Music should never be censored for any reason.
11d 1h ago by lemmy.world/u/ComicalMayhem in unpopularopinion
I'm so fucking tired of clicking on a song and finding out it's the fucking censored version halfway through. It genuinely pisses me off, even if the censors are well done, it still fucks up the flow of the music. Songs should never be censored regardless of the amount of swears and innuendos; they're a form of expression by artists and creators. Oh, what about the kids? Yeah fuck right off. Parent your children better. They're eventually going to learn what curses are anyways.
Yep. Don't like it, don't listen to it (or watch it, or read it). Your views shouldn't remove my ability to enjoy something as it was intended.
Suck a dick up til you hiccup, motherfuckers.
But the record label wants maximum air time
Your problem isn't censorship, your problem is relaying on services to listen to music. Be it Spotify or the Radio, you're listening to public music; you have to share. And preferences of others are going to override yours, be it business decisions, or just people who'd rather hear the censored version.
You're trying to ride the bus, and mad because it doesn't pick you up and drop you off at your front door.
Bro tell me about.
Imo the greatest nu metal album of all time is Hed PE's Broke. But Spotify only has the censored version, and let me tell you how incomprehensibly worse the album is without profanity.
Me, writing an Opera about OP's entire family's medical history:
I hate it as well because it creates a weird alternative reality where people only know the censored version of the song. Also very often the songs contain themes way to mature for kids and censoring a few rude words does not change that.
Unpopular, my ass lol
I doubt it is unpopular in Lemmy's demographic, but I think it probably is quite unpopular within the general population
I'll give you that—you could be right.
It’d definitely be unpopular in Lemmy’s demographic, which is quite pro-censorship and “circle jerk”-esque. There are hundreds if not thousands of moderator actions every day on here censoring and banning people for saying words that mods and users didn’t like, none of which can cause any actual harm.
In the backward and religious USSA probably.
I should mention that cunt Tipper Gore and her crusade.
No other country cares
Completely agree with you.
Also be surprised if this is an unpopular opinion.
It's going to switch from popular to unpopular once you say "songs that ask for the extermination of all people in Gaza" shouldn't be censored.
There should be a line where songs/anything should be censored, but curse words obviously aren't it.
Define "censored", I guess. It would ne best if they didn't exist, but if they're already there, bleeping out the slurs won't help.
Censorship isn't limited to bleeping out slurs.
I'm pretty happy I don't have to hear rap lyrics calling for my death blasting out of cars, so I'm not against all censorship in general.
I think OP's opinion is badly phrased and they're actually just talking about removing slurs, not all forms of censorship.
I remember listening to BBC radio 1 when they accidentally played the uncensored version of Closer of the Sunday afternoon chart countdown.
Not even this song?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_Hitler_(song)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge48j5lplo
American rapper Kanye West has been blocked from entering Australia over a song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
No, not even that should be censored. If someone wants to tell the world that they’re a piece of garbage, let them. Censorship is always bad and has no reason to exist.
I think there's a difference between blocking an entire song and censoring out / replacing a couple choice words in the middle
Was meaning to say: take a look at one of the less liberal countries' censorship lists, and tell me you would force the public to allow all of it.
Agree. If you want your music to be "kid friendly", then don't swear in said songs. Easy.
There are musicians that do go to extremes with jargon and swearing but nonetheless those are words. Words convey meaning, which convey ideas and experiences.
Collectivelly, there should be no need to worry if a song is "kid friendly". Parents, adults, listening to such music should teach children those words are valid in that context but not valid in others.
Education is better than censorship.
Ya I was going to mention that part about the kids too, agree with that also. It just gives me religious ick, because it reminds me of the same idea about sex and naked bodies and how poorly they're viewed by certain religions.
Censorship but it gets renamed as "shame".
Censorship is becoming a major problem, all these streaming sites control everything now, they can do whatever they want with the movies it seems, the free streaming sites usually edit the movies and I found Amazon did a few times as well back when I was using that crap, when those movies aren't available anywhere else and the streaming ones are all censored then people have to essentially break the law to see the original movie, which I have no personal problem with, but it's just a hassle. Hang on to that physical media. I know this is about music but it's basically the same.
The most bizarre censored song I've heard is probably Where The Hood At. For some reason, the only censored line of the entire song is "empty out, reload, and throw more slugs"... even on the "explicit" version. The rest of the song with lots of homophobia and such is completely uncensored.
I know right, everyone is all what about the kids? But as our very president and his pals said and did over and over, fuck the kids.
Agree, no censorship for music and art in general. Censorship also involves some songs being not available to stream. While not as convenient, I buy all my music and (I might be on a spectrum or two) play it when it's listening time. I LOVE music, but not while doing other activities. Rarely though, some wallpaper music.
To confirm, if we don’t want our kids to hear cursing, we should avoid the song.
But if you don’t want to hear the censored version, you cannot avoid it?
The censored version of "Last Resort" is my thirteenth reason. The whole song is about being lost, angry and in pain, how else are people meant to express it?! 😑
Summer of ’69 by Bryan Adams was recently censored. The song seems to be about Americana and teen romance, but at the end he says “me and my baby in a 69” but people still didn’t get what it was about. Then he told people to check his birth year. All of a sudden that line had to be changed.
