I read, with some astonishment, a report on Slashdot.org that the largest radio network in the US, ClearChannel, is now censoring certain music for the duration of this “crisis.” Here’s the initial article:
And here’s the actual list of censored songs (sorry about the rude URL)
Should private commercial interests censor their playlists in this fashion? Sure, you’ve got to be sensitive to the audience, but seriously, some antiwar songs were banned, like “99 Luftballoons” and and John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Go read the list and pick out your own favorite illogically censored songs. I’ll pick “Mack the Knife” by Bobby Darin (do they still play this on the radio?!?)
I’ll just post a short bit of the list, you can judge for yourself.
Drowning Pool “Bodies”
Mudvayne “Death Blooms”
Megadeth “Dread and the Fugitive”
Megadeth “Sweating Bullets”
Saliva “Click Click Boom”
P.O.D. “Boom”
Metallica “Seek and Destroy”
Metallica “Harvester or Sorrow”
Metallica “Enter Sandman”
Metallica “Fade to Black”
All Rage Against The Machine songs
Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole”
Godsmack “Bad Religion”
Tool “Intolerance”
Soundgarden “Blow Up the Outside World”
AC/DC “Shot Down in Flames”
AC/DC “Shoot to Thrill”
AC/DC “Dirty Deeds”
AC/DC “Highway to Hell”
AC/DC “Safe in New York City”
AC/DC “TNT”
AC/DC “Hell’s Bells”
Black Sabbath “War Pigs”
Black Sabbath “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”
Black Sabbath “Suicide Solution”
Dio “Holy Diver”
Steve Miller “Jet Airliner”
Van Halen “Jump”
Queen “Another One Bites the Dust”
Queen “Killer Queen”
Pat Benatar “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”
Pat Benatar “Love is a Battlefield”
Oingo Boingo “Dead Man’s Party”
REM “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”
Talking Heads “Burning Down the House”
“Mighty K.C.” the song by For Squirrels about Kurt Cobain’s death started playing yesterday (I had my winamp on shuffle) and I’ve been listening to it since then. It’s sort of awful, but sort of comforting too. It wasn’t on the list that you mentioned, but I’m sure that no radio station is going to be playing it for a while.
I am listening to an independent station out of Boston and I know they have played at least some of the songs on that list. Thank goodness! I really don’t agree with this over the top political correctness.
While they have the right not to play certain songs, we have the right (now more than ever with live internet feeds from just about anywhere) to listen to something else.
Sheesh! what’s next, are they gonna ban “Johnny Got His Gun” from high school libraries?
Is there some site that can explain to me why they censored this songs?:
Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian”
Alanis Morissette “Ironic”
Barenaked Ladies “Falling for the First Time”
U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal” (interesting, the Michael Jackson version is not banned)
Pd. Hey Ariadne, exactly what article where you talking about?
The Bangles song is probably viewed as being insulting to Egyptians (though I believe its genesis is a scene from the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird) and therefore, to be avoided so as to not stir up any further anti-middle eastern sentiments. The inclusion of Ironic is easy to explain, an entire verse is about a guy’s last thoughts as he dies in a plane crash. Given that people were making phone calls moments before dying in crashes last week, it’s likely to be a little too close to home for some people. I don’t know the BNL song, can’t help you there.
U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday is another song about war, at least indirectly. No war songs are permissible according to the standard. And lastly, the I’d guess that the AAF version of Smooth Criminal is mentioned but not the MJ version, because MJ’s isn’t in rotation on any Clear Channel stations, but AAF is hot and their cover of the song was heard practically every other hour until last Tuesday. Given the references to bloodstains, coming in through windows – like at the WTC? – and a general sense of an act of climactic violence, coupled with the lyric “You’ve been hit by, you’ve been struck by, a smooth criminal.” it’s probably also bound to touch on a raw nerve in someone.
