Censorship on MTV

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Censorship on MTV has been the subject of debate for years. MTV, the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., has come under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive, censoring too much of their programming. Many of MTV's shows were altered or removed from the channel's schedule. Additionally, many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

Contents 1 Political correctness 1.1 Religious imagery 1.2 Ethnic and racial slurs 2 Censored music videos 2.1 Videos moved to late-night rotation 3 Banned music videos 4 Ineffectiveness of censorship 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Political correctness

MTV came under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive when it came to censorship. This was most prevalent in the eventual decline of the hit show Jackass. The creators of Jackass often felt that MTV's producers did not let the show run its free course due to the excessive restraints placed on the Jackass team.

MTV's influence also affected its famous animated program, Beavis and Butt-Head. In the wake of controversy that followed a child burning down his house after allegedly watching the show, "producers moved the show from its original 7 p.m. time slot to a late-night, 11 p.m. slot. Also, Beavis' tendency to flick a lighter and scream the word "fire" was removed from new episodes, and controversial scenes were removed from existing episodes before rebroadcast.^[1] Some of the edits were so extensive that when series creator Mike Judge compiled his Collection DVDs he found out that "some of those episodes may not even exist actually in their original form".^[2]

[edit] Religious imagery

MTV received a heavy load of criticism from the religious right in the 1980s and parent-media watchdog groups (such as the PMRC) over certain music videos that had "graphic and sacrilegious imagery" of satanism and the devil. MTV has developed a strict policy on refusal to air videos that may depict devil worship.^[3] This led MTV to ban the video for "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden.^[4]

[edit] Ethnic and racial slurs

Usually, all ethnic and racial slurs are censored on MTV music videos and programming. MTV has emphasized racial tolerance and diversity awareness for people of all races and creeds. ^[5]

[edit] Censored music videos

MTV has also heavily edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia, or advertising. ^[6] Edits include, but are not limited to:

