The Aftermath

So I've reread my last post a couple of times since I put it up, and I came to the realization that I didn't come across the way I had wanted to.  I am not vehemently against cursing at all, and I definitely think that there is an appropriate time to use certain colorful words.  What I was trying to say is that television shows are going a little too far with what they do and say.  The time slots between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. are generally reserved for those programs in which cursing often takes place.  But more and more often am I seeing profanity in earlier shows.  And most of these cases are just to make a character seem cooler.

Another issue in the topic of profanity is censoring songs on the radio.  While I don't think that the six year old in the back seat should be subjected to certain Lil' Wayne phrases, some radio edits change the entire song.  Take the edited 'Forget You' by Cee-Lo Green.  The song had been seen everywhere, from GLEE to the Grammys to blaring out of the car next to me.  But the meaning in the original version and the radio edit are quite different.  Another example is "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt (a little bit of a throwback, I know).  The original line is 'She could see from my face that I was f**king high,' and the radio edit changed it to 'flying high.'  It makes the line much more vague, and definitely less drug-related.  The artist's lyrics in songs are a way for a reason, and by changing the words to make it more publicly acceptable, it's changing what the artist was trying to say.

I realize that I probably sound like a huge hypocrite, but I feel that television and music are two distinctly separate worlds.  Using profanity in television is most of the time unnecessary, but profanity in music takes on a whole different meaning.  Artist's are always trying to convey a message to their listeners, and if their words are being changed. so is the meaning of their songs.  If that makes no sense to you, it's okay.  It sometimes doesn't even make sense to me.