Censorship - Miss Miller

Censorship is the restriction of viewing on certain parts or all of any publication that may be seen as offensive or breach the conduct of security. It is used in the media in order to protect audiences, for example, swearing is contained in many songs, especially from the Rap/Hip Hop/R 'n' B genres. Some of the lyrics such as the swearing may have to be censored to prevent the risk of influence onto a younger audience. Lyrics are censored by either, replacing the offensive lyric with something similar but inoffensive, repetition of the lyric before, a 'bleep' sound, silence or a slur. Likewise with artists in music videos, some content may be shown in a sexual nature, not appropriate for the viewing of all audiences. Therefore, this is censored to ensure that offence is not caused and for all audiences to be able to watch the video without any harm or negative influence. Music videos are censored most commonly by blurring the offensive content or by a black box to cover it. The most common use of censorship is carried out before the watershed as it helps to eliminate offence t the younger generation but also allows the more maturer audience a chance to see/listen to what they want, free from censorship.

Ofcom is the regulator and competition authority for UK communications industries. It regulates TV and radio, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services and the airwaves which wireless devices use. They ensure that people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material. They do the same with music videos and songs with their artists, they regulate and analyse the content and decide when to censor particular content in aim to restrict the audience from seeing/hearing offensive material.

Rihanna's 'We Found Love' music video was censored due to its antisocial behaviour in is content including drug use, drinking alcohol, smoking, tattooing, nudity, sexual behaviour and gambling (examples are screenshotted to the left). This type of behaviour featured is seen on a bad influence on younger generations and especially Rihanna's target audience which is a younger one. Parents also would feel concerned that their child could have access to videos that have contents within such as this. Consequently, to stop the influence on younger generations, it was not shown before the watershed. However, Rihanna feels strongly about the fact that she does not agree with censorship and believes that it should be the artist's decision whether they want their work to be censored at certain times or not. Though, Ofcom have a set of regulations that have to be obeyed by in order to make sure everyone is satisfied from television channels to parents. Not just music videos, Rihanna's song lyrics have also been censored at times for example in her song 'Bitch Better Have My Money'. 'Bitch' is silenced in the clean version of the song, so instead of the line 'bitch better have my money' it sounds as 'better have my money'. This is because this is a swear word that would be seen as inappropriate for the use of by someone from a younger age. 

Artist's Point of View - Against Censorship

From an artist's point of view, censorship is seen as restricting them from expressing themselves, whether that be personality or music and their emotion in the song. Rihanna disagrees with the use of censorship, for example, she often wearing minimal clothing in her music videos which could be labelled as nakedness to some extent. She is not ashamed of this and believes that nakedness shows that she is free and not afraid of judgement which also helps to promote a healthy body. With this is mind, she believes that she could be seen as a good role model from this as it promotes an attitude for doing what you want and not letting others affect your decisions/actions. As she is growing older, the audience are too and she believes that in this society and this generation, what she does is not seen as a sin and if it is you don't have to follow her. Even for a child, a parent can take away the access to her videos/songs if they are so worried about the influence on their child. Without censorship, memorable music videos can be made because they become daring and unique, different to most that already exist at the moment. A lack of censorship means that she feels she can attract men and women - men who fancy her and women who are envious and aspire to be like her.  Rihanna openly disagrees with censorship from the way she mocks it in photo shoots and in her music video for 'S & M' she wears a 'censored' bandeau to further mock the issue (both examples shown below). It's as if she is trying to show that it would be censored anyway, so by mocking it beforehand makes it more humorous and puts her view across a lot more vividly and forcefully.

As well as Rihanna, Eminem, another popular artist of today is also against censorship to the extent of which he thinks it should be banned. He believes that the parents are to blame because they should teach their children morals and what they want them to see but not restrict them from seeing the content because they will eventually manage to see it anyway. He believes that some content that you are exposed to will only affect you if you're already crazy because you don't know how to part the good with the bad and the negative influence with the good influence.

