Good girl gone Bad

Rihanna is one of my favorite singers, and I, as well as a lot of people around the world find her very talented. But, along with this talent, her music comes with major sexual content and provocative videos and lyrics, sometimes causing her work to be censored and banned in various countries.  The difference between censored and banned is that ‘censored’ means lyrics or something has been taken out or changed, whereas ‘banned’ means not being able to disclose at all.

Rihanna hasn’t always been this bad girl  sex symbol, she started out as this innocent young girl with songs such as “Pon de replay, S.O.S, Take a bow, Don’t stop the music”, these showed her talent and were not racy what so ever. Now her songs are pretty much all about sex and risky content songs such as S&M experienced many mixed reviews regarding its extreme sexual lyrics and the video was banned in 11 countries. This song was also censored by BBC’s radio edit, her lyrics like “whip” and “chain” were censored out and the song was called “Come on” instead of “S&M”. This was only during daytime radio hours, and the real lyrics were shown in special radio shows. Rihanna was not happy when she heard the edited radio version.

“Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it

Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it

Sticks and stones may break my bones

But chains and whips excite me.”

Her song “Man Down” which was on her album “Loud” and was released in 2011 also experienced many mixed reviews, mostly the video. The song and video was said to be glorifying murder where she guns down a “rapist”. Without even watching the video and just listening to the lyrics you can see where listeners and reviewers may get the idea that she is making murder seem like not a big deal…

“It’s a 22, I call her Peggy Sue

When she fits right down in my shoes

What you expect me to do

If you’re playing me for a fool

I will lose my cool

And reach for my fire arm”

The reason I listen to her music is not because of what she is talking about, but because of the beat, and how catchy her songs are, as most people do. But, radio stations, and shows that show this content have to be extremely careful of what they air because they don’t want to offend anyone, or have complaints from parents. You don’t hear many songs or videos get banned from Canada but there is a large amount of censoring that occurs during daytime hours, whereas other countries can be very strict and just ban the content so their people are not able to hear or see it during their broadcasting.

Good Girl…

Gone Bad…

Work Cited:

http://www.metrolyrics.com/sm-lyrics-rihanna.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/09/rihanna-bbc-radio-edit

http://www.metrolyrics.com/man-down-lyrics-rihanna.html#ixzz1ni2FefkN

http://www.cbc.ca/live/rihannas-video-banned-in-france—why.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/rihanna-causes-controversy-with-sm-video-108051

By: Breanne Kamrudin

Money for Nothing

Censorship and restrictions have regulated the music industry for many years. “The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) to administer standards established by its members, Canada’s private broadcasters”. Unlike the United States, Canada has promotional and restrictive regulations on media, to ensure radio and television broadcasts are appropriate for everyone. Canada has a much more strict view of radio and television than in the United States, as we “function under a socially responsible parliamentary system, which informs a socially responsible media system, meaning Canada focuses less on absolute freedom of the press, and more on keeping that in balance with the welfare of society” (Katie Warfield). A recent example is a ban on playing any uncensored versions of the 1980’s song “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits. In this song, the band uses the word “faggot” three times, a word that is considered very offensive in today’s society. The word faggot is a term used to call a homosexual individual, which in recent years has developed a very negative discourse and connotative meaning, a hurtful and unacceptable term used against gay people.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) put a ban on playing uncensored versions of this song on the radio, something which created mixed reactions. The CBSC said this about their recent restriction, “this is not another example of what some might call Canada’s “nanny state.” The broadcast council is not a government body. It’s made up of about 760 radio and TV stations across Canada. It’s an example of a private industry regulating itself” . Radio listeners were somewhat angry at this decision, as the Charter of Rights includes the “freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication” (Charter of Rights). When it comes to radio, music will always be filtered and censored, as Canada’s approach to media is a “common good for all.”

