40 Licks Takes a Lickin'
Mick Jagger and the rest of the Rolling Stones face censorship in China. This comes from suggestive lyrics in several of their songs from their greatest hits album 40 Licks, and also applys to a concert they will play in China. Censorship of the Rolling Stones could lead to a decrease in album sales because of the songs omitted being downloaded and sold illegally through the massive music black market. With the increase in music censorship, the black market for censored songs will increase because people will also get complete CD's over the truncated legal ones.
This censorship does not apply to China only. The Rolling Stones were also censored during the Superbowl so sexually suggestive lyrics would not be heard. This is even a more important lesson than if a beer has great taste or is less filling. The band seems to not care about the censorship even though it could decrease legitimate sales, and therefore profits. When should a government/organization decide to draw the line between protecting the public from naughty lyrics and allowing it to corrupt the children? Should the economic ramifications also play a large part in deciding what deserves to be cut?
1 comment:
I think censorship will always be one of those issues up for debate, along with the illegal downloading of music. In the technology age that we are in now, I do not see much of a slowing down or stopping of illegal downloading no matter how many people try to take it down. The fact that the Rolling Stones were censored is not that unheard of if you ask me. Ever since the Janet Jackson debacle, the FTC has been cracking down on major televised events so that nothing like that occurs again. In regards to their greatest hits CD being censored, I don't really understand that one. CD's can be marked "Explicit Content" or something along those lines so underage children dont get ahold of those or get it mixed in with CD's that are censored. I do agree that this might hurt their CD sales and that the fact that people can download the actual version of the song without bleeps or silence, is much more appealing to people..especially since they can do that for free.
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