# Why do US music "clean" radio edits have such mild words censored? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673 "2014-03-27T11:48:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/21 "2014-03-27T16:10:48Z")
I was pretty surprised when I visited Australia and heard uncensored songs on the radio. The one that stands out is “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine which contains the line: _Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!_ repeated several times followed by _Motherfucker!_. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/22 "2014-03-27T16:23:34Z")
What I’ve heard is the song edit going to another verse and dropping in the word from that verse in place of the offending lyric. Steve Miller’s “Big Old Jet Airliner” for example would be thus sanitized into “Funky kicks going down in the city”. Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” was changed to “The all time loser has got him by the fun” instead of balls. The “fun” coming from the line “His woman and his best friend in bed and having fun”. Silly, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/23 "2014-03-27T16:35:42Z")
I’m confused why they edit “Blurred Lines” from “You’re the hottest bitch in this place.” to “You’re the hottest ho in this place.” Ho is better than bitch? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/24 "2014-03-27T16:43:57Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The BBC has banned some very ordinary songs over the years, including God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday and I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles… Both now played, uncensored, on Radio 2. Sorry for the tangent, but I’ve googled the lyrics of _God Bless the Child_. I agree it’s very ordinary. What possible reason would they have for banning this song? ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/25 "2014-03-27T16:48:08Z")
I listen to satellite radio mostly these days and the it is strange to hear the differences in censoring even between sirius channels. Example: one station plays Britney Spears’ _Work Bitch_ unedited but another changes it to _Work Work_. And I laugh when Kanye Wests’ **Bound 2** has the word “spunk” bleeped out. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/26 "2014-03-27T16:51:39Z")
There’s a local metal station here that censors 'masturbation" from a Greenday song. Yet they play this stupid “The bitch is back” song which apparently is in no way offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/27 "2014-03-27T16:52:10Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Friends who work in the radio industry tell me that basically if the record company provides them with a censored version, they play it. In that sense the industry is kinda self-regulating. Record companies provide censored versions to radio stations because the stations often won’t play their music if it’s not censored out of fear of FCC fines. The record companies themselves decide exactly what to censor, based on sometimes vague FCC guidelines, which gives a lot of inconsistency. Yup. While I can’t deny some individual radio stations don’t edit their own bowdlerized versions of songs (in fact, I’m certain that does happen in some cases), by and large it’s the “radio edit” supplied by the record company. Steve Miller’s “funky kicks” or the missing “who the fuck are you?” from The Who would be prime examples. Some (many) “radio edits” are also done for time. The entire verse with the “faggots” in Money for Nothing is cut from the radio edit … in fact, that’s the usual version I’ve heard on the radio back when it was a hit. A station wanting to play the full song would probably need to play the cut off the album, rather than using the single version provided by the record company. My addition to the thread (and another example of a supplied radio edit) is Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind. In the line “doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break” the words _crystal meth_ had their syllables jumbled up into gibberish. First time I heard that I was taken aback, as that was a new form of censoring lyrics for me (not bleeped, no sound cut out, but jumbling up the word). I have heard that method in at least one other song since, though. Can’t let the kiddies hear the words “crystal meth,” I guess. “Mom, what’s crystal meth?” “Damn it, honey, now I have to call the fucking FCC to complain about why I have to explain drug shit to you kids!” ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/28 "2014-03-27T16:52:26Z")
It’s kinda like when Kidz Bop covers songs that might have some “objectionable” words, so they censor / change them. I always wonder what the criterion is for it. That being said, my ideal mixtape would have a Kidz Bop cover of Guns N’ Roses’s “Get in the Ring” from _Use Your Illusion II_. Unaltered. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/29 "2014-03-27T18:14:20Z")
The rock station I listen to in Tucson plays edited versions of “Money For Nothing” leaving out the “little faggot” verse and Pink Floyd’s “Money” blanking the word “shit” from “bullshit.”. However, they’ll play Charlie Daniels’ “Uneasy Rider” with the word “asses” intact and “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” with the line “son of a bitch.” And they regularly play “Hair of the Dog” by Nazareth. (“Now you’re messing with a son of a bitch.”) ---
**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:** [March 27, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/30 "2014-03-27T18:28:58Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Another example that’s even more comical: Disturb’s “Down With the Sickness”. > > The radio version edits out a prolonged rant that’s profane and, well, pretty disturbed. And that’s fine. But at the beginning, there’s a mumbled line that sounds like it might be “Oh, shit.” The second word get censored out on the radio version. There are actually two radio edits of “Down With the Sickness.” One cuts the rant entirely and the other leaves it in while blanking all the fucks. