Censorship - Miss Miller

To begin, censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful and sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by the governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups and institutions. Censorship is used to protect audiences so that they do not grow up to adapt in disobedient behaviour and follow this resulting in an unhealthy lifestyle e.g drugs, smoking etc. Furthermore, censorship also enables audience to not be allowed to be influenced by harmful behaviour in which could result as a threat in their lives or cruel punishments. It also prevents harmful and offensive content from being distributed into the audiences.

Censorship can be used at various times within music videos such as when swearing in the lyrics/narrative is being used so that young audiences are being prevented from using vocabulary like this. Furthermore, it is also used to cut out nudity as many older audience may find this is inappropriate if they young children come across this kind of appearance. Also, censorship can be used to remove violence as it is believe that this behaviour will influence audience to start behaving in this manner and get themselves into serious trouble in which could be a threat to their lives.

Censorship can be used in 10 various ways to protect audiences such as:

- "blanking" which is when the volume is silenced for all or part of a word.

- "bleeping" which is when playing a noise, usually a 'bleep', over all or  part of a word.  

-  "re sampling" which is using a like-sounding portion of vocals and music to override the offending word.

- "resinging" which is replacing the offensive word/phrase with a more appropriate word/phrase.

- "backmasking" which is taking the offensive word and reversing the audio, sometimes the whole audio is reversed (often because it is a home-made job), but more usually only the vocal track is reversed. 

- "repeating" which is repeating the word said just before the explicit word was used.

- "skipping" which is deleting the curse word from the song without a time delay. 

- "disc scratching" in hip-hop, scratching on the word, making it sound like another word, or make the word sound slower or faster,

- "robovoicing" which is making the word totally non understandable by overpowering a robotic voice effect (usually used as the last resort for home-made jobs)

- "distorting" usually in hip-hop, less offensive words such as 'shit' or others are distorted. It is usually done by shifting down the pitch. 

Ofcom is the regulator and competition authority for UK communication industries. It regulates, TV and radio, fixed line telecoms, mobile, postal services and the airwaves which wireless devices use. People who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful and offensive material. Ofcom have roles such as securing the optimal use for wireless telegraphy of the electro-magnetic spectrum, securing a wide range of electronic communications services is available throughout the UK, securing a wide range of TV and radio services of high quality and wide appeal are available throughout the UK, securing that sufficient plurality in the providers of different television and radio stations is maintained, securing the application of standards that provide adequate protection for members of the public and others against offensive and harmful material in televisions and radio stations, securing the application of standards that provide adequate protection for members of the public and others against unfair treatment in television and radio programmes and unwarranted infringements of privacy resulting from activities carried on for the purposes of such television and radio stations. Ofcom make sure that the people in the UK get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, while ensuring that competition can thrive.

An example of an artist video that has been sensored can be "Rihanna-S&M". This song not only got sensored but also banned in 11 countries. BBC One radio was the first station to air an edited version of the racy track, which cut out words such as "sex" "chains" "whips" from the chorus. Since then, several top radio stations followed the suit. BBC One radio will play the original version of the song after hours and the edited version during the day. This song had been censored as it is inappropriate language and can easily be heard to young audiences who may be listening to the radio in the car in which this would be unsuitable for them. Furthermore, the song is very negatively sexual as it refer's to sexual content which could be an inappropriate influence for audiences as the sexual content is refereed to throughout the whole song therefore needs to be censored in order to keep the audience protected.
Within this research I will be analysing different views, and particularly the views for Rihanna's music videos.

