If my grown, college-educated self were to leak anything resembling a curse within my mother’s hearing range, there would be consequences. The omitted word or an acceptable replacement for the word, still represents the same degradation as the curse word it replaces.
For some reason, people believe that removing profanity from a song makes its messages healthy for public consumption.
As irrational as this concept seems, it has done wonders to pacify millions.People everywhere turned to listening to “clean music” instead of the original “dirty” version.
The preference of clean music over dirty music is absurd and the music’s alterations damage the quality of the music.
What is “clean” music anyway? Trying to find one concrete definition of what clean music is like trying to find a soul mate at FAMU, it is not going to happen.
Bleeping, blanking, disk-scratching, are some methods of word censoring to replace profanity and make songs more marketable.
But covering or omitting profanity does not make a song clean.
A song about fighting or having sex still promotes knocking heads off and sexual relations regardless of the way it is presented.
If people in religious circles feel that Akon’s hit song “I Want to F*** You” is compromising to their relationship with their God, then so is the edited version, entitled “I Want to Love You,” which has the same concept.
Thus the word swap is pointless.
Nothing is gained through editing of music, except airplay and public acceptance of the song. But quite often the negative messages are permitted.
Edited music is also bad because it transforms a song. The song’s sound and feeling changes for the worse when the original lyrics an artist has written is compromised for the sake of air play and marketing decisions.
Take the edited version of rap artist, Brisco’s song, “Yes I’m me!”
This version is hardly something someone would chant while trying to get amped.
It sounds lame and feels more like a self-assuring quote a mental patient would repeat while lying on a shrink’s couch.
But “B**** I’m me!” on the other hand, is aggressive and says I have arrived and some things are about to change as a result.
The message is still the same, I am me; however the quality takes a major blow.
The preference of clean music over dirty music is pointless. It’s just like the saying goes, “You can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.”
The only question is, do you want your pig dressed up or not?
Antonio Rosado is a Magazine Production student from Gainesville, Fla. He can be reached at famuanopinions@gmail.com