I listen to a lot of rock radio stations and I have noticed that profanity in older songs is very rarely bleeped, but the same words are cut out of newer songs?
For example of older songs:
Pink Floyd’s Money “Don’t give me no goody-good BULLSHIT”
The Who’s Who Are You “Who the FUCK are you”
The Eagles’ Life in the Fast Lane “Haven’t seen a GODDAMN thing”
I have never, ever heard these songs bleeped on any radio station I have ever listened too.
Why are some songs exempt from the bleeping. I am not prudish, I am just curious.
I called our local rock station, and asked them this question. They told me that if the singles are sent to them already edited by the manufacturer, or “edited for radio” as they called it, that’s the way it’s played. If not, they just play the album cut of the song. If they recieve complaints about the profanity, they have the technology to do the edit themselves, but generally don’t bother unless someone complains.
Except that Eminem actually has meaningful lyrics that aren’t just a bunch of cuss words. Since the OP was answered let’s try not to turn this into a flame though
A couple of years ago I was driving through Oregon. I found a station that was playing “okay” music (not really my taste, but not C&W or religious either), and they edited Take a Walk on the Wild Side. They didn’t “bleep” it – they actually removed some verses entirely. It destroyed the song.
Well, it’s not a flame at all, really. We had a radio station in NY that played a lot of Eminem (who I like quite a bit). I found the bleeping distracting and insulting to the artist, who put those words there for a reason. Same for older songs- I’ve heard all of the songs mentioned in the OP bleeped.
I hate it enough when they do it for one or two words in a song, but when it’s done throughout it makes it sound like a Jerry Springer episode. I say play it right or don’t play it at all.
As to the OP’s question: Are there specific words you can’t play on the radio or is it up to your listening audience and your bet on if they’ll complain or not? I heard a station play “My Neck, My Back” (look up THOSE lyrics) in it’s entirety and I could not believe my ears.
I found the radio edits of NIN’s “Closer to God” really annoying in that respect - “I want to mumble you like an animal…” (repeat several times throughout entire song)
That being said, I was surprised at how well done the editing was on the Lo Fidelity AllStars’ “Battleflag” - I heard the radio edit first, and didn’t realize until I heard the unedited version that they used the word “motherfckng” frequently in the song. Providing their own radio edit version for songs they know would otherwise get chopped to hell or not get radio play might be the best thing for concerned bands to do.
The act of censorship that absolutely drives me nuts is when a radio station sometimes plays a version of Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl” that eliminates the great line “Making love in the green grass, behind the stadium” and replaces it with a previous line from the song. Talk about someone being overly sensitive! What is remotely obscene about the original line??
“Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)” used to air with “pregnant” so muted as to be unintelligble. Haven’t heard on the radio in a while, don’t know if that’s still the case. In the sixties, top 40 stations played 45’s, sometimes differerent versions than the album cut (eg.,. Penny Lane 45 ended with trumpet riff not present on album)