or, "The changing conditions for censorship."


For those who don't know, the title of this thread is a quote from the Green Day single "Jesus of Suburbia" off their American Idiot album. I was listening to it on the radio the other day and was rather surprised to find that the word "fucking" isn't censored out at all; you can hear Billy Joe quite clearly, and there's no mistaking that he's using the word 'fucking' and hasn't substituted it for some safer word for the purposes of radio broadcast (like 'fudging', for example).

Not that I really mind, but it seems like something a consumer watchdog group would complain about, seeing as this was being played on free-to-air broadcast radio in the middle of the day. I also managed to catch the video on the local music channel (also in the middle of the day) and found much the same.

What I'm curious about is this: is this the same for other countries where the song is being played? I've noticed a slightly lax attitude towards censorship here in the past few years, an example being a recent hit by a band called The Feelers (typically a kids band) which was played on the radio and tv with an uncensored (and quite beautifully sung) "shit" in the middle of it. I'm not sure if this is actually a change in the trend as I don't pay that much attention to popular music and only really started listening to the radio when I started this new job where we have it on all the time, so basically I'm just looking for other people's opinions.

So is this happening elsewhere?

I think it depends on a lot of things. Like one day i was listening to the radio and it clearly said mother fucker. I heard the same song on the same station two days later and it was bleeped out.

But other songs on the same station words like crap and shit are bleeped.

Anyways those are my two cents.

it's become ridiculious here in the states what is and isn't bleeped out. Bitch, Ass, Whore, all of those are left in there. But Damn it, or God Damn It, Shit, any and all f-word references get bleeped. I guess mainly it throws me off every time they bleep damn it... I was watching the Goonies the other day on TV and they had a ton of words bleeped in there that aren't even swear words really.

...and yet I can go flipping through the channels, and all of a sudden see a trailer park ass holding up a deer's head with a big S*** eating grin on his face...

It depends on the radio station. Here we have two alternative stations with almost exactly the same programming. One allows certain words, the other does not.

...and the channel, and the time of day (T.V.).

Hmm, good points. I suppose it does have a lot to do with what station you're on and what time of the day it is...


Question though: has anyone heard Jesus of Suburbia on the radio? Just wondering if my specific example was repeated elsewhere...

It's not cencored on XM radio. It is on the local hits station up here.

I only listen to a classic rock station so I haven't heard it. Maybe in another 20 years it'll be suitably classic enough.