Record Label's View - Against Censorship

Rihanna's record label is 'Rock Label' that is very successful and was founded by Jay-Z. They generally manage artists from the majority of the R 'n' B and Hip Hop genre. They disagree that their artists should have particular features of their content censored. The record label believe that is doesn't give the songs, nor music videos justice, and they cannot be fully appreciated to the extent at which they should. Without the 'parental advisory' sticker, a wider audience is attracted which means that more songs are able to be sold. This threat of the sticker puts a contemplation on the audience's  thoughts when they are deciding whether to buy the song or not as they are questioning whether the content will be appropriate for them. Without censorship, the songs and music videos that are supposed to be censored become controversial, gaining more publicity as more people are talking about it. This promotes the song/music video as it is then mentioned in magazines, online articles, newspapers, social media, etc. From this publicity, more people decide to listen/ watch to the song/music video in question and therefore, increases viewings and sales and further increasing profit and turnover. Rihanna has many millions of fans and so the record label believe that if the content she was producing was so harmful, why would so many people like, appreciate and idolise her? Most of what is supposed to be censored of Rihanna's are excerpts of her life. She writes songs about her personal experiences for example, abusive relationships. When this is censored, the audience cannot relate as well and so the meaning and emotion intended for the song cannot be put across. Consequently, this restricts giving the audience what they want. Because of her popularity, she is influencing pop today as it is not the same as it once was, today it is perceived differently and a lot more explicit. Rihanna is a human just like everyone else, and she as an artist should be able to do what she wants and as a record label, they will support her through this.

Parents - For Censorship
There are many parents that are concerned for their child's exposure to content displayed through media in music videos, television programmes, songs, etc. Therefore, they are in favour of censorship which is supported by the following study carried out by Ofcom. They found that on a research of 1,054 parents, all of them agreed on a concern about music videos. They voted on their main concerns: 
- (6%) Sexually explicit content
- (6%) Overly sexual performances
- (5%) Offensive language
- (5%) Nakedness/ nudity
- (4%) Unsuitable content of a sexual nature
The parents for censorship believe that children need a good role model and are likely to copy and receive influence from their favourite artists. If some artists are censored, this prevents any harmful or offensive content to be exposed to the younger generations and allows them to maintain a positive, inspirational role model. Miley Cyrus was a childhood sensation in which many young children loved and aspired to be like. This was because she was in Disney Channel's 'Hannah Montana' displaying a positive attitude to her career, caring for others, politeness and family orientation. She has recently transformed from her previous years where she now has a whole different physical look about her and wears minimal clothing. From the way that she has influenced so many girls from a young age, they are likely to further copy what she does as part of her transformation as this may be seen to young girls as how to 'grow up'. 

By censoring some of her content, parents believe that it shows that it is wrong and immoral for example, in her video 'Wrecking Ball' nudity is displayed which could influence younger girls as because she Miley was such as influential childhood figure, young children may not understand what is wrong about it.


Some of these parents also think that artists should be successful because they are talented, not popular for their sexual appeal which many artists of today seem to use to seek popularity and success. For example, artists such as Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea all wear revealing outfits and perform in a sexual manner in some of their videos. Parents put the question forward of, will anyone remember these type of artists like they remember artists such as Whitney Housten and Eva Cassidy? Nowadays, the need for parental guidance has never been greater and children need to be reminded of morals - especially since the advance in technology. Having censorship helps parents from protecting and controlling what their children can see and listen to. Parent's believe that lyrics just as much as visual content need to be censored. Rihanna's 'S & M' is a prime example of this as children are quick to catch onto the memorable melody of the songs of which the lyrics they are oblivious to their meaning. A 10 year old singing lyrics such as 'sex in the air, I don't care I love the smell of it' raises huge concern, not just in the home. At school, children could possibly find themselves in trouble from their reference to this language, influencing others and still feeling innocent as they simple are unknowing as to what the meaning behind the lyrics are. Parents further claim that all songs in the present day seem to be based around sex, alcohol or drugs. For example, there are undertones of drug use in 'Diamonds' by Rihanna and sexual references in 'Rude Boy' and 'What's My Name?' - another two of Rihanna's hits. Younger generations are oblivious to the harmful effects of alcohol and drugs because their favourite artists such as Rihanna rave about how good they are from the temporary happiness in which they supply. Parents find it difficult to see what is wrong with the happiness reflected in The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Take That and why there are not artists such as these around today.

