I don’t know… my mp3 playlist the next afternoon just happened to have “The End of the Wold as we Know It” by Great Big Sea and “Eve of Destruction” by Barry Goldwater.
Good lord, that’s a lot of songs! I hardly even skimmed the list, but Ironic did pop out at me and I wondered what was so offensive about it. Then I found the lyrics. Yikes! I don’t think I’d want to be singing along to that particular song right now, myself. And frankly, I can understand why a radio station would choose not to play it. I think it’s actually kindof compassionate towards their listeners.
Maybe they just think Obla Di Obla Da is too happy-go-lucky and people don’t want to hear about how “life goes on” right now. That one kindof makes sense.
The others - dunno. But maybe it’s not such a bad idea to be aware of your audience’s feelings for a time and err on the side of caution, ya know?
Yes, well, isn’t Cat Stevens now the Muslim guy who dragged his ass out of hiding long enough to say “Yep. Definitely. That is one author who really should be killed”? I’ve felt kinda ooky about listening to his songs ever since then.
Yeah, the ol’ “Peace Train” was never quite the same after he said that…
Stations will often self-censor their playlist in response to tragedy and, when it’s so far-reaching, program managers at different stations in the same network (like Clear Channel) will often contact each other and confer. It can be kinda comforting to have someone else say, “No, you’re not overreacting, we pulled some songs too.”
I like to think of it more in terms of, he disembarked from it when Mr. Stevens became Mr. Islam. (Mister Islam? Is that a common name? Because it sounds like something you’d name a religious superhero. “Stand back, citizens, and fear no longer! Mister Christianity may have fallen, but Mister Islam is here!” <dramatic music>) After all, he had stopped making music for some time before that.
Oh good grief. Knowing it’s not an official ban list, I still say, “oh good grief.”
A couple days ago I was putting together the front page of The Anonymous Texas Newspaper. My supervisor had approved it, and I’d sent it to the press when she said, “I wonder if people will get offended by your main headline.”
I was puzzled. The overall theme of my Page One was about people trying to pull their lives back together, going back to work, that sort of thing. So my main headline had been “Picking up the pieces.”
My supervisor said she wondered if people would think we were referring to the fact that many of the dead are …well… in pieces.
I said, “If people are going to take my perfectly innocent headline in that way, they have bigger problems than I can possibly be held responsible for.”
There is a band from New Zealand called Shihad who are currently recording in L.A. (two good Shihad songs: Home Again and Pacifier). Apparently they are getting strong messages to change the band name because it is so reminiscent of Jihad. While I can’t really relate to censorship of the songs mentioned in this thread I do relate to the people who want Shihad to think of another name. What do you think?
Yeah, but I’m still glad to hear it’s a hoax. I mean, if you’re a radio station owner, and one of your DJ’s starts playing songs about air crashes and other assorted havoc the morning after such a disaster, then your problem is with your employee - not the songs at hand.
Mind you, I’m all for banning all Alanis Morissette songs. Just not because of the lyrics.
During the Gulf War apparently US radio stations weren’t allowed to play “Parachute” by the Hothouse Flowers (irish ex-busker band) because it contained the line “Take your parachute and jump” and it was feared that this would depress troops into going AWOL or something.
The bands popularity of course rose instantly because of the “banned” tag.
Nope no cites , but if Matt can get away with that I reckon I can sneak one unsubstantiated claim in unnoticed.
Sounds like you need to join the PAAMM (People Against Alanis Morissette’s Misic), Coldie. They used to be based here but the link now seems strangely dead. Well isn’t that ironic.