Resources:

http://www.cbsc.ca/english/

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/canada/110117/dire-straits-money-nothing

Katie Warfield

By: Guninder Rai

Express Herself

Madonna. She is not the Virgin Mary but rather quite the complete opposite. She’s the American pop singer and actress, Madonna Louise Ciccone or Madonna. This “bad girl” is known for reinventing herself, and her image as a sex symbol is undeniable.  It is hard to avoid her songs and music videos without seeing a glimpse of this sexuality. Madonna is no stranger to pushing boundaries. “Like a Prayer” was a song released in 1989 from her fourth studio album of the same name. Upon listening to the song, or after reading the lyrics, you might get the idea that it is about a passionate, young girl who is so in love with God that he eventually becomes the only male figure in her life. Sounds relatively harmless, right? Let’s take a closer look.

            When the single was paired with the music video, directed by Mary Lambert, it seems to go against everything the song is about. At the connotative level the song is dependent on the music video to garner different interpretations from the different audiences [“the cultural or social or situational meaning of a word. This meaning is dependent on context, time, and place” (Warfield)]. The video begins with Madonna witnessing a murder then running into a church to hide. Tame, so far, until she depicts numerous Catholic symbols including stigmata on her hands, mimicking and referencing those “marks corresponding to those left on Jesus’ body by the Crucifixion” (Apple). The implication that she is Christ-like is definitely controversial but she takes it to another level when she is in a field surrounded by burning crosses.

Countless critics accused Madonna of being unnecessarily provocative. Whether or not she was trying to convey a completely different ideology of victimization [“a value or belief system that is accepted as fact of truth by some group” (Warfield)], the negative connotations were still associated with the now infamous song. Although Madonna pushes boundaries,some boundaries are controlled by restrictions and regulations. Restrictive regulations are “regulations that limit certain ideas, expressions, or communicators from communicating” (Warfield). Immediately after its release, the Vatican condemned the video as sacrilegious, the Pope himself banned Madonna from making any appearances in Italy, and even “protests from a small Catholic organization in the country prompted Italian state television network RAI and Madonna’s Italian record company WEA to not air the video there” (Hochman).

          Regulations can be government imposed and they can also be self-imposed. While the music video was still in production, Pepsi-Cola signed a contract with Madonna to use her and “Like a Prayer” in one of their TV commercials. The day after the commercial aired, she decided to release her video, causing even more controversy, not only for herself, but for Pepsi-Cola as well. The company was immediately bombarded with protests and faced scrutiny for associating themselves with the musician, and eventually “cancelled the advertising campaign” (Taraborrelli). What’s interesting, however, is that they “even allowed Madonna to keep the five million dollars she had been advanced” (Key).

I’ll hand it to Madonna for being able to stir up a racy video, air it, while being a part of a commercial that features the controversial song, and still walk away with a successful future. Her ability to exercise her artistic freedom is undeniable and the so-called bad publicity she received was not really bad at all.

By Jaclyn Quitzon

Works Cited

Apple. (2011). Dictionary (Version 10. 6. 8) [MacBook application software].

Hochman, Steve. “Mad About Madonna PepsiCo Backs Use of Video in Ad Campaign.”

            PQ Archiver. 1989. Web.

Key, Janet. “Pepsi ‘Thrilled’ with Madonna Ads.” PQ Archiver. 1989. Web.

Tarraborrelli, J. Randy. Madonna: An Intimate Biography. Sidgwick & Jackson: United

Kingdom. (2001). Print.

Warfield, Katie. “Bitch, Bang, and Smoking Guns: Meaning and Meaning Making in words and expressions.” COMM 1100 Kwantlen Polytechnic University. 24 January 2012. Lecture.

Warfield, Katie. “What Boobs and Pink Nail Polish Really Mean.” COMM 1100. Kwantlen

Polytechnic University. 31 January 2012. Lecture.

Warfield. Katie. “Why We Love and Hate Celine Dion and Nickelback: Self and State

Regulations.” COMM 1100. Kwantlen Polytechnic University. 14 February 2012.

Lecture.

Where’s the Seinfeld Commercial?!

Even if one does not know a lot about american football, it would not be risky to assume that someone who lives in North America has heard of the pricy commercials aired during the Super Bowl.

