> I know that most of you forum regulars don't much
> care for rap as an art form or musical genre, but
> it is really quite prominent in America, for you
> non-US guys. Radio, being as public as it is, is
> censored for language content, as it should be.
> The f-word, the s-word, and other like obscenities
> are blanked or beeped out. But lately, like in
> the past few months, I've been noticing certain
> other words being blanked out...

And it's not just rap. Rapper-turned-rocker Everlast's "What It's Like" got much the same treatment on many radio stations... not only was a gun reference ("he pulled out his Colt 45") edited out, but even a vague, unspecific lyric about being "out on the corner with drugs". First time I heard the top-40 edit of that song, I almost screamed in disbelief.

And I don't understand the reasoning behind such edits anyhow. I mean, to reiterate what everyone else has said, just *hearing* a reference to pulling out a shotgun will cause someone to become violent? Or just hearing about drugs will make someone decide to become an addict? Yeah right. Especially when one can hear about the same subjects, in pretty much the same context, on the nightly news...

And besides, the whole idea of cutting such lyrics is just plain illogical. Someone can easily find someone who has the tape or CD, look up the lyrics on the 'net, or, in some cases, even turn to a different radio station to hear a more lenient edit of the same song! (Interestingly enough, one small-town station that I can pick up somehow managed to get away with playing the aforementioned Everlast song *in its entirety* for about a year, expletives and all...)

Dagmar also mentioned the "hiccuping and coughing" that a lot of radio censorship produces-- because the edits are often made at the last minute, sometimes even just by reversing certain portions of the sound track. I kinda find it ironic myself that the same method people complained was used to hide subliminal messages a while ago is now being used for quite a bit of the censorship those same people are endorsing. The hypocrisy of it all...

-- codeman"bleep"38