# In a world where "Play that Funky Music" is censored... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228 "2007-05-08T13:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/41 "2007-05-08T19:33:57Z")
[QUOTE=Lakai] This reminds me when a song lyric form a Black Eyed Peas song was changed from “don’t funk with my heart” to “don’t mess with my heart” for the radio. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] “Make my mess the P-mess I want my mess uncut Make my mess the P-mess 'Cause I wants to get messed up.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/42 "2007-05-08T19:44:23Z")
I was driving through rural Missouri a few years ago when Sisqo’s “Thong Song” came on (yeah, this was quite a few years ago). They actually edited out every reference to “thong.” ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/43 "2007-05-08T20:38:44Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] I’ll admit I’ve been doing a quick look for it. And this [dictionary](http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/?term=funk&beginEra=&endEra=&clean=false&submitsend=Search) offers funk with a 1600’s definition as being a bad smell, then mysteriously in the 1950’s coming to mean music. It offers no linkage, but I don’t think it contradicts what I suggested. This article from [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_244b.html) seems to support that it was a derogatory descriptor, I think. [/QUOTE] . . . derogatory but not racial, when applied to a smell. Neither derogatory nor racial when applied to music. You’ve yet to provide a cite that even “seems” to support your assertion that “funky” has negative racial conotations. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/44 "2007-05-08T20:43:07Z")
[QUOTE=randwill] If the word ‘funky’ has negative racial connotations it comes as news to me too. [/QUOTE] Nope, it’s only because it sounds like another f-word. I remember reading in an article about Muzak Corporation that they will not play any songs with the word “funk” or “funky” in it for this very reason. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/45 "2007-05-08T21:21:35Z")
Got one better for ya… Went to a local high school play based on a medley of George Cohan songs… _Give My Regards to Broadway_, _Over There_, _Grand Old Flag_, that sort of stuff. Every reference to the word “gay” was changed to a variant of “joy”. (Like in “Mary”, they changed the line to “she was so joyous and airy”). :rolleyes: Even more obliquely, a possible anti-semitic reference in one of his songs was completely changed. In the song _Only 45 minutes from Broadway_, the following verse was completely changed: > [@](#): > > Oh, what a fine bunch of rubens, oh, what a jay atmosphere. They have whiskers like hay, and imagine Broadway only 45 minutes from here! Apparently “rubens” refers to Jewish people. Even though it references “rubes”, and the word “jay” also means “unsophisticated, country”… apparently the line needed reworking to avoid pissing off the Offenderati. And so they did. You know… when you’re editing the most patriotic songwriter of the Gibson Girl era, you might be going a bit far. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/46 "2007-05-08T21:34:25Z")
[QUOTE=randwill] Something new moves to the top of my “Stupidest Things I Ever Heard” list. “Niggas”, “hos” and “bitches” is okay (or was until a few weeks ago) but “white boy” is bad? [/QUOTE] Where I live, I don’t think there are any radio stations that play songs that include “niggas,” “hos,” and “bitches” which would also play “Play that Funky Music.” I can’t decide if this means that your city is far less cool than mine, or far cooler, if you have such a station. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/47 "2007-05-08T22:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] Nope, it’s only because it sounds like another f-word. I remember reading in an article about Muzak Corporation that they will not play any songs with the word “funk” or “funky” in it for this very reason. [/QUOTE] One of my favorite Steely dan songs is the theme from the movie “FM”. I had always heard one section of the lyrics this way: “Give her some **funked** up Muzak, she treats you nice” Imagine my surprise, confirmed by further listening, to hear that Don Fagen actually sings, “Give her some **fucked** up Muzak” on the album recording. There probably is a radio friendly version that has “funked up Muzak” on it, but I can’t really recall. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/48 "2007-05-08T23:12:15Z")
My local “modern rock” station edits Everlast’s _What It’s Like_ to a heinous degree. Bleeped out (besides the obvious) are: Balls Whore (kind of an iffy one for the “obvious” category maybe, but KROQ sure doesn’t edit it) Green (in this context referring to marijuana, so it’s bleeped) Dimes (as above) Drugs .45 Gun Worst. Rock station. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/49 "2007-05-08T23:32:07Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] I’ll admit I’ve been doing a quick look for it. And this [dictionary](http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/?term=funk&beginEra=&endEra=&clean=false&submitsend=Search) offers funk with a 1600’s definition as being a bad smell, then mysteriously in the 1950’s coming to mean music. It offers no linkage, but I don’t think it contradicts what I suggested. This article from [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_244b.html) seems to support that it was a derogatory descriptor, I think. [/QUOTE] You are waaay off base, I think. In my experience, “funk” has never been used to describe music in a _derogatory_ way. Outside of music, I have heard it used most often in conversation to describe, well, the (ahem) “scent of a woman.” (“P-funk” isn’t just a reference to Parliament-Funkadelic. It’s a play on the earlier meaning of the word.) The term was first applied to music by the black musicians themselves, and it was decidedly _not_ being used in a derogatory way. It was a positive thing, because of the word’s association with sexual intercourse. [Wiki agrees](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk): > [@](#): > > The word “funk”, once defined in dictionaries as body odor or the smell of sexual intercourse, commonly was regarded as coarse or indecent. African-American musicians originally applied “funk” to music with a slow, mellow groove, then later with a hard-driving, insistent rhythm because of the word’s association with sexual intercourse. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/50 "2007-05-08T23:50:59Z")
