out of your dark place, help with always be there and that if he can overcome the experience, anybody can.
He also always talks about his family and children in his videos and songs, and this shows good fatherhood and unity between him and his family. This can influence people to have a family, and show them that family is what you need to help you pull through, and that his children are his everything and would do anything for them. He shows that he is very unique and and individual and this shows that he can show the difference between entertainment (his songs including profanities and inappropriate content) and the reality where he is just a loving father and partner.
Lastly, he is always very sarcastic in some things he says in his lyrics. For example, ''hey kids I'm about to drown myself, would do what i did?' and then the follow in the background 'yeah yeah yeah' this is all in a very sarcastic tone and this represents what Eminem is trying to covey that people take his lyrics seriously, and that if he asked children to kill themselves they would do it wouldn't they? He is trying to show the influence he may have to such a drastic measure that if he drowned himself would you do it just because he decided too? He is trying to show here that his lyrics are literal and realistic its his anger and frustration and comedic side, not to influence people to do what he does. He again shows the difference between reality and entertainment, and this is why Eminems music shouldn't be censored due to influential messages behind his lyrics.
Fans
The fans of may particular artists are young adolescents especially with rock and rap songs, and therefore children are going to be exploited and possibly inflicted by profanities due to them wanting to follow in their role models footsteps for example Eminem, Drake etc.
Eminem went through a hard and difficult childhood but effectively he hasn't turned out how people would of expected him too. Just because Eminem says that murder and drugs happen, doesn't mean he expects his fans to do that too.
British music channels such as MTV have banned many songs of Eminem because they feel that his profanities and aggressive behaviour was too influential and will e criticised to much if they aired it on the television. They believe that despite Eminem being one of the greatest rappers of all time the contact of his videos was not acceptable for television or radio without censorship.
BBC Radio 1 agree with MTV as they have a policy that they do not allow swearing due to the product placement. One of Eminem's songs 'Relax' was officially banned from BBC Radio 1 due to the lines of 'when you gunna cum' suggests a sexual climax and therefore isn't appropriate so was banned altogether. After 7pm (which is the watershed) people can listen to uncensored music on the radio.
The general main overview on censorship on artists is a balanced argument overall. Many believe that censorship should be used as it can influence and offend younger audiences and can effect them as a whole supposedly. although the argument is that censorship doesn't allow artist to have freedom of speech and give them an opportunity to let out all their emotions.
I believe that censorship on some of the artists songs should and again shouldn't exist. Firstly i believe that censorship on particularly some of Eminems songs is acceptable as some of the content of his videos shouldn't be heard by the younger germination, although i refuse to believe that it influence children to do some of the so called 'influential' things he goes on about, i believe that it can offend some children and parents if they haven't heard about particular things, children shouldn't be exploited to such inappropriate things at such a young age. However, i do believe that censorship should be very limited, unless the content is far too explicit for television. I believe that Eminem and other artists should be allowed freedom of speech and to express their emotions through their creativity in their music videos/songs. Although the censorship should be limited the artist have to have freedom of speech with their lyrics so that they are able to connect with wider global ranges of audiences, without this artists will not be as popular as they would be today as they will not have the ability to connect with different audiences like they do with their lyrics. To emphasise hate and anger regret and even sadness etc they need to be able to show emotion through their songs and with censorship the song may not be as powerful as they wanted and result into a flop due to the fact the artist cannot fully connect with the song and therefore not fully connect with his/her audiences. TTo conclude I believe their should be some censorship but nothing that is going to result in not letting audiences connect with the song so I believe making the watershed a easier time for everyboy ad possibly security on it would be better.
We as a group will follow the rules of censorship as we have a younger audience that we want to connect to around the ages of 13-21 and this is because the relationship we are going to portray is going to be something natural and something they may even be going through themselves and by having a natural relationship with elements of fight in there is subtle and nothing to outrageous that we would need to have censorship on and therefore the censorship rules will be followed in our music video.
2) Finish your conclusion
