Censorship

Censorship

Censorship Overview
Censorship is the process whereby governing bodies can stop the publication of a product or text. Censorship of music can stop a song or video from being broadcasted on radio or television. Some institutions or artists choose to censor even if governing bodies do not.

Examples of Censorship on the BBC
An early example of censorship of music on the radio is from the 1940s. George Formby's "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was banned from BBC radio due to the "smutty lyrics“. The ostensibly offending lyrics were:

“The blushing bride she looks divine
The bridegroom he is doing fine
I'd rather have his job than mine
When I'm cleaning windows”


George Formby – When I’m Cleaning Windows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmAeijj5cM (Video)

http://www.popular-nostalgia.com/george-formby-when-im-cleaning-windows-264/ (Lyrics)

This video was banned because of the the reference to women saying that the bride looks “divine”. When the song was released in the 1940s, men was not allowed to refer to ladies like that, and therefore the BBC banned it because of the way it referred to women.



Self Censorship
Some artists and record labels choose themselves to censor certain language from their songs to avoid negative publicity for the artist and record label. This is because consumers might not like the language being used, and not censored and then either complain or not buy the album which would effectively decrease the record labels and artists sales.

Advantages of Self Censorship
 Record label and artist will do everything to benefit their music video in terms of censorship such as cutting out any inappropriate language, because it if they don’t it could be there record label and revenue their harming.

Disadvantages of Self Censorship
 What the record label/artist think is acceptable maybe the public may not think it’s acceptable.



The British Board of Film Classification
BBFC is an independent organisation that exists to regulate and classify the content of films shown in cinemas and released on video.

It does this by awarding a classification certificate based on what it considers to be appropriate age limits for the film in question and, if deemed necessary, by requesting that the film's distributor make changes to the film, usually in the form of cuts.

In most cases, these cuts are connected with material considered too extreme for a particular age category (sex, violence, drugs and swearing). Cuts are also made to ensure that films comply with the criminal law.

Almost all UK video releases have to be examined and classified by the BBFC - arguably the strictest system of video censorship anywhere in the Western world.


This is the “BBFC’s” Logo.

Advantages of the British Board of Film Classification Censorship
 It has had almost all of UK video releases examined and classified by them, which shows that they are reliable and trusted.



Disadvantage of the British Board of Film Classification Censorship
 They are arguably the strictest form of censorship meaning that they will cut out parts of the video they feel is inappropriate. They might cut out important parts in the video, rather than when self censorship you can re-film a inappropriate part.

Ofcom
Ofcom is an independent organisation created by the government, which controls and monitors what is broadcasted on TV and radio.

Some people believe young people should be protected from some violence, sexual explicitness, political and religious views in order to not manipulate people. For example a child may see that on a music video a rapper has a lot of girls, and money for being violent, this could then mean the youngster would want to emulate that and become violent to gain that respect that the rapper has.

On the other hand some people believe music should be shown how it is because it’s an art. This is because they believe that people should see the real music and video rather than censored and puzzled parts.

The Censorship for Our Music Video
The way in which we have censored our video is by using self censorship. We have censored or cut out any swearing in order to avoid negative feedback. The reason for this is due to the fact that, by keeping the inappropriate language it could affect the viewer’s opinion of the music video and artist, and therefore could mean them not watching it.