Artist
Firstly, if we take the perspective of Rihanna in relation to censorship we can see that she is strongly against it. From an artist view it seem that she cannot express the music that she is producing properly and being viewed in a different concept. The music that she is producing will be taken into a different view by the audience which will then make her music video less successful as the audience will not be able to understand the concept and will just be confused.
 Furthermore, this shows that also her personality as a music artist is not being able to be portrayed which results in audiences losing interest as they are seeing a different person on who she intends to be which decreases her popularity. Audience's will see her as a different character and she will not get seen for who she really is therefore the audiences that she as an artist targets will not be able to see her through this made-up character which is where the loss of popularity will begin.
In the video, she is also to be seen naked and from this social media start judging her saying that she is inappropriate and slutty when in actual fact she trying to express her feelings and create a concept of not being able to car what other people say about her and not be afraid to be judged by other people. She is expressing that by her being naked she feels more free as this gives her a sense to reveal her true self instead of covering up to please the media.
In addition, by creating videos that contain more attention will result in her receiving more publicity as she will become more memorable and the audience will see something that they have not seen before. From this she will also be seen to be a more unique artist as she is creating her own characters and not just following other artist which she will gain more popularity which she will then receive more success within her videos.
Due to her having a good mind and standing up against society, she will then be seen as a role model and idol to many as it is uncommon that artist stand up against society, most just do whatever they are told for the money however Rihanna is different as she is standing up for her true self.
By taking things to an extreme, she is gaining a wider audience as they are seeing things that they haven't seen before and this will become more entertaining for the audience as it is bringing them more excitement.
Due to there being entertainment for both genders, male and female.. there is entertainment for both genders therefore  Rihanna is now gaining a wider audience and increasing her success which then makes her music video more successful and her a more successful artist.

Record Label
Rock Label is one of the most popular and wealthy record labels on the planet, home to some of r&b and pops biggest artist and was founded by the face of rap and hip-hop, Jay Z. They have the belief that censorship will not do the song justice with artist such as Rihanna to change the lyrics and its a breach of her artistic integrity.

Parental advisory stickers are not compulsory on songs with explicit language and scenes in their videos and it is up to the record labels whether they want to put a parental advisory sticker on their artist's music. Therefore by not putting this warning on Rihanna's music we are able to attract a wider audience and increase their record sales and popularity. The more controversial the video, the more publicity the record label are getting. Rihanna is widely recognized as one of the worlds biggest and popular artist and has created an image for herself in the music industry that makes her audiences idolize her. This image includes being controversial, using explicit language and scenes in her videos and selling a theme and narrate of her life in her music. Each of these making Rihanna the artist she is today and a successful and conventional pop/r&b artist and therefore as her record label, they are responsible for Rihanna's actions, music and publicity and censorship hinders her selling herself and giving her audience what they want.
Rihanna's song "We found love" became her 11th single to reach no.1 on the Billboard hot 100 and the Barbadian singer has notched 20 top 10 pop hits in less time than any other musician. She is therefore held responsible as the face of pop music and influential in the development of music and the way it is perceived. Because of this, she should be able to reveal her music how she likes in what ever way she likes. In order to maintain her popularity within the audiences.

Parental FOR
There are 1000 parent off camed parents  find the explicit and nudity unsuitable for the audience and particularly younger audiences.
Parents find that children need a good role model. For instance they don't want to look up art artist such as Miley Cyrus who played the part of the children sensation Hannah Montana who then transformed into an artist who likes to get naked and become a bad influence to the target audience for Hannah Montana.
Furthermore, the parents believe that music shouldn't be shown through explicit content and should just show the artist singing so that it shows their talent within music without using anything inappropriate.
It is also very easy for children to have this access for explicit content such as viewing the original video on YouTube therefore makes it more of an eagerness for the artist to use censorship to prevent younger audience's from seeing this kind of behaviour.
Children also need to be reminded of the morals that was set as it is important for them to grow up well behaved and not being influenced by any of this behaviour.
The lyrics are also inapproaite therefore if this was to be heard by a 10 year old this would get them in trouble if they was to start using this language.
Younger audiences will also be oblivious to these lyrics and start using them as they have no idea what any of it means therefore would not think about what it means before they say it which could also lead to them getting in trouble.
Also, all of Rihanna's songs are based around sex and drugs so this is inapproaite for audiences to listen to especially young ones who are again oblivious to this language.
There is also a high rate of illegal crimes so this type of music video and language being shown and heard would promote this kind of behaviour which is bad for the society. This can also lead to harmful effects such as not being able to control yourself from preventing this behaviour.

