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Censorship of music is the practice of restricting free access to musical works. This censorship may stem from a wide variety of motivations, including moral, political, military or religious reasons. Censorship can range from the complete government-enforced legal prohibition of a musical work, to private, voluntary removal of content when a musical work appears in a certain context. An example of this latter form of censorship is the radio edit.

In order to allow songs to be played wherever possible, it is common to censor particular words, particularly profanities. Some music labels or artists produce censored versions themselves, sometimes with alternative lyrics, to comply with the rules set by various radio and television programs. Some stations decide to censor them themselves using one of several methods:

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", though Formby's wife Beryl managed to change BBC's opinion.[1] The ostensibly offending lyrics were:

Another example of censorship is when, in 1956, ABC radio refused to play Billie Holiday's "Love for Sale" because the lyrics are about prostitution, but "Love For Sale" would be on the radio again. ABC also made Cole Porter change the lyric of "I Get A Kick Out Of You", which was a hit for Frank Sinatra. Porter's original stated "I get no kick from cocaine". The cleaned-up version was "I get perfume from Spain".

Another example is when the Rolling Stones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan asked them to sing their hit song "Let's Spend the Night Together", but he asked them to change the lyrics to "Let's Spend Some Time Together" so it would be considered more appropriate. (Napier)

Due to its position as a public broadcaster, BBC Radio has a policy of not playing songs that contain product placement; Ray Davies of the British rock band The Kinks was forced to travel back to the United Kingdom during an American tour in order to change references to Coca-Cola to "cherry cola" from their hit song "Lola" in order to allow it to be given airplay in the country.[2]

BBC Radio was also involved in a controversy surrounding their play of the Sex Pistols single "God Save the Queen" released by Virgin Records on 27 May 1977 to coincide with the Queen's silver jubilee celebrations. Sales of the single were not prohibited, but BBC's Radio 1 banned it from airplay. It had reached number two in the BBC's own charts, but the public service broadcaster at that time the BBCs most popular radio channel pulled it because of its lyrics. In fact, the single reached number one on the chart.[3] The band was harassed by police when it (loudly) performed the song from a boat on the Thames. (See the entry for Sid Vicious and God Save the Queen on the Sex Pistols page.)

When the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" was released to radio stations, the line "I told you once you son of a bitch, I'm the best there's ever been" was sometimes replaced by "I told you once you son of a gun, I'm the best there's ever been".

In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, saw the BBC pull airplay of Ian Dury's "Spasticus Autisticus" until after dark. Dury, who had suffered from polio, intended the song to be a positive message for people with disabilities. The chorus' refrain "I'm spasticus, autisticus" was inspired by the response of the rebelling gladiators of Rome, who at least in the version of the story portrayed in the Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus answered to the name of their leader, "I am Spartacus", to protect him.

Radio 1 in 1984 pulled the "Relax" single by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Radio 1 had concluded that the lyric, "when you're gonna come" referred to sexual climax. However, FGTH has refuted that their song's lyrics were sexual. In a famous incident, Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read took the record off the turntable and broke it in two. After this, but without consulting Read, Radio 1 decided to pull the record which sent the record straight to number one for a five-week stay.

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Censorship of music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia