Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I'm in a mood this AM. One where my mind wanders to the odd & the inexplicable...

Why do Wal-Mart & K-Mart sell censored music?

They don't sell either censored movies or censored books, so why music?

Where are the outraged soccer-moms crying over the loss of innocense of our youth? Where are the picket lines led by bitter preachers? Why haven't there been laws written to protect our youth with "parental warnings" on these items?

I don't give a flying flook what happens in my life. Until this question is answered to my satisfaction, I'll not buy ANY of these items from them. Nor will I allow any of my products to be sold there.

I think they're just "musicists!"

I guarantee that every damned day they sell "R" rated movies, & "M" rated video games to underage kids. They sell books that describe wicked things in detail (stuff like sewing a milk snake's mouth shut & inserting said reptile in a woman's rectum, fer crissake!). But if your song merely describes love in one of its myriad forms, or includes an appropriate curse word, it will have the lyric erased - to protect whom? They aren't very worried about slasher movies or "true-detective" stories, so why music?

Hell, the language in your average PG-13 movie would be censored from a CD in the music section. That is such bullshit...

Perhaps no one is ever influenced by movies or books to commit suicide or murder...aw, sh*t I can't go on cuz that thought cracks me up & makes me wanna go out & kill some superstore executive just for the frikken fun of it...

I think Wal Mart does is as a promotional thing to say, "Wal Mart cares about it's customers." in some way. Kinda like when they say in large words, "Wal Mart buys American" and then in small print "when we can", which means when it's cheaper, which is almost never.

Why should a store, not just Wal-Mart be forced to sell something they don't want to?

I'm not talking about forcing anyone to do anything, RG. I'm just wondering WHY they choose music to be censored, & nothing else, cuz it looks to me like they're selling what they SAY they're trying to keep from selling - "bad" messages.

I, too, have a free choice. I choose to boycott these stores because of their policies, & I have a perfect right to encourage others to do so as well.

They can sell whatever the hell they want to. So far, that doesn't mean I hafta buy it.

philbymon wrote:I'm not talking about forcing anyone to do anything, RG. I'm just wondering WHY they choose music to be censored, & nothing else, cuz it looks to me like they're selling what they SAY they're trying to keep from selling - "bad" messages.

I, too, have a free choice. I choose to boycott these stores because of their policies, & I have a perfect right to encourage others to do so as well.

They can sell whatever the hell they want to. So far, that doesn't mean I hafta buy it.

Your not alone, a lot of people feel the same way.
How do you boycott the people who let Wal-Mart into your town?

I was really pissed when Wal-Mart stoped selling guns

You vote to oust the city council members, oust the planning commissioner, oust the whole damned bunch.

Cracks me up when they try to tell ppl how this superstore or that will be economically good for an area, while they undersell items at a loss to erase competition, treat their employees so badly, & narrow my choices of what to buy.

There for a few years, you could only get strawbery pop-tarts at wallyworld...no blueberry or any other.

I for one believe education in how to live like a MAN or a LADY is the keystone, not any form of censorship.
I do not hide anything from my children because you really cannot hide anything, eventually the will see and hear the gurglings of evil that surrounds us. I prefer they know it for what it is.
Most of the time a free mind as it matures will choose well for itself that which is good and wholesome from that which is destructive.
And those whom choose poorly will pay the consequence in this life and the next.

.....................................

Walmart? Do they play music?

And I am not referring to MUZAK..you know in the elevator..lol

Well, the world is a pretty messed up place and filled with contradictions like that. Didn't you know??? Music is the most dangerous medium in the world!

It's ok to sell movies, video games and Books with swearing, murder, and rape....as long as you don't sing songs like that ......because that would be bad.

It's ok to sell graphic "romance novels" and Westerns novels with explicit sex scenes...just don't sing songs like that..............because that would be bad.


Seems like a great topic for Penn and Tellers show Bull Sh*T

Phil,

I'm not positive about this, but...

I imagine that this began with Tipper Gore's campaign, decades ago, to force record companies to mark their products with a ratings system, similar to movies. CDs are not censored by the government. Movies are. Even at Walmart, you must be 18 or older to purchase an R rated movie. Not so with music, which is why the do-gooders came down hard on the music industry. The labels basically capitulated and volunteered to place these ratings on their product, but if I am not mistake, it doesn't prevent children froom buying them, since it is a voluntary system.

