Are You Listening, Mary Whitehouse?? (Censorship In Music : Should acts like Eminem and Marilyn Manson be Censored?)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Censorship In Music : Should acts like Eminem and Marilyn Manson be Censored?
Date:	01/03/01 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I would agree with censorship of some things (fascist/BNP propaganda, hard porn, etc.) but not in music

Disadvantages: People do not look past the controversy, so cannot understand the attraction of such artists as Eminem

Okay. Here's the scenario...

You are woken up early one morning by someone hammering on your door. When you open it, you are faced by scary-looking men who call themselves the Taste Police.

They explain that after having carefully examined your CD collection, they have found it lacking in depth or quality. Your S Club 7 and Westlife CDs are taken as evidence and you are handcuffed and driven off at high speed by your captors.

They arrive at the local branch of Virgin and you are frog-marched to the counter. As you feel your arms being squeezed unpleasantly behind your back, an evil voice whispers, telling you the orders you have to follow to regain your freedom and be allowed to live a normal life again.

You take a deep breath, smile at the assistant and repeat the sentence you have been instructed to say : "Have you got any Eminem CDs? Great, I'll take the lot!"

Hmm, likely? No, I don't think so. But, how would we like it, if someone told us what we could and couldn't have in our CD collection?

I HATE S Club 7 (especially Jo). I also hate Lolly, and I'm not keen on Christina Aguilera either. But I don't ask for their music to be banned. I do insist on my daughters playing S Club only behind locked doors, but in the circumstances, I think that's pretty reasonable. But even though it's complete doggy doo-doo, I wouldn't ask for it to be withdrawn from sale.

I haven't seen much of Marilyn Manson, but I know who he is and well, he looks pretty weird, but no weirder than Kiss looked in the 1970s or whatever. Each generation has its own freaky looking acts, its own idols. Is it better to want to be a famous movie star who dies young, so as to be always remembered for looking great? James Dean has been idolised for decades.

I am a big fan of Eminem myself, as some of you will know from reading my opinions on him. I think he is very talented and his l
yrics are excellent. Of course, I am not very comfortable about the content of some of his songs.

I agree his lyrics are often violent, he can be seen to be anti-women or anti-gay, but I am neither sexist or homophobic and no amount of listening to those songs are going to make me change my beliefs.

Is it more damaging for my ten year old to listen to a rap song containing swear words, or to want to be as thin as Christina Aguilera? I believe that as long as parents are there to teach the kids right from wrong, they should be able to absorb a certain amount of this kind of music without being adversely affected by it.

My ten year old likes Eminem, but I won't let her listen to the song Kim, as it disturbs me and is upsetting. But that is my choice. She has heard the uncensored versions of the singles she knows - Stan, The Way I Am and The Real Slim Shady.

She likes the catchy choruses and the excellent beat. She admires how he can fit so many words into such a short space of time and marvels at how he can condense the word "arguing" into only two syllables! She has yet to smash her room up, tell me to f*** off or threaten to take drugs.

I think kids are only influenced by such songs if they are in some way disturbed, neglected or depressed. If they are well balanced and intelligent, able to ask questions and able to deal with the answers, they are also able to listen to the odd Eminem track without any ill effects.

Many people miss the humour in Eminem's songs, as well as the political side of his work. If the USA ever decided to ban his songs, it might well be because of his incisive comments about modern-day society. To mention one example, The Way I Am refers to high school shootings and how the country only decides to do something about it, when middle class kids are affected.

I will not let my children swear and we don't swear in front of them either. They know right and wro
ng, even that there are good drugs (prescribed medicines) and bad drugs.

Controversial songs and performers - in the same way as soap opera storylines - can initiate interesting discussions between parents and kids. Lines about gays from an Eminem song can turn into a discussion about the existence of homosexuality and (hopefully, if the parents are liberal enough and not bigoted themselves) can be used to explain that some people fall in love with members of their own sex, it's perfectly okay, but some people don't like it.

Any censorship that should be done should be by the child's family or carers, not by society itself. Putting a Parental Advisory label on a CD is a good move, but it is finally up to the parents to decide what restrictions should be placed on their own child. I would not personally take my kids to an Eminem concert, but that's up to you.

The controversy surrounding Eminem now is a repeat of many similar situations over the past eras. The Sex Pistols swore on TV, but society remained stable and the earth did not self-destruct.

In these ultra-modern times, surely it is better to be aware of what your children are doing, then decide where and when to step in. I would prefer my kids to occasionally listen to an Eminem song, than to be dishing out their phone numbers to god-knows-who in an Internet chat room or blowing up some bad guy in a gory Playstation game. But YMMV, Your Mileage May Vary. It is an individual decision, not one for society to make for you.

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