I can see where this is all going. Before too long all references to colour will be censored. -Michigan fans will only be able to cheer “Go!”. -Traffic accidents increase as all lights are switched off. -People tripping on acid will have say “look at all the shades of gray” ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/51 "2007-05-08T23:58:44Z")
[QUOTE=Queen Bruin] My local “modern rock” station edits Everlast’s _What It’s Like_ to a heinous degree. Bleeped out (besides the obvious) are: Balls Whore (kind of an iffy one for the “obvious” category maybe, but KROQ sure doesn’t edit it) Green (in this context referring to marijuana, so it’s bleeped) Dimes (as above) Drugs .45 Gun Worst. Rock station. Ever. [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard the CD version (I don’t particularly care for Everlast), but this radio edit with its creative bleeping of those words has been the version that was played on radio since the song was released. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/52 "2007-05-09T00:20:58Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] I’ve never heard the CD version (I don’t particularly care for Everlast), but this radio edit with its creative bleeping of those words has been the version that was played on radio since the song was released. [/QUOTE] Wow, I had no idea. I just thought it was the one radio station with its head up its ass; now I see that the whole nation is in need of glass belly-buttons! At least the “good” modern rock station over the hill (as we north LA county types like to say) doesn’t resort to this particular edit. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/53 "2007-05-09T00:22:42Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] I’ve never heard the CD version (I don’t particularly care for Everlast), but this radio edit with its creative bleeping of those words has been the version that was played on radio since the song was released. [/QUOTE] I own the CD single (remember those) of “What It’s Like.” It includes the original version, a radio edit version, and another song. The radio edit has the first three edits mentioned by **Queen Bruin** , leaves “dimes” in and cuts out the last verse entirely, so we don’t even get to the “drugs” and “.45” and “gun”. (BTW: Dimes is not a marijuana reference, at least not in this song. The lyric is “I stroked the baddest dimes at least a coupla times before I broke they hearts” Apparently it is slang for good-looking women. [Urban Dictionary: dimes](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dimes)) ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/54 "2007-05-09T00:32:27Z")
[QUOTE=KayElCee] (BTW: Dimes is not a marijuana reference, at least not in this song. The lyric is “I stroked the baddest dimes at least a coupla times before I broke they hearts” Apparently it is slang for good-looking women. [Urban Dictionary: dimes](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dimes)) [/QUOTE] :smack: I mondegreened it as “smoked the fattest dimes”. I really should learn to pay better attention I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/55 "2007-05-09T00:36:20Z")
I’ll admit that I may be wrong in my understanding of how white culture of the 20s through 40s reacted to the word funk, and the music that was called that. I certainly don’t disagree that the artists making the music at the time embraced the word, without any negative connotations. However, when I asked my father (born 1936, grew up in NYC area) about this, his impression was that funk music was both specifically for African American music, and derogatory. The Wiki article that others have mentioned includes this quote, too, which makes me wonder just how much mainstream culture accepted funk as a value neutral description: > [@](#): > > As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when “funk” and “funky” were used increasingly in the context of soul music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. I don’t disagree that the term has become as positive as anyone might like, now. And even from the 70s on. I do believe that the racism of the early part of the twentieth century US culture was such that **any** music that was seen as distinctly African American in origin was, by definiton, inferior, until and unless it was co-opted by white musicians. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/56 "2007-05-09T00:51:35Z")
“Then they came for the white boys; and I said nothing, for I was not funky…” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/57 "2007-05-09T00:55:06Z")
But you are missing the central point, **OtakuLoki**. “Funk” as a music descriptor wasn’t a word selected by white people for its perceived derogatory meaning, the better to put down black music. It was a word that black musicians themselves first used to describe the music because of its _positive_ associations. Sex being a mostly positive thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/58 "2007-05-09T01:02:51Z")
Now your messin’ with a son of a \_\_\_\_\_\_; now your messin’ with a son a \_\_\_\_\_\_. Heard Nazareth’s \*\*Hair Of The Dog \*\* played this way a few weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/59 "2007-05-09T01:03:16Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] I’ll admit that I may be wrong in my understanding of how white culture of the 20s through 40s reacted to the word funk, and the music that was called that. [/QUOTE] Oh, and was there funk music in the 1920s-40s? I thought it emerged (going by that name, anyway) in the 1960s to early 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/60 "2007-05-09T02:39:54Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] What about my favorite Beatles record; is it it now The \_\_\_\_ Album? [/QUOTE] No, it’s still called **The Beatles** , just as it always was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228.md?page=4)