• The video for the song Closer by Nine Inch Nails was heavily censored. Scenes of a crucified monkey, nude women, anatomical drawings of the human vagina, and other images were censored out of the video and replaced with a "Scene Missing" card.
• The word "gun" was censored in the Wheatus song "Teenage Dirtbag".
• In the song "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, the word "suicidal" was censored.
• The song "We Takin Over" by dj khaled had the 2 words "work" and "supply" censored in this line: "If you want to we can supply got enough work to feed the whole town.".^[7]
• "45" by Shinedown was renamed "Staring Down", and a good portion of the chorus is edited to eliminate gun references.
• The video "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam had the ending changed to air on MTV and the video was banned for a while after the Columbine School shootings.
• "The Old Apartment" video by Barenaked Ladies had a scene removed where the protagonist rips a telephone off of a wall.
• "We Are All on Drugs" by Weezer is renamed "We Are All in Love."
• "Hash Pipe" by Weezer had the word "hash" obscured.
• "Four Kicks" by Kings of Leon has the words "guns" and "switchblade" censored in the chorus.
• "Stinkfist" by Tool was renamed "Track #1" since the title was considered "too offensive for public consumption."
• One of System of a Down's first videos, "Sugar", was also one of their most censored videos, as it censored the words "mushroom", "Russian", and "anger", besides the usual censoring of "fuck" in the song.
• In the video for Coheed and Cambria's single "A Favor House Atlantic", the word "shoot" is obscured in the chorus.
• In Avenged Sevenfold's video for "Bat Country", the word "trigger" in "My hand is on the trigger, I'm ready to ignite" was censored.
• Melanie C's first solo single "Goin' Down" came under fire as the word "bitch" was censored, but not "whore". This also applied to her single "If That Were Me", which was banned from airplay for the line "I can't live without my phone, but you don't even have a home".
• Despite embracing racial tolerance now, MTV in the early 80s played very few black artists and Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie" was one of the first video to be played by a black artist.
• The chorus of the song "The Nobodies" by Marilyn Manson was heavily censored. The original chorus "Some children died the other day, we fed machines and then we prayed, puked up and down in morbid faith, you should have seen the ratings that day." has the words "children died" and "ratings" bleeped out. MTV censored these words because the song is about the Columbine shootings.
• For Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule's single "I'm Real", MTV censored the racially charged word "niggas" (said by Lopez). Ja Rule claims he never meant to refer African Americans in that manner, but chose the term "nigga" as a term of endearment when used among Black youth.
• Eminem's single "The Real Slim Shady" cut out references and words like "queer" or "fag" that were deemed offensive to homosexuals. Additionally, the reference to Burger King was also blanked out, presumably to avoid litigation for trademark infringement.
• In Michael Jackson's single "They Don't Care About Us", MTV has replaced the words "Jew me" and "kike me" with "do me" and "strike me" in the line "Jew me, sue me... kick me, kike me; don't you black-or-white me". ^[8] According to Jackson, his song had the words to describe prejudice and it was poor judgment to select Jewish people as explanatory words.^[9]
• Hawthorne Heights' song "Ohio Is for Lovers" has the word "cut" edited out in the lyrics "Cut my wrists and black my eyes, so I can fall asleep tonight."^[10].
• Nelly's single "Grillz", MTV censored the word "rob" in the lyrics "Rob the jewelery store, tell 'em make me a grill.".
• In Saves the Day's song "At Your Funeral", MTV edited out the word "high" in the lyric "You're two floors down getting high in the back room...", but the lyric remained intact when heard on alternative radio stations.
• Motion City Soundtrack's video "Everything Is Alright" had the word "self" in self-medication censored.
• In My Chemical Romance's video for Teenagers, the words "gun", "pay", "murder", "shit" and "your shirt" were censored because the release of the video came after the Virginia Tech massacre.
• Alkaline Trio's video for "Stupid Kid" was edited by MTV, replaced with an alternate take. The video depicts an elementary school age boy who has a crush on his teacher. Throughout the video, he is scorned by students and eventually ridiculed by the teacher herself. In the final scene, the student leaves the school to pause outside the teacher's window. As the teacher looks on, he takes off the knit beanie he wears throughout the video, and the teacher gapes in horror. Smoke begins to billow around her and she wrestles with the window frame, which is stuck. The final shot reveals the student to have two demonic horns protruding out of his head. The "friendly" version keeps the teacher in the window, but no smoke is seen.
• Cherish's video for "Do It to It" had the word "kryptonite" edited out in the phrase "on that kryptonite" because 'kryptonite' is U.S. Slang for marijuana.
• Gun references have been edited out of MTV videos as early as 1997 after the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., when they were casualties of the East Coast-West Coast rap war.
• Yung Joc's video for his single "It's Goin' Down" had the word "trap" censored when he says "meet me in the trap, it's goin' down".
• 50 Cent's video for "Just A Little Bit" had the word "sex" censored.
• The Game's video for "Put You On The Game" had many of The Black Wallstreet members are seen wearing "Free Shyne" shirts, but the word "free" was blurred.
• In Akon's video "Smack That", the phrase "smack that" was censored in some parts, but left unedited in others. In addition, "sore" and "woody" are removed.
• "Purple Pills" by D12 was renamed "Purple Hills" in order to avoid references to drug use.
• "This Is the New Shit" by Marilyn Manson was renamed "This Is The New *Hit".
• "Music" by Madonna was partly censored due to sexual content. The video, featuring Ali G, is also bleeped due to the word "punani" pronounced by the character.
• Questionable scenes from The Beastie Boys' video for "Sabotage" were replaced for being "too graphic".
• All references to brand names were censored in Vans by The Pack^[11].
• In "Pass that Dutch" by Missy Elliott, the word "Dutch" is removed.
• Nickelback's song Rockstar had the words "drugs," "pills," "assholes," and "drug dealer" censored.
• Kasabian videos are constantly edited on MTV initially it was the word "terrorist" being censored from 'Processed Beats', despite Kasabian being anti-terrorism and war, but recently the actual video of 'Empire' was edited so the scene of a child messenger being shot and the final scene of the bands lead singer being executed for refusing to fight were cut out. It's worth noting the sleazy upper-class general is still allowed to be shown slapping the bottom of the child messenger as he/she [it's unclear] is sent on their way.
• Domino by Kiss has the lyrics "she got me by the balls" changed to "she got to have it all".
• Climbing The Walls by Wrathchild America has the words "shit" and "fuck" censored but not the word "fucking".
• I'm The Man by Anthrax has the word "suck" censored with the foul words "shit" and "dick" censored with it.
• I Wanna Love You by Akon has the lyrics "i wanna fuck you" changed to "i wanna love you".
• Shake Ya Ass by Mystikal has the title "shake ya ass" changed to "shake it fast" with the lyrics changed from "shake ya ass" to "shake it fast".
• jesus of suburbia by green day beyond the ``fucking´´ and ``shit´´ words the word ``cocaine´´ was censored but not ``maryjane´´