While I think that some of the song choices are rather silly, I can understand Clear Channel modifying their playlists – it seems that every song on the “do not play” list is either related to war or makes reference to something violent. They are seeking to keep their programming positive and uplifting for the benefit of their listeners, so they do not want the spectre of war or violence hanging over the songs that they play. MTV, VH1 and BET have done the same, and most independent radio stations have made similar changes in light of last Tuesday’s events and the sense of uncertainty and impending conflict that looms large on the national horizon. I, for one, welcome the chance to escape a little by turning on the radio and getting a break from violence, horror, death, war and misery. (Until they play one of those forsaken “tribute” songs, which, if they can’t be quashed on the basis of their maudlin, negative stupidity, ought to be condemned for their illegality. There’s nothing whatsoever “fair use” about cribbing sound bytes from TV and mixing them into a copyrighted piece of music. Blech.)
In the UK the national radio stations often moderate their playlists in times of crisis – I can remember Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight being banned by Radio 1 during the Gulf War, after the first Scud attacks.
I’m fairly sure the commercial stations follow their lead, too.
‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ is about the terrorist actions in Northern Ireland-hell, I think it’s HIGHLY appropriate, since it’s condemning it. Wasn’t it about one particular Sunday back in the Seventies, in Derry or something?
Dammit, I’m gonna go home and listen to that song. I have two mp3s of it-the original and a live version with Bono speaking out against the violence and saying, “Fuck the revolution! Is it the glory when men are killed in front of their families?”
Dammit, Bono ROCKS!!!
'How long, how long must we sing this song, how long, how long…
Thanks, tlw. I did know that the “Smooth Criminal” song was about violence, my amusement was that the original version was banned. I was picturing someone asking for it and the radio station airing it, because it was not banned. I had forgotten about the verse in the Alanis song. So, why is Louis Armstrong “It’s a wonderful world” banned? If I remember well, it was a happy song, right? And Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”? They don’t want to remind people of the attack, no matter that those are the news in all the other channels?
Yea, I agree with you, but some of the songs, even if they make reference of war, the reference is against it, like in the case of Sunday Bloody Sunday, or Imagine.
PD. I suppose you got tired then of hearing (and seeing) the “Overcome” video that they passed in VH1 this past weekend.
During the Gulf War, in the UK the bands ‘Massive Attack’ and ‘Bomb The Bass’ changed, inhte former case to simply ‘Massive’.
Anyway, is this not common practice. For instance I would not expect to hear ‘Runaway Train’ (by Soul Asylum) on the radio if a train crash is the main news, at any time.
This story is apparently false. Check out http://www.clearchannel.com/timages/article/Playlist-final.doc – it’s a statement by ClearChannel that they have not, in fact, issued a banned list, or any other kind of list of music that is not to be played.
Yet another of the thousands of false rumors flying around these days.
I think the whole idea of banning certain songs smacks of PC zealotry. It appears to be a little hypocritical too - if they want to be that stupid, they should ban songs like ‘Two Tribes’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood (that was played constantly by radio and TV stations during the Gulf War here in Australia, again that’s laconic Aussie humour for you).
Any why ban ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ without banning ‘Rock The Casbah’ by The Clash? Granted, ‘Rock The Casbah’ is in infinitely better song than EVERY Bangles song put together, but if they’re going to carry on like a pack of PC tossers they could at least show SOME continuity … sheesh!
Thanks WhatsIt for the link. What I get is that they as a whole have not banned anything, but that the local managers of the stations can decide which songs to play or not. If this is incorrect, please explain it to me.
I want to note that although MTV and VH1 changed their programation the last week, they aired some of the videos that are “banned” in the first link. For example, “Under the Bridge” have been receiving more airplay than in the previous weeks.
Nope, that’s about right. Although just to be 100% clear (you didn’t imply that you thought this in your post, just in case anyone was unclear), they didn’t issue a list at all, for managers to either decide to play or not. No list was issued. If a particular station manager wants to, say, not play “Walk Like an Egyptian” because of the line about all the cops hanging out in the donut shop or whatever, that’s up to the local manager.