Parents against
From a parent against censorship a view would be that Rihanna has over 400 million views on her music video which shows that she has a successful popularity for the way she is represented in her music videos without censorship therefore if this was to stop her success would come to an end and potentially her career.
Videos without censorship are still accessible online which means it would make a difference whether a radio/tv includes the censorship. If anything, the music video using censorship would make audiences more keen and eager to see the original material.
Rihanna using nudity on her video isn't bad as it is showing equality. Furthermore, she is revealing parts that all humans have therefore she isn't showing anything irregular and is just being natural with herself. It's not like no ones ever seen these parts therefore it is completely normal.
Audience viewing this material would also be mature enough to see this behaviour which means they wont imitate this behaviour.
In real life, over 10 million people smoke without using the video as an influence therefore viewing Rihanna smoking in the video wouldn't make a difference to their habits.
It is also a lesson for the younger audiences to view explicit content as they can learn early as they will eventually comes across this in their lives and can't go their whole lives without viewing scenes like this. The video also creates awareness for this content.
Her target audience are 16 year olds so they will be mature enough to view this content without copying whatever she does.
Scenes such as gambling wouldn't be seen as an influence as real life scenarios of gambling such as the national lottery are being used in every day lives without being seen as harmful which means this is not a threat.
The video is also being blocked for the wrong reasons as it is not educating the audience properly which can affect their future.
It also legal for audiences at 16 years old to get a tattoo therefore what is being seen won't affect audiences lives as they have human rights.
The more views she is getting on a videos also promotes herself and her music which means that she is creating a better success and using censorship could harm her career so its bad.

MTV
Mtv is the most successful  music channel in the industry.
MTV includes the watershed from 9pm which is when explicit content is allowed to be shown on the channel which means this is safe for audiences as younger audiences wouldn't be watching TV at this time and more likely to be in bed which means no one can be offended.
They also believe that children who listen to music become more aggressive.
By using this structure, the channel can become more successful and progress as a music channel.
It also lets younger audiences listen to their favourite music without being offended or harmed resulting in them being more safe in society.
They find that audiences who imitate audience become more similar which means they are putting their lives at risk.
It allows all fans and age groups to watch and listen to the music videos which means the channel is opening up to a bigger audience which means they popularity is increased and their channel is becoming more successful.
People can also listen to music on an mp3 for atleast 2 hours a day which means that the audience that they are surrounded by won't be harmed or offended which means that they can enjoyable listen to the music without harming others around them.

AKA
AKA believe that using censorship is ideal as the artist have the opportunity and are enabled to highlight their talents and themselves as a musician by showing the audience what they've got to offer and showcasing themselves as artists.
They also believe that by using censorship, the music industry are basically taking away the artist freedom of speech as artist represent their feelings and emotions through their music by showing the type of character that they are and by using censorship, the audience are not able to see the artist within this perspective.
By using censorship the artist are also restricting themselves as they are not being entitled to be the artist that they want to be therefore they are being forced to hold all the unsuited content back and not showcase it.
The channel also believe that there are more harmful content within the modern world that could harm audience as they are more likely to be impacted by this rather than what they are seeing on a music video. Furthermore, they find using content that could be alarming to audiences can educate them as it can make them more aware of these situations in real life.
When an artist uses no censorship and enables the audience to see explicit content, it is usual to do with the fact that there is a concept behind the idea. Artist do not intend to harm audiences in anyway as they are only trying to give the audience a lesson.
Furthermore, most artist use the power of music to tell a story and by using censorship it makes it difficult for the audience to understand what is happening and what the story is about. This basically ruins the whole concept of the story and music therefore the censorship should not be used so that the artist can deliver their music in their narrative format.

Radio 1
Radio 1 believe that censoring should be used as the use of explicit content should be banned as it is extremely inappropriate for the audience and can be sensitive for them and the presenters find this type of content outraging for audiences as the material being used within the music is far too explicit for audience to hear/watch.
Presenter of Radio 1 Nick Grimshaw is outraged with this type of content being shown to viewers and wants to put a censoring on Rihanna's music as he finds this inappropriate and is potentially trying to end her career as a music artist. Following from this story, Rihanna is fuming with this behaviour from Nick as she replies "are you f****** kidding me!!!" which shows her as an artist being frustrated with this.
Radio 1 believe if you want to either listen or watch explicit material from the original music videos rather than the censored ones then you as an audience should just go to a different channel and not complain about the less harmful version that is being shown on this channel.
Radio 1 are not massively concerned about how popular their channel is however they want to do the best they can to keep the audience safe by avoiding the explicit content being shown.

