Censorship

Censorship can be described as the suppression of something that is considered to be in the category of taboo language. This is often seen in music that is played on radios, TV's and other media outlets. The genre which is most commonly affected by the use of censorship is rap. Swear words and other phrases or references can be supressed by the media outlet to protect its audience and stop any possible offense. OFCOM is the communication regulator that is in charge of censorship and it is the role of OFCOM to make sure no offensive or inappropriate material reaches the audience. One artist who is regularly censored is rapper Eminem. Much of his music includes profanity's and references which are deemed inappropriate by OFCOM and therefore not aired. Much of his music has been known to rarely be played on radios or channels like MTV due to the high amount of censorship in the songs he makes.

Artists like Eminem would be against the use of censorship in his songs. The use of censorships means original explicit songs he has made can either not be aired until after the watershed, which ends at 9pm in the UK, or not be aired at all. The result of this is that it reduces his fan base significantly as people no longer have that method of hearing his music through radio and TV. This also means artists like Eminem are unable to attract new fans as people are no longer able to 'stumble across' new music of his on the radio and TV if it is not being played. In many instances censorship and the deletion of words means the rhythm of the song is affected, and Eminem may also have issues with the sound of the song being changed due to the censorship.

The record label that signs artists could go both for or against censorship. The reasons for opposing could be the fact that again, it means less exposure for the artists due to fewer media channels broadcasting their music, or at least the original song. However, if parents of young children feel that their child is being protected sufficiently by censorship then there is a likelihood that sales of CD's will go up as they know the child is not being exposed to explicit material. For the record label this would be an increase in consumers and therefore profits.

Many parents for this reason would be for censorship. The security in knowing that there child is being protected against what they consider inappropriate material is one that would give a parent comfort and probably encourage them to purchase music by those artists whose music has been censored. Many parents have the belief that the topics brought up by musical artists in their songs, again particularly in the rap genre, have an influence on the way their child acts. Censorship helps this problem along with thing like age rated music and parental guidance stickers on certain CD's.

Some parents however have been known to be against the use of censorship. Many feel that their children have not been influenced by the material they have been exposed to and would not have an issue with their child listening to explicit music.

Fans of Eminem would strongly oppose censorship as it limits the amount of coverage the artists receive. Originals of songs that are uncensored will not be able to be listened too due to the altered versions of his songs that are played on radios, if they are even played at all. Older fans of his will find censorship irritating and unnecessary as the material in his lyrics will be something they are old enough to listen to, so censorship does not apply for them.

British music and radio channels are two industries which gets benefits and drawbacks from the use of censorship. Similarly to the record label for the artist, these industries, through the use of censorship are narrowing downing their number of viewers and listeners. People are less likely to listen to censored, altered versions of their favourite songs and this may result In people either changing channel or station when a rap song like Eminem's comes on as they know it will not be the same version they are used to. However it may also lead to an increase in viewers and listeners as parents can happily play stations like kiss and capital FM knowing that their children will not hear anything rude.

My personal opinion is that artists should not have their music videos and songs censored. This is because I believe even by editing words out of songs, the topics that are being spoken of like violence and drug abuse are things that can also negatively influence children. So although they are being sheltered from particular bad words, the actual topic of many rap songs may provide a worse influence on a child's behaviour