[edit] Videos moved to late-night rotation

To deal with criticism over risque content in certain videos, MTV moved certain videos to late-night rotation in censored format. Such videos included "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher and "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. ^[3]

[edit] Banned music videos

• "(s)AINT" (Marilyn Manson)
• "A Tout Le Monde" (Megadeth)^[12]
• "A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)" (Megadeth)
• "Afraid To Shoot Strangers" (Iron Maiden)
• "American Life" (Madonna) (replaced with a second version)^[13]
• "Amusement Park" by (50 Cent) (in the United Kingdom only ^[14]; MTV in the USA airs an edited version of the video^[15])
• "Annihilation of Civilization" (Evildead)
• "Arise" by (Sepultura)^[16]
• "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" (Twisted Sister)^[17]
• "Beyond The Veil" (Fear of God)
• "Bludgeon" (Forced Entry)
• "Body Language"(Queen)^[18]
• "Bombs" (Faithless)
• "Boom!" (System of a Down)^[13]
• "Come Undone" (Robbie Williams) (replaced with a live version)
• "Crashing Around You" (Machine Head)
• "Crazy Bitch" (Buckcherry)
• "Die Young" (Black Sabbath)
• "Dirty Little Mind" (Jackyl)
• "Erotica" (Madonna)^[19]
• "George" (Headless Chickens)
• "Ghost Ride It" by (Mistah F.A.B.)^[20]
• "Girls on Film" (Duran Duran)
• "Hammerhead" (Flotsam and Jetsam)
• "Hot in the City" (Billy Idol)
• "How I Could Just Kill a Man" (Rage Against The Machine)
• "Hurricane" (The Rods)
• "In My Darkest Hour" (Megadeth)^[21]
• "Its My Life" (Wendy O. Williams)
• "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden^[4]
• "Justify My Love" (Madonna)^[22]
• "Lacquer Head" (Primus)
• "Loaded Gun" (Bangalore Choir)
• "Love Is a Crime" ( Lizzy Borden)
• "Love Machine" (W.A.S.P.)
• "Low" (Foo Fighters)
• "Man On The Edge" (Iron Maiden)
• "My Friend Lonely" (Cyclone Temple)
• "My Soul Is Wet" (Mutha's Day Out)
• "Pagan Poetry" (Björk)
• "Post 9/11 Blues" (Riz Ahmed)
• "Psycho Therapy" (Ramones)
• "Quote Unquote" (Mr. Bungle)
• "Reckoning Day" (Megadeth)^[23]
• "Refuse/Resist" (Sepultura)
• "Relax" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
• "Return Of The Warlord" (Manowar)
• "Self Control" (Laura Branigan)
• "Show Me How to Live" (Audioslave)
• "Smack My Bitch Up" (The Prodigy)
• "Street Of Dreams" (Rainbow)^[24]
• "Sunshowers" (M.I.A.)
• "The Chauffeur" (Duran Duran)
• "The Damned" (The Plasmatics)
• "The Price of Beauty" (Suicide Silence)
• "Vans" by (The Pack) ^[25]
• "Violent New Breed" (Shotgun Messiah)
• "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Madonna)^[22]
• "Why Call it Love" (Phantom Blue)
• "You're All I Need" (Mötley Crüe)
• "Zero The Hero" (Black Sabbath)

[edit] Ineffectiveness of censorship

However, their attempts at censorship have proven ineffective, as the conservative American political group Parents Television Council has set up a section of their website against MTV for excessive profane content in their programming. In a study^[26] that covered MTV's "Spring Break" programming from 2004, much of the content the PTC claimed inappropriate was usually bleeped or blurred out, but the PTC defended that they were inappropriate because of the context in which they were presented or that the excessive amount of censored content simply made the indecent content more obvious.

Included in the study was the Petey Pablo music video "Freek-a-leek", which they point out that even the MTV edited version is still sexually suggestive because the sexual obscenities were replaced by sound samples of a woman moaning and the video contained sexual depictions of women.

In addition, Eamon's heavily censored video "I Don't Want You Back" was included, despite the fact that MTV edited the profanities out of the video so that one viewing the video and not knowing the unedited lyrics would not believe that there actually would be profanity.

The study even included the Maroon 5 music video "This Love", whose song is inoffensive but video allegedly contains voyeurism.

A news release regarding this matter was even titled "I Want My Foul TV", a play on a slogan of MTV, "I want my MTV". ^[27] Simply put, the excessive amount of censorship necessary to make its content appropriate tends to give censorship on MTV the reverse effect.

[edit] See also

• Censorship of music

[edit] References