Parents - Against Censorship
Many parents have the opposing view who are against censorship. For example, they don't understand the problem with exposing nudity as they say that it is natural and helps people be aware of their body. Smoking is a common feature in Rihanna's videos as an example, but some parents do not take this as offensive as 10 million people smoke in the UK alone so children will have witnessed this in their day-to-day life and so seeing it in a music video makes no difference. Likewise with drugs being a common feature in music videos, 158.8 million people smoke weed around the world, many of those being younger generations. Having this in music videos makes also no difference because children are adapting to knowing of acts such as this. If this is what an artist wants to do, let them do it, parents say. It promotes values of doing and making decisions in which they want and this therefore is seen as illustrating freedom which is a good influence on children of today. Gambling is also found in many music videos which is not seen as offensive by some parents as they believe that their child needs to be aware of gambling because the outcomes could be negative, but also positive. If they are not somehow made aware of this they will never understand how gambling works. From the age of 16, you can enter the lottery which could be seen as a form of gambling and so from this age, it is expected that they would understand the risks of gambling. Only 2% of 12 - 15 year olds exposure to gambling actually develop an addiction - not many at all. Consumption of alcohol is not only featured in Rihanna's videos but many other artists out there today. Some parents do not see this as harmful to show as the younger generation naturally are experimenting at this time in their life and drinking alcohol is one of these experiences. 30% of 12 year olds have tasted alcohol before and at the age of 7 have had their first sip. Therefore, alcohol is generally a familiar drink in today's society and many parents drink themselves, for example, one glass of red wine a day has been controversially proved to be healthy. This shows that not everything that surrounds alcohol is negative and that alcohol should not necessarily be seen in this tainted light. The anti-social behaviour displayed in some music videos are not seen as a threat to the influence of children from some parents' point of view. The government has implemented that you can go to jail from the age of 10, suggesting that by this age you should take responsibility for your actions, knowing what's right and wrong. Even with lyrics, the amount of people who swear in today's day and age is higher than ever before. It is unlikely that a child has not heard a swear word once in their life and this could even be by a member of the family - including the parents. Because of the advance in technology, it's difficult for parents to restrict what their children see/listen to anyway because they will somehow manage to get hold of what they want to. These parents also believe that if children are being restricted from seeing particular content it draws more attention to it and makes them want to see/listen to it more. Therefore, as a parent they believe censorship as a whole should not be implemented because children of today are aware of the content contained in the videos/songs anyway. 

Fans - Against Censorship
Fans of Rihanna are fans for a reason. They admire her for the way she is and the music in which she produces and releases. They believe that censorship suppresses her freedom and restricts her from showing her true and genuine personality. Fans believe that if you don't like what you are hearing or watching, nobody is forcing you to listen/watch and it is your decision whether you want to listen/watch to a particular song or video. For example, Rihanna crosses into the R 'n' B genre as well as pop and because she is so well-known across the world, her style is abundant and clear. If you feel you wouldn't like this style fans think you shouldn't associate yourself with it but respect others opinions who do like the type of music that you may not. If Rihanna can express herself in a way that the audience can relate or get to know her better, it allows them to feel closer to her as they are more likely to feel empathetic towards her. For example, 'Love The Way You Lie' expresses a common and serious relatable issue of being involved in a violent or abusive relationship. This is an issue in which some of who watch/listen to Rihanna can relate to and Rihanna promotes the message to speak out about the issue, she also helps to raise awareness. If Rihanna's content was so harmful, why would she have so many fans and people who idolise her? She has 81 million likes on Facebook, 47 million followers on Twitter and 21.2 million followers on Instagram so she must be doing something right by feeling the need to express herself without censorship. Rihanna states that 'censorship can get confused in the public eye' and maybe what censorship suggests is wrong, isn't necessarily and it may simply display an expression of emotion. The target audience for Rihanna are majority around 16 years old and so at this age censorship is not needed as they are aware of what influences them, what decisions to make and what is moral and immoral to them. However, not all fans are against censorship as the Mail Online found that Rihanna's fans were her 'Pour It Up' video that was released in October 2013, and branded her as 'obscene', 'vile' and 'pornographic'. However, as a whole, the majority of fans are in disagreement with censorship as they favour their artist Rihanna. 