Yes, it is a publicity related situation, but not so much due to Walmart's "goodness" as their concern for making money, and not pissing off parents, considering that Walmart is billed as a family store. Walmart doesn't suffer for this decision, because their market share of CD sales is so enormous, they can pretty much FORCE labels to provide them censored versions of their artist's CDs and still be able to provide people's favorite artists (for the most part. Eminem products are banned I think, censored or not)

In any event, once something like this occurs (Tipper's senate hearings on the matter, and Flava Flaves group Public Enemy being charged federally for indecency, leading to a Supreme Court decision, if I remember correctly... ) there is no putting the censorship genie back in that bottle.

You raise an important issue, although maybe unitentionally.

The HUGE issue is not the "unfairness" of censoring CD's over movies, as this has a rational explanation (kids can't buy dirtyish movies). No, the HUGE issue, is that WalMart has such a corner on the CD market, that they do have the power, to some extent, to help make or break an artist's success in selling that CD. Which means, that rather than pursuing something more for the art, a label may capitulate toward censorship because they cannot sell the album as successfully without it. This could lead to WalMart holding the same type of power that labels used to, with their payola schemes for which songs got played on radio.

Censorship is always well meaning, but also equally stupid.

One quite lurid book, you will likely never see censored...

The Holy Bible

I'm not joking. The Bible contains foul language, detailed accounts of incest, extremely sexual and violent content is literally found throughout the entire book, with one entire book of the bible (Song of Solomon) a poetic, but lurid account of a night of sexual fulfillment between two lovers. While that last one is believed by some theologians to be symbolic of God's love toward Israel, really, it is just a poetic, even beautiful, account of two lovers desire for one another, and their sexual fulfillment together. It is highly erotic poetry.

Now, don't get me wrong, the Bible IS HOLY to me. It is inspired of God. But it is also exceedingly honest in it's portrayal of both sex and violence.

The solution is not censorship. It is parentship.

When you spend enough time with your children, in meaningful conversations they WILL begin to buy into your values, and emulate your belief system. But fair warning, have a viable belief system that withstands logical assaults on it. Cause when they find out that some of the things they are taught is bullsh*t (the Earth is only 10,000 years old, despite voluminous scientific data to the contrary) then they will rebel, and sadly, they may throw out the baby with the bathwater. Which then becomes a tragedy, and leaves a child swimming alone and lost, in a vast ocean, with nothing at all to ground them.

The movie and book industry are censored too; they must include current and relative propaganda in order to be funded!
Good ole pro American Wallmart sells 90% Chinese product; now where do you think the corporatist/industrialist have been investing to get the most bang for their buck since China began phasing in a free market economy?

http://c1.ezfolk.com/bands/6039/index.php
www.myspace.com/blunderingeye
www.myspace.com/445175001
Facebook group/Hayden King

"It is what it is"

.....................................

Eh, I've SEEN kids purchasing R rated flicks at several stores, WalMart included. They seem to be tougher on the M rated games, though, but if it's in their bargain bin, they'll sell just about anything to anyone.

Even if they didn't, so what? There is an option to buy an artistic piece of work unsullied by censors if you, the adult customer, wish to buy it. You don't have that option with music, at these "family friendly" stores.

There is virtually NO guidelines for the printed word, either. Any kid off the street can buy nearly any book they wish without being bothered by federal guidelines or parental controls, but heaven help us all if we SING the words in these books! Look at just about any best seller - there's bound to be stuff in there that would be censored by these do-gooders if you sang it, but we dare not touch the printed word, right? Cuz that would be "unconstitutional"...HAH!

I just think this country is totally whacked out in the "morality department," among so many other things...LOL

Hell, you can say things on free network tv that you can't sing in a song without being censored by these jerkwads! How stupid is that?

Radio air waves have been distributing the Who's "Who the f*ck are you" line for 2 decades +, but it's censored on the CD you'll buy.

Totally laughable, especially in a country that touts the right to free speach & freedom of the press &, well, FREEDOM! I would NEVER allow my work to be censored! How dare they force it on us!

I'd write my congressman if I thought he could read!

I love living in the US. We can have these discussions in the open without our children being murdered in their sleep by the goverment thugs.
Well so far today anyways. Give it a week.
You can already report you neighbor online to the brownshirts if they talk bad about the healthcare reform. Even if they tell the truth.

Were is the smiley with the swastika armband ?