Censorship

When music videos first came about they were mainly performance based so therefore music videos were rarely censored for inappropriate content as performance based music videos only contain footage of the artist or band performing at a gig or concert. But now music videos are often concept or narrative based which give them a lot of creative freedom in their music videos, but this also means that it is easier and more likely for artists to include inappropriate content in their music videos, such as sex, drugs, alcohol and violence.
Censorship can stop a song or video being played on radio or television if it is seen as unfit for public viewing of all ages. Although, it is very difficult to have censorship on the Internet as it is such a vast Internet platform which is constantly being updated and added to, so censorship on the Internet is  quite minimal. But many websites, such as Youtube try to protect a younger audience from viewing inappropriate content by requiring viewers to log in to prove they are of the age consent, but this is very easy for people to get around.
The independent organisation, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) was set up in 2003 to regulate and sensor videos and songs. They do this to protect people who watch and listen to the TV and radio form unsuitable, harmful and offensive material.

Radio stations such as Kiss and Radio 1 have a lot of lyrical censorship on their stations when they play certain songs, as many songs which are in the charts today contain strong language and possible lyrics which could be seen as unsuitable, so the radio station would either have to play a radio edited version of the song, or blank out all words which are not suitable for a wide audience.

Eminem is an artists who is extremely controversial as the majority of his lyrics contain swear words and offensive language, such as rapping about beating women up,'You were supposed to love me
Now bleed! b**ch bleed!'. Also, many of his music videos contain questionably unsuitable content such as weapons, graphic gore and blood. Eminem has always been against censorship of his music as he argues that his lyrics are just him expressing his feelings and his past life, and that what he does won't influence children, and they are going to hear these words, which are classed as swear words and offensive language, eventually regardless of whether they listen to his music or not. He argues that he should be allowed to express himself and entertain his fans in anyway he wants, and that if someone is truly unstable enough to be influenced by his dark lyrics and videos, then they're are capable of many other crimes that are not influenced by Eminem.

However, many people are against Eminem and his lyrics and believe all of his songs should be strongly censored, mainly to protect children from hearing these offensive and possibly influential lyrics. A large portion of parents who have children that are fans of Eminem believe that his lyrics and videos should be censored as they could influence them to copy his lyrics due to the excessive use of violent and offensive lyrics, such as 'cut him up into pieces'. Also, due to the fact that he has young children as fans that look up to him and aspire to be him, they may come to believe that the contents in his lyrics and songs are normal behaviour and that the violence is acceptable behaviour and a normal thing to witness and do.

Music channels are similar to Radio stations in terms of censorship as they too have to have lyrical censorship, but they also have to censor the music video content as some music videos may contain too explicit content for younger viewers, for example the music videos for S&M by Rihanna and Hurricane by 30 Seconds to Mars were banned by different music channels, including MTV, due to their sexual content and both artists have now released edited versions of their music videos which are classed as suitable for daytime viewing.

Going back to Eminem, MTV rarely plays his music videos during the day as MTV has a very large and broad audience due to it being a multinational company which is also one of the biggest music channels in the UK, so they have to play music videos which have suitable content for people of all ages. Therefore they may not play music videos which contain graphic, violent footage, such as Eminem's music video for '3 a.m.' which contains images of him lying in a bath of blood and a dead man sprawled across his desk with some of his fingers chopped off.
Also, many of Eminems songs promote death and murder which could encourage harmful and violent behaviour in his fans, so MTV would not want to show his music videos on their channels as they may feel that the strong surrounding topic of death is too inappropriate for all of its viewers.

However, AKA Music Channel may have a different view on censorship of lyrics and music videos, and the main reason for this is that Channel AKA is a niche channel which only plays rap music, so therefore they may not wish to censor the music videos played on there channel as they have a niche audience, so the only viewers Channel AKA have are people who actually watch the channel to be able to see these specific music videos by artists such as Eminem. So the niche audience probably wouldn't mind if strong language and violent images were not censored as they want to be able to hear the whole song and watch the whole video without having certain content censored out.

It is not a simple task for music channels and radio stations to simply choose to not censor certain material or to use less censorship, as they have to protect their brand image and customer loyalty, and they don't want to cause a big controversy which could then result in a loss of viewers.
During a debate in class, we also talked about parent opinions on censorship for the specific artist Eminem. Many parents will have different views on censorship as it is based on personal opinion.
So parents that are against censorship of lyrics and music videos may argue that they don't mind whether certain contents is censored or not as the parent is in charge of what their child watches and listens to, so if the parent decides it is too explicit then they can simply turn it off and stop the child from listening or watching it, so it doesn't matter whether the song or video is censored. Also, some opinions are that censorship shouldn't be used so much on songs as they are only lyrics and visuals and therefore can't really have a huge affect on a child, and that, in regards to Eminem's music, he writes about his real life, so even if the lyrics do use strong words, it is only an artist expressing his life through words.
On the other hand some parents may be completely for censorship as they may believe that it is impossible to constantly filter what your child hears and sees, so therefore if the contents is already censored then the parents won't have to worry so much. Also, they may not want there child to listen and watch certain videos with inappropriate content and lyrics as it may influence there child to start copying the artists, especially if the child idolises the artist and look up to them.

Another controversial artist is Miley Cyrus, as she first came into the media as a Disney product, so she was therefore targeted at a young audience consisting of girls aged from around five years old to thirteen years old. Due to her double identity of 'Hannah Montana' frequently being shown on the Disney Channel as well as having to sing pop songs with perfectly innocent and acceptable lyrics, she also had to have a clean and innocent image so that she was an acceptable role model for her young target audience. However, when her TV series 'Hanna Montana' ended in 2011 she began to make music that she actually liked, as she is now 19 she decided to make music that is more relevant to her age. But this extreme change in her image has also drawn some controversial views towards her as she now has videos such as, 'Can't be Tamed' and 'Who Owns My Heart', which contain her wearing very minimal clothing, with leather boots and revealing tops, and provocative dancing. So some of her more recent music videos have been censored and are only shown after the watershed due to her revealing clothing. This change in her image has led to anger in parents of her fans, as when she sang under the persona of Hannah Montana she gained many young fans that looked up to her, and many of these young girls still do look up to her now, but parents don't want their children seeing Miley Cyrus' music videos whilst she is wearing this skimpy clothing as they don't want their children to look up to her and copy her. 

I understand that censorship is a sensitive issue and mainly based on personal opinion, as what one person may believe is inappropriate content, another may find perfectly acceptable. So my personal opinion is that large radio stations which a wide and varied audience should censor swear words, but not take words out of sentences due to them being seen as 'violent'. In addition, I think that music videos should be censored is there are only a few shots in them which contain inappropriate content, but if a music video contains a lot of censored footage, then the music video should just be played after the watershed as a music video with a lot of censored content would just ruin the audiences viewing experience.

For my own music video, I will follow many of the censorship rules to enable my music video to be played on music channels before watershed, this is because I want my music video to be seen by as many people as possible, so I want it to be able to be played at any time of the day. Also, due to the target audience being teenagers, young adults and some adults, it is important that my music video contains no content that has to be censored during the day in order to satisfy the wide target audience and make my music video as enjoyable as possible for the audience.