And yet The Who still get to say “who the fuck are you?” in Who Are You…
Hot take, the radio edit of CeeLo Green's "Fuck You" actually flows better.
You know, this is actually the one singular song where I actually prefer the censored version. 99.99% of the time it just dulls the edge of the song and nothing more, but in this case it kinda changes the meaning of the song. To me "forget you" sounds like he's trying (albeit struggling) to move on from the girl. The "fuck you" version comes off as way more bitter. Plus like you said, it flows better
The radio edit I've heard just blanks out the "fuck" and the n-word and doesn't change anything to have altered the flow. Is there another version or something?
I always assumed this was the radio edit. I think I was mostly listening to classic rock stations at the time...
That does sound better than what I've heard and now I am wondering why the radio station I heard it on choose the crappy one.
Wholeheartedly agree. Tried of hypocrites and psuedo saints forcing their sensitivity on art. I want to hear Eminem say weird ass shit. I want Limp Bizkit music to say fuck. Same thing for Lola Young. These lame ass nancy's don't like it? They should be the ones to listen to something else. The original song/music was written as is to express something. It needs to be delivered RAW in its purist form. Not to be watered down to appease people who can't figure out how to navigate the social situation of just not listening to it.
This has to be a streaming service issue? I don't purchase censored music and therefore don't have this issue .
Do streaming services seriously put everyone in the children's tier? That and live versions would have me cancelling so fast.
There has to be an Adult option, right?
I know some songs on Spotify have the explicit symbol and are also censored lol. Its brutal.
This is something I've wanted for a long time. Always seemed dumb to me that you can block explicit music, but not the opposite. I want a toggle that blocks censored & radio versions, along with live versions. But it seems like we live in an era of user option/choice is steadily being reduced.
as long as we don't ban the uncensored versions it's just more choice for the people. i believe that language is power, and ridiculous overuse hurts it and our expression. thus there are songs of which i prefer the clean versions.
I'm guessing you meant censored, and not "uncensored", as the censored versions would be the clean versions you prefer.
The only concern for you would be that clean versions won't be made. And, that's the artists' choice, regardless of whether censorship exists.
I mean uncensored. Usually censorship is bad because only the censored version is allowed to exist. There's little problem with censored versions existing if little happens to the original versions.
as long as we don’t ban the uncensored versions it’s just more choice for the people.
It should be up to the artist. If an artist wants to record and clean and an explicit version, that's cool.
But if an artist only records one (explicit) version then broadcasters and distributors should absolutely be banned from altering that song by censoring words. If they don't like it they can choose to not play it.
Art and creativity in general is for building upon and innovating. Of course, individual agency has a very good reason to be a big thing, but most of the time artists aren't saying clean versions should go poof.
More proof that fediverse is just 4 edgy teens in a trenchcoat
Some are made by the artists themselves.
The reason is that they can be played on the radio, and sold in Walmart. Those are less of an issue now, but they aren't nothing. Which is why it's still done.
I would say it must be done more creatively. With a similar sounding funny word.
Nine Inch Nails' Closer could be:
"I want to [Cluck/Duck/Chuck] you like an animal"
Money. The real ultimate reason for the censoring. There is a large contingent of pearl clutchers and religious nutters in the world that believe no-no words have real power (nevermind that the replacement words mean the exact same thing or the bleeps don't actually obfuscate the intended words - real lower half of the intelligence bell curve kinda stuff). And upsetting them means less money in the label's/artist's pocket.
Money indeed.
I feel that when Weird Al sung Closer as part of the Alternative Polka, the censoring greatly added to the experience.
+1 for Weird Al. His non-swearing is part of his art, and it's one of the few times where I 100% respect it.
Also, his most recent polka ("Polkamania," 2024) has some perfect censorship using drip, donkey, and cat sound effects.
Yeah, yah messin' with some 💧🐴😺
I always lose it at that part.
Sometimes it's funny
Censoring swears and innuendoes is the tip of the iceberg. In this era of mass consolidation, the importance of local, expert media curation cannot be overstated. Support your local dj.
If it doesn't meet the standard of hate speech it should be allowed.
"Hate speech"
As defined by who?
You want Trump defining it?
Hate speech is speech that asks for harm and/or death upon another person or group.
If a song would feature hate speech you'd ban the entire song, not censor the content.
The music can't be hate speech, only the content (lyrics) can be hate speech.
Well, yeah. I don't think anyone has every complained about a censored instrumental track.
Meaning it is exactly the content that could be hate speech. Change the content, and the song is no longer hate speech.
This sounds fine until you find out there are genres such as "black metal, but racist" and "punk, but racist".
...So, does having the slurs bleeped out make listening to a punk but racist song OK?
...no, their entire catalogues should be destroyed. Why on earth would I mean the slurs are the only problem?
...Because the thread is about censored song versions, with slurs bleeped out.
...No, it's about censoring music. You... Look, I don't know how to not make this seem condescending, but you do know censorship isn't just beeping the slurs, right? Like you know of the definition of the word "censorship", not just that bleeping the slurs is a type of censorship, right?
I don't know how to not make this seem condescending either, but the literal first line in the OP is "I'm so fucking tired of clicking on a song and finding out it's the fucking censored version halfway through."