[busy signaL]
[Wednesday, November 08, 2006]
i don't particularly consider myself a staunch defender of the faith, but i have recently found something unsettling in the logic through which radio censorship operates. take for example that 'song' by that 'band' panic! at the disco, whose lyrics run: haven't you people ever heard of / closing the god-damn door?
yes, the song is rather prevalent on the airwaves; yes, i find the melody and the lyricism equally irritating; and yes, the version above is, verbatim, what you will actually hear upon tuning in.
my dislike for this particuler genre of music must therefore take a back seat, in the face of the tetragrammaton's sudden demotion to a position equivalent to that of profanity. worse, actually, considering that 'damn' is evidently now viewed as less vulgar. the message this sends out to the general populace is that swearing is socially acceptable and religion is not, simply because religion limits you to one and only one "bad word".
political correctness was instituted in order to minimize offensive terminology and practices, not to limit the extent of our individuality. words should then, by definition, be eschewed only when they are created by one group to allow exclusion of another. although religious views do satify the second condition, words used to refer to the divine are more or less universal in nature, and at the very least are not slurs.
why censor, then? simply because belief is a facet of life not embraced by the totality of the human race? if so, then radio stations should shut down completely - after all, there are enough deaf people in the world to warrant it. the bottom line is that the world we are leaving our children is one which values avenues of similarity over those of difference, even at the cost of the ability to recognize when deviation is essential for survival.
as for myself, i stopped listening to the radio a long time ago. between the news, the propaganda, and the bad music, my mp3s provide a much better alternative. i'm listening to one right now, in fact. teenage dirtbag, by wheatus. you might be familiar with it - it's the song that goes: her boyfriend's a dick / he brings a gun to school
sige ingat.ΓΌ
posted by stani at 9:19 AM
yes, the song is rather prevalent on the airwaves; yes, i find the melody and the lyricism equally irritating; and yes, the version above is, verbatim, what you will actually hear upon tuning in.
my dislike for this particuler genre of music must therefore take a back seat, in the face of the tetragrammaton's sudden demotion to a position equivalent to that of profanity. worse, actually, considering that 'damn' is evidently now viewed as less vulgar. the message this sends out to the general populace is that swearing is socially acceptable and religion is not, simply because religion limits you to one and only one "bad word".
political correctness was instituted in order to minimize offensive terminology and practices, not to limit the extent of our individuality. words should then, by definition, be eschewed only when they are created by one group to allow exclusion of another. although religious views do satify the second condition, words used to refer to the divine are more or less universal in nature, and at the very least are not slurs.
why censor, then? simply because belief is a facet of life not embraced by the totality of the human race? if so, then radio stations should shut down completely - after all, there are enough deaf people in the world to warrant it. the bottom line is that the world we are leaving our children is one which values avenues of similarity over those of difference, even at the cost of the ability to recognize when deviation is essential for survival.
as for myself, i stopped listening to the radio a long time ago. between the news, the propaganda, and the bad music, my mp3s provide a much better alternative. i'm listening to one right now, in fact. teenage dirtbag, by wheatus. you might be familiar with it - it's the song that goes: her boyfriend's a dick / he brings a gun to school
sige ingat.ΓΌ
posted by stani at 9:19 AM
comments:
they also don't censor the word ass anymore. I believe the people think putting expletives in their songs will be a good idea. It will be catchy, the angst is there bla blah. but come on. you have a great point.
yup, I don't listen to the radio as much. only when i'm in the car.
and by the way, I love teenage dirtbag. :D
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they also don't censor the word ass anymore. I believe the people think putting expletives in their songs will be a good idea. It will be catchy, the angst is there bla blah. but come on. you have a great point.
yup, I don't listen to the radio as much. only when i'm in the car.
and by the way, I love teenage dirtbag. :D
posted by 
vince at 2:51 PM
vince at 2:51 PMhome