Should music videos be censored? - Miss Miller

Should music videos be censored? - Miss Miller

Censorship  within music videos refers to the suppression of anything that is deemed offensive or controversial, mainly in regards to swear words, sexualisation and lyrics which mention sex, drugs or other taboo topics. All music videos are censored before appearing on music channels such as MTV in order to avoid controversy. Within this blog I will look at different arguments for whether music videos should be censored or not.

Parents - A majority of parents would be in favor of censorship for many reasons, the parents would want to hide their children from taboo languages and would not want them to be exposed to inappropriateness. Thus censorship only makes sense as the parents don't have to worry about their children being both exposed and influenced by the content within the music videos or by artists they idolize, as they may pick up the way the artists act or phrases they say and think it is acceptable because it is in a music video.

Artists - Artists would be against censorship for several reasons, firstly it puts a limit on their creativity as certain artists feel some things are essential for their work and thus putting limitations on them could either hinder the quality of the work or agitate them and make them not want to upload music to a particular channel. Also the artists may also argue that their music is a form of art and it should be left untouched for it to be appreciated.

Record labels - Record labels may be neutral on the topic for many reasons, although they would want to support their artists whom are under their contracts as they want them to create the best pieces of work that will result in them getting paid well, they also don't want to agitate music channels which result willy in a high amount of income and attention when their music videos are broadcast and thus would be open to the prospect of co operation.

Music Channels - Music Channels would be in favor of censorship as they do not want controversy or complaints going towards their channel, most music channels rely on a young demographic who still live with their parents so if there is anything that is deemed inappropriate they may lose viewers due to parents.

Fans - A majority of fans would be against censorship, this is due to the fact that they are fans of the artists content and thus would not want their favored artist's music tampered with or limited in any way as it may reduce the quality and viewer experience as they have the constraints of censorship within the music video.

Radio Stations - Radio stations would be for censorship for many reasons, as many families and homes have radios in them and thus they would want to keep the music clean in order for there to be a lack of complaints from the demographic. Censorship also allows for the stations to maintain a huge following as without it there would be a lot less families listening to the radio.

Overall there are substantial reasons for both why music videos should and shouldn't be censored, parents with their children at best intention want to protect their children from profanity and anything that could influence them negatively, whilst record labels and music channels both want optimum viewer quality and thus do not want to provoke controversy meaning censorship would be the obvious option to keep all viewers happy and entertained. Artists and fans however disagree with this as they believe the content should be left untouched and respected as a piece of artwork as censorship puts limitations on the artist creatively and may also reduce the quality as the artist cannot express all emotions or portray what they would like to portray.