It seems that the frenzy over this "ban" is pretty fierce, so allow me to play devil's advocate. Preface: I am personally not offended by language in music, and believe that a little cussing doesn't diminish a good song nor does it make a bad song better. I'd never complain about the language in a song on the radio, let alone expect it to be edited/banned/etc.
That being said, a couple of things to keep in mind are:
- The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is a self-regulating body for broadcasters. This isn't the CRTC or some other government agency telling people what they should listen to, this is the industry itself setting guidelines to adhere to.
- The song itself isn't banned. Radio stations are simply not able to play the version with the word in question in it. This isn't unusual at all for radio stations to bow a little bit to their regulatory body and ultimately their easily offended (politically correct, prudish, etc.) listeners.
I don't listen to radio much anymore, particularly the C-Jay's of the world. Does anyone actually know if the unedited version was actually played on the radio? I (perhaps incorrectly) assumed that the radio edit would be the norm. I haven't ever listened closely to the song and don't recall what version I may have heard.
So is this a case of "much ado about nothing" where the people upset about it don't actually ever hear the word? Nobody likes to be told what they can't listen to, but perhaps they haven't been listening to it that way all along anyway.
And again, I like songs in their original state. Radiohead's "Creep" with the f-bomb is way more powerful than saying "you're so very special". But it would be a tad melodramatic to say that the song is all of sudden banned from the radio (although technically it always has been) when in fact we've been listening to the radio edit the whole time.
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