Can Someone Explain....

Attitudes change over time, and big stars can generally get away with more than newcomers. Also it depends on what format of station would be playing the song, and even the time of day -- just like TV, on radio the rules about bad language are not as strict late at night versus during the daytime when kids could be listening.

And a Top 40 station might let some things slip through (like the drug references in Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life", or the "chickens**t" in Alanis Morissette's "Hand in my Pocket") that an Adult Contemporary station would edit out. Or they'd leave enough of the word in that you could tell what it was meant to be, while a more conservative station would play a version that removed all traces of the offending word.

As for "bitch", that term is generally OK if you're referring to yourself as one, or not specifically about anyone (as in "Rich Girl"), but it's not OK when it's used as an insult against someone else (except possibly if it's the Devil!).

Also for devout Christians, the term "goddamn" is as offensive as the F-bomb, so it's often edited out of songs on the radio, especially in the Bible Belt. ("Damn" is OK on its own, but not "goddamn".)

And there's still an ongoing debate about whether or not it's OK to play the references to "fa**ot" in Dire Strait's "Money for Nothing". Canada's equivalent of the FCC decided that it's not acceptable to play on the air, although some Canadian stations defy that ruling and play it anyway. In the U.S., it's a mixed bag between stations that play the full unedited version, those which censor the word, and those which play the short version that skips over that verse entirely.

Anyway, despite popular belief, the FCC does not have a list of banned words. Enforcement action is always decided on a case-by-case basis.

Edited by VWestlife

Money For Nothing Promo Copies had the f****t verse
edited completely.
And Money by Floyd just edited the verse entirely.
Been other promo edits, lie Cinderella from Firefall
where the God word was edited out and just damn was
left.
Uneasy Rider from Charlie Daniels edited the curse
word too!
A few FM stations did play Woman is the ...... of the
world, but some got nailed for it and some did not.
But many Prog FM's wouldn't touch it, even in 1972 was
too much.
Can't see any of these records geetinmg airplay today
for various reasons.

It's interesting to see the progression of "offensive"
lyrics permeating the music scene over the decades.
Some songs over the past 10 years have so many f bombs
and other lyrics deemed offensive that when you hear
the radio edit it's mostly drops, bleeps or other
sound effects to mask the words that the song becomes
almost unlistenable. the label releases their clean
edit and then radio stations do their own handy work.
The station I worked at in the mid 90's took the clean
mtv edit promo cd for Alanis "You Oughta Know" that
dropped "down on you" in a theater and then instead of
the "fu*k her" line just elongated the youuuuuuu right
over it. I don't remember if that was an in-house
edit or if it appeared on promo disc.

Edited by promojunkie

What about songs like Chakachas "Jungle fever" or
Sylvia's "Pillow talk"? Any airplay problem? I'm still
surprised there is no issue with Jungle fever, which is
played in current broadcast of old AT40 shows (from
March-April 1972).

promojunkie wrote: It's interesting to see the progression of "offensive" lyrics permeating the music scene over the decades. Some songs over the past 10 years have so many f bombs and other lyrics deemed offensive that when you hear the radio edit it's mostly drops, bleeps or other sound effects to mask the words that the song becomes almost unlistenable. the label releases their clean edit and then radio stations do their own handy work. The station I worked at in the mid 90's took the clean mtv edit promo cd for Alanis "You Oughta Know" that dropped "down on you" in a theater and then instead of the "fu*k her" line just elongated the youuuuuuu right over it. I don't remember if that was an in-house edit or if it appeared on promo disc.

I always thought the "down on you" lyric and the "f-k" lyrics should have been done a lot cleaner like Hykker said as someone clearly didn't do a great job of bleeping it out. But glad that they didn't do some lame substitution like "kiss on you in a theater" and "are you thinkin of me when you kiss her?". That would have made a fantastic song bland. The whole point of the song would be lost. These days the clean version would be exactly that, done to appease the audience....

Edited by PopArchivist