Censorship on MTV, hypocritical much?
(This is a repost of a thing I wrote about 6 months ago. Still bugs me, so I'm posting it here too.)
 I watch a lot of MTV. A LOT. More specifically, MTV Rocks. Itâs one of the sub-channels that actually shows MUSIC VIDEOS (amazing, right?). Itâs on pretty much all the time when my parents arenât home, and thereâs a tone of good stuff on there. Itâs how I got into Mumford & Sons, My Chemical Romance, and You Me At Six, to name a few. Then they also play quite a bit of crap. And Foo Fighters. Sooooo much Foo Fighters.
Whenever I get really irritated with MTV for playing the same stuff over and over, or having ad-breaks between every other song, they win me back by playing something great, like Young Guns or Kids In Glass Houses. But one thing that is hard for me to overlook is the censorship.
It started to really bug me when I realized that they were editing out the word âdrugsâ on MCRâs Na Na Na (Na NaâŠ.)(Na Na âtil infinity and beyond). At first I just laughed and thought it was ridiculous. I mean, come on, itâs not like someone will become a drug addict just because they hear a band singing the word. If someone was to actually become a fan of MCR through this song, and want to be like them and, um, like their songs, they would probably become quite the opposite really, considering Gerard Wayâs past. So I started getting a bit annoyed with the whole thing.
Then they played Steel Pantherâs Death To All But Metal. Here, they left out pretty much every other WORD. It was absolutely idiotic! Why even show the bloody thing, if all we get to hear are beeps?? (They actually replaced most of the âcurse wordsâ with fart sounds, which was even more irritatingâŠ) Iâm not even a fan of Steel Panther, but Christ, I was just sitting there going âWhat the fuck is this?â.
And then today happened. I didnât know whether to laugh or to cry. They had actually removed the word âdrunkâ from the Twin Atlantic song Yes, I Was Drunk. Unbelievable. What harm could that word possibly make? The story of that song is quite sad, and it is about drunk-driving for a rush after breaking up with someone, which, I can agree, isnât a brilliant message. But if you donât like that message, then donât show the video! Donât just take out one word, that isnât even a âbadâ word, because that is not going to make any difference. It is only confusing and irritating, and it actually kinda ruined my day a tiny bit.
I mean I can sort of understand the whole âLetâs not say bad words on TVâ-thing to some extent. Sometimes, curse words really are inappropriate, and honestly, not very child-friendly. But a channel like MTV, which CREATED shows like Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore and most recently The Valleys, really could not be more hypocritical in this case. If you consider the fact that they removed the WORD âdrunkâ from a song, but create and show TV SERIES about people constantly GETTING DRUNK, it just make absolutely NO SENSE. If you air a show like Jersey Shore, then Iâm sorry, but you canât pretend to take some moral high road by editing out words in songs, especially words that arenât even curse words. If you are going to censor songs, then you should bloody well not even air TV shows like that, even if you âbeepâ the âfuckââs and âshitââs, or blur out the vomit and the nip-slips.
Honestly, I think I swear too much, and I get that it sounds really bad sometimes. But censoring songs wonât make me change, and it wonât make much of a difference to anyone, except maybe Sarah Palin-wannabes. It pretty much ruins the songs that these bands have spent hours, days, or even years writing, and that they were probably really proud of (not sure about the Steel Panther tune on this bit, mind.). I would personally feel so insulted if I wrote a song and someone decided to censor it, because not only might they be changing the message, but the removal of words draws attention away from the actual song, at least for me, and I know that it does for others as well. (Try listening to Mumford and Sonsâ Little Lion Man with not only the ââfuckâ removed, but the instruments as well, without wanting to hit the person responsible in the head with your speakers.)(My speakers are REALLY big and heavyâŠ)(Iâm not promoting violence here!)
But I will most probably wake up tomorrow and turn on MTV, out of habit. Then they will either annoy the shit out of me, or make my day by playing something great. And I will continue to do this until I hear another irritating censoring, and then I will protest for a day. Because it does really suck, and the hypocrisy of it all irritates the living daylight out of me. It feels like the world's getting dumb-ified by companies doing this sort of thing, and I hate that.
I really have to start working on that TV channel I have planned, donât I?
Well, after reading that, you might need something to cheer you up, so here's a gif of a panda and a toy horse, that also kinda illustrates how I feel:
(I will be using that gif A LOT)