Capital Xtra
Their is firsly a wide variety on this channel as they play both censored and not censored in all different genres therefore resulting in a wider audience being brought to the station.
Capital Xtra use watershed so that the explicit content is shown after 9pm so people who want to see this type of material can watch it then.
When they censor a music video they tend to use blanking so that it generally doesn't disturb the song as much and some of the concept can still be understood by the audience.
Furthermore, they also find by using censorship completely, it can annoy the artist as their song will not be able to be understood by the artist as it will cause a lot of confusion and the song would not make sense to them therefore the whole concept of the song will be ruined making it less successful for the artist which will also affect how the audience feel about the song.
By using the feature of watershed, the audience's that are younger are also protected from harmful content so this can make the audience range wider.
The only censoring that capital xtra do is censor the swear words so they will not be imitated by the audiences that are watching/listening,
The station generally disagree with censoring as they believe that the music that is being created is a freedom of speech that can not be able to be heard by the audience.

Fans
With regards to social media, Rihanna has 22.1 million followers on instagram, 48,207,206 followers on twitter and over 81 million people like her official page on facebook. This shows that they fans that she has admire her for a reason and find her and her music videos entertaining. Furthermore it also shows that she is seen as a role model and inspiration to many so by using censorship it is harder for her to engage with her fans. The high numbers also show that she has a lot of support within the work that she produces as an artist,
Fans believe by using censorship, she is restricting her real personality and character from being shown which means that audience will have more difficulty engaging with her and also will receive the wrong sense of her as they will be seeing a fake version of her.
Rihanna's explicit content is usually based on real scenarios. Furthermore, the song 'Love the way you lie' is based on relationships that consist of domestic abuse which is a serious issue within the modern world and the audience will not be able to understand this concept she is not allowed herself to express the views. Furthermore, she is singing about what it's like to be part of a relationship like this and it is vital that the audience understand this so that they can be educated about this serious issue and Rihanna can create more awareness which means that the censoring should not be used on this as it will cause more confusion within the song.
If Rihanna can't express her feelings properly, then it will be harder for audience to build relationships with her and engage with her as the censoring is restricting her whereas if there is no censoring the fans can easily relate to her and build relationships.
She has also received more fans from the content that has not been censored so censoring this will cause disruption amongst her fans and she is more likely to lose them.
Fans also believe that if you so happen to not like a music from Rihanna then it is your decision to not watch or listen to it again and by this time you will have an idea of what her music is about therefore should be able to make your own choice of whether to listen to it or not depending on whether you get offended or not.

I believe that the main overview of censorship is that it shouldn't be used as audiences will come across this in their lives anyway. I find that using censorship on music videos can not only affect audiences but it can affect the artist as it disturbs their career as they are being shown as a character that they do not intend to be. From this they will lose popularity as the audiences are not seeing them for who they really are. I believe censorship should not be used as this affects the artist career and could potentially end them as they will lose their popularity and their fans. I believe that in terms of young audiences they will eventually come across this in their lives so using censorship is basically stopping them from being educated and they are not be abled to learn things that will eventually happen in their lives. Furthermore, in terms of older audiences, they should have the common sense and brains to be mature enough to not imitate this behaviour and should be able to make their own life decisions by themselves and should know better if they choose to copy this behaviour. For example, artist such as Rihanna have more fans than haters which show that fans enjoy her music and the entertainment that she brings. If she was to change into a different persona and play a different character within the music industry it is a high possibility that she would lose most of her fans which would then make her a unsuccessful artist. I will not be following censorship within my own video as it decreases the audience range that the video could engage to. I don't want to use it as it opens up to a wider audience which means more audiences can become engaged which results in me having a more successful video. Also, I will be targeting 16+ year olds for my video therefore they should be mature enough to know the difference between right and wrong and choose to make the right choice and not to imitate the wrong behaviour. It will also engage the audience as it would be more relatable. Using no censorship can also be educating the audience so this is a benefit of not using censorship.