Music Channels
MTV - For Censorship (to an extent)
MTV is the most successful music channel that exists and was the first ever music channel to ever be created. They believe that it is their role to protect their audiences from the content of some of the artists work in which they broadcast. To help prevent any harm towards audiences, they are very much loyal to the regulations concerning censorship and only broadcast certain videos after the watershed - illustrating that they are for censorship before the watershed but not after. Their channels have quite a wide audience to satisfy and so by doing this, it allows a variety of audience to be able to watch. Technology has advanced so much in the last decade that younger generations are able to get hold of music and music videos a lot more easily than before. They are able to download music illegally through Youtube converters, online websites and particular apps downloadable on smart phones. Most teens spend at least 2 hours a day listening to music and so if the content breaches the extent of security or offence, MTV do not want to contribute. Therefore, they stay with broadcasting their concerning videos after the watershed. Artists such as Lady Gaga and Madonna censor their videos without MTV having to. To MTV, this displays respect to their broadcasting and also to their mass audience. Having artists that censor their own videos saves time for the music channel, gives a good reputation and makes the channel wat to work with the artist more.
AKA - Against Censorship
AKA is a music channel that broadcasts mainly hip hop genres for example from the likes of Kanye West. The aim of the channel is to mainly expose raw and unsigned talent to the music industry to help them boost and gain a career in something they love. Their intentions are to ensure that everyone achieves their ambitions. AKA's view as a channel on censorship is that it takes away the rawness the artist has as they are restricted from their freedom of speech and cannot display their true emotion. They don't believe that they can broadcast an unsigned talent if they are censored because the audience cannot get to know the artist's true self nor flaunt their creativity. For example, Chris Brown's 'Loyal' contains the lyric 'these hoes ain't loyal' but when censored, 'hoes' is replaced with 'girls'. This gives a whole different meaning to the line, as 'hoes' are seen as more of a negative and disrespectful reference to girls but shows his emotion of how he believes they are untrustworthy and so are worthy of this label. However, by replacing the word with 'girls' the same emotion is not illustrated because 'girls' is more general and neutral. AKA find that this takes away his voice and feelings which censorship should not own the right to because he is his own artist. They also believe that everyone has different morals in different societies so censorship may only be felt to be appropriate for one society, when in another society it may not be much of a concern.

British Radio Stations
BBC Radio 1 - For Censorship
BBC Radio 1 is a radio station that plays many different genres of music compared to other radios. Rihanna's 'S & M' was petitioned against by the host of the radio show, Nick Grimshaw. He did not feel that the content in the song was appropriate for playing on this particular station and so managed to get the song banned from the radio station. The song was further banned in 11 countries. Rihanna was outraged and and took to Twitter to express her feelings by tweeting, 'are you f*cking kidding me?' directing it at Nick Grimshaw specifically to emphasise her disgust. The station feels that there are many other radio stations that exist with a more appropriate audience in which the audience can inoffensively listen to the song. The station want to ensure that their audience are prioritised and that they know how valued they are in relation to what they want the content to consist of. BBC Radio 1 do not want to cause negative effects to their audiences and want to keep ratings high in order to uphold a good reputation. 
Capital Xtra - For and Against Censorship
Capital Xtra is a well-known popular radio station that has many listeners that tune in each day. They believe that artists should be able to express themselves but also that they need to protect their audience by limiting certain songs to being played after the watershed to ensure that younger audiences are not effected. Otherwise they find ways to censor the music themselves which they understand can annoy the artist however they have to consider their audience and their ratings. They censor in different ways either by blanking, bleeping, re-sampling, back-masking or repeating. The artists can become annoyed because this can distort their music, consequently making it not to make sense however, at the end of the day it protects the audience from offensive content and that is what matters for the radio station. The radio station want to keep a clean and good reputation which can prove difficult in some cases, especially in reference to censorship. Because the subject has such a wide range in controversy with people holding many different views on it, it can be difficult to satisfy all audiences. The station find that by waiting for after the watershed to play the uncensored songs, this is the best and most effective way to please the majority of their audience. 

Overall, most disagree with censorship believing that it restricts an artist from being able to express themselves as the true person in which they are. It means that the person you are listening to is not their true self and is a distorted and manipulated version of who they are. I believe that artists shouldn't have their videos censored because in modern society, literally anyone is able to get hold of anything as long as it is out there somewhere. There has been a suggested idea that if an artist should create two music videos, one censored/appropriate video and one explicit. Although this may seem like a good idea to some, I disagree because I believe that when you are told you can't watch/listen to something it makes you want to see it more. Therefore, if there were two versions of video for one song, audiences would still want to see the explicit one because naturally that is the reaction we feel. I think in my production however, I am going to follow censorship rules, simply because there are many genres that do not need censorship because they do not have any controversially offensive or harmful content within them. These type of genres are the genres I would like my music video to be like and so because of his I will follow censorship rules. Furthermore, censorship can affect someone to an extent which I would not want to cause harm to.