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I listened to KROQ when I lived in L.A. KROQ is called an ‘alternative’ station that appeals to a younger crowd. (I never grew up, and am nearly as old as Kevin & Bean!) I always wondered why they edited ‘tits’ out of Sublime’s _Wrong Way_. Seems like an innocuous word to me, especially for that audience in that city. You gotta remember, the most common radio edit for “Wrong Way” was made back in the mid 90s. Everything was a bit more conservative back then (in recent years, I’ve heard it without blanks). Plus, the tits in question belong to a 12 year old who is being raped by her father. That may have had something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/31 "2014-03-27T22:55:18Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Sorry for the tangent, but I’ve googled the lyrics of _God Bless the Child_. I agree it’s very ordinary. What possible reason would they have for banning this song? From the Wikipedia article on BBC banned records: Files at the BBC’s Written Archives Centre in Caversham, Berkshire now available for public inspection show that the Dance Music Policy Committee, set up in the 1930s, took the role of Britain’s cultural guardian seriously: one 1942 directive read: We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country in the fourth year of war.[1] ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/32 "2014-03-27T23:07:33Z")
I just want to say that I don’t see anything odd about the divisions in the OP. The words removed are more offensive than the words that aren’t. Piss is crude, but cock is sexually crude. Balls are, of course, also sexual. Ass is weird, in that it’s not necessarily sexual, but is always treated like one of the seven big swear words. Bitch, however, is just a slam on a person, and thus is okay–even though I guess I could see the argument that it should be worse than “ass,” but that would only apply with the personal use of ass, like in smart ass or wise ass. For some reason, the body part is treated like a sexual crude word. But that’s how everyone treats it, not just the people making radio edits. I do agree that ho is worse than bitch, though. Again, it’s the sexual aspect. Bitch is not sexual. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/33 "2014-03-27T23:35:28Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > Files at the BBC’s Written Archives Centre in Caversham, Berkshire now available for public inspection show that the Dance Music Policy Committee, set up in the 1930s, took the role of Britain’s cultural guardian seriously: one 1942 directive read: > > We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country in the fourth year of war. That is a truly excellent idea which should be applied with rigour as everyday philosophy by every person. Glurge kills. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/34 "2014-03-27T23:46:21Z")
Censorship…the bad words are in the ears of the beholder. Or as Tom Lehrer said, > [@](#): > > All books can be indecent books > Though recent books are bolder, > For filth (I’m glad to say) is in > the mind of the beholder. > When _correctly_ viewed, > _Everything_ is lewd. > (I could tell you things about Peter Pan, > And the Wizard of Oz, there’s a dirty old man!) ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/35 "2014-03-28T00:10:15Z")
My favorite example of this is Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” where “Makin’ love in the green grass” in the last verse is replaced with the “Laughin’ and a-runnin’, hey hey” line from the first verse. For one thing, it’s an awkward edit that messes with the flow of the lyrics, and for another thing… “Makin’ love” is censored? Really? Maybe… _maybe_… I could see folks being a little hinky about it back in 1967. But I still hear the censored version on the radio today, and it drives me nuts! ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/36 "2014-03-28T01:54:12Z")
I used to listen to a local alternative station called “The Edge.” I stopped when I heard their radio edited version of “What It’s Like,” where in addition to the expected profanity edits, they took out pretty much every sex, drugs and violence related phrase. “Cutting off his balls” censored “balls,” “whore” was cut out, even “chrome .45” was cut. There really wasn’t much left of the song after that. And I decided if that was the “edgy alternative” I may as well stick with a fuddy-duddy station. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/37 "2014-03-28T03:32:13Z")
The three most ridiculous radio edits that I have heard are: [ol] [li]Foreigner’s _ **Dirty White Boy** _ - The “White Boy” portion was blanked out which I found odd as the entire membership of the singing group was White and the song was fairly complimentary.[/li][li]The same occurred during the playing of the Wild Cherry song “_ **Play that Funky Music,White Boy** _” - Again, the “White Boy” was edited out, the band was entirely staffed by White males and the song itself is meant to be **complimentary** to the singer.[/li][li]The BlackEyed Peas song “_ **Let’s Get Retarded** _” had its entire chorus completely changed to “_ **Let’s Get It Started** _” - This is despite the fact that the song itself doesn’t disparage the developmentally disabled.[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/38 "2014-03-28T03:39:50Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > The BlackEyed Peas song “_ **Let’s Get Retarded** _” had its entire chorus completely changed to “_ **Let’s Get It Started** _” - This is despite the fact that the song itself doesn’t disparage the developmentally disabled. I think _retarded_ is well on its way to the dustbin of vernacular, about to land right on top of _faggot_ and _bitch_, where it’s no longer going to be OK to say even if you aren’t literally referring. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/39 "2014-03-28T05:43:13Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > I think _retarded_ is well on its way to the dustbin of vernacular, about to land right on top of _faggot_ and _bitch_, where it’s no longer going to be OK to say even if you aren’t literally referring. I don’t think “Bitch” is going anywhere anytime soon and if anything is becoming even _more_ common as a generic insult. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673/40 "2014-03-28T14:07:33Z")
The peculiarities of censorship often amaze me. On US network TV you can say “God” or “damn” but you can’t put them together. So when a movie airs that does have them both, one or the other gets bleeped. But it is seemingly random as to which. Just today I saw a headline with “b\*\*\*\*y” in it quoting someone. What? Oh, a British site. That’s “bloody”. Hardly offcolor at all to me. Surprised it’s consider a swear in the UK still. Why do certain words get bleeped in songs and not others? Because. That’s why. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-music-clean-radio-edits-have-such-mild-words-censored/684673.md?page=3)