What makes these commercials so unique and special? Maybe the fact that a 30-second commercial played on NBC costs $3.5 million dollars. There is a certain degree of expectations for these costly commercials from the audience. Advertisers are willing to pay the vast amount of money for their commercials to be played during the Super Bowl because a large audience is guaranteed. This year, there was approximately 111.3 million viewers that witnessed the victory of the New York Giants. Although the Super Bowls are more popular in the U.S., the number of viewers in Canada is still quite astonishing. In 2010 the show had 6.3 million viewers in Canada! The only program watched by more people that same year was the Olympic Hockey game. The number of viewers in Canada of the Super Bowl games even outnumbered the Stanley Cup finals. This meant that many Canadians were just as into the Super Bowls as an average American; which also meant that if the American commercials were to be aired, Canadians would be fed with advertisements for U.S. companies rather than Canadian ones.

If 6.3 million Canadians were to be influenced by the advertisements of the U.S., it would be fearful to Canadian companies because that may cause a drop in Canadian economy. The Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), an important body that regulates media in Canada by imposing rules against foreign programs, prompted a specific regulation called the “simultaneous substitution” for television broadcasting. Simultaneous substitution happens when there are American channels in Canada that are broadcasting the same program as a Canadian channel. Under this regulation, the cable or satellite provider must switch from American signals to Canadian signals so that viewers of the program in Canada will see Canadian advertisements instead of American ones. This is why we do not get to see the American commercials played during the Super Bowls.

6.3 million people is a lot, so why don’t more Canadian companies buy airtime for their advertisements during the Super Bowl games? Cost would not be the answer to this question since an equivalent time slot during the Super Bowl in Canada is only $130,000. But some companies, such as Pepsico Beverages Canada,  continue to choose to only air their commercials in the U.S. because their commercials are usually driven towards the American lifestyle which some Canadians may find difficult to relate with. Vice president of marketing of Pepsico Beverages Canada proposed that it would be unnecessary to buy airtime from Canadian broadcasters because he expected Canadians to view their advertisements online. This would not have been proposed prior to Youtube and other video streaming websites.

The ideology of the CRTC may be beneficial to Canadians; to promote and enforce Canadian content through broadcasting while preventing too much foreign content. But the matter of fact shown here is that there is no way to prevent Canadians from consuming American advertisements with the continued growth of mass medias such as the internet.

By Chantal C.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/adhocracy/why-most-super-bowl-ads-get-stopped-at-the-border/article2324816/singlepage/

http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/931746–demand-for-super-bowl-ads-spikes-in-canada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aW8uFtgeI

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/07/super-bowl-2012-tv-ratings-record

He Said What?!

From his explicit lyrics and graphic music videos, to his appearance at award shows interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech claiming that Beyonce’s video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it) was one of the best videos of all time,” Kanye West seems to be surrounded with controversy. Within the general media, West is not afraid to challenge dominant discourses where it is defined as “definitions of events and issues that emphasize the interests of elites, without challenging the political or economic status quo” (Warfield).

On September 2, 2005, a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina was broadcasted on NBC where West was a featured celebrity speaker. West presented for the relief alongside Mike Meyers, and when it was West’s turn to speak, he digressed from the prepared script saying, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Immediately, you could see the wave of reaction created by this statement. Meyers was shocked, the producer of the telecast cut the microphone off and moved to Chris Tucker. Unfortunately, this one sentence reached millions of viewers worldwide, and if someone did not see it, they could view the controversy on the Internet. Not only did he challenge the dominant discourse but he also encouraged society to practice the art of discourse and “talk” amongst themslves as well.

West’s actions sparked immediate conversations amongst people. His claim that Bush was a racist was probably received the worst by Bush himself. In an interview, he claimed that the comment made by West was “one of the most disgusting moments” of his presidency (Itzkoff). Bush already faced criticism for his role as the President and West only made things worse for him by tarnishing his name. West could be guilty of defamation, which is defined as “making a false statement of fact that injures someone’s reputation” (Warfield). More specifically, West slandered Bush’s name since his words were spoken rather than written (Warfield). Bush, of course, denied these allegations and claimed that what West said was absolutely not true.

In a later interview with Matt Lauer of NBC’s Today Show, West expressed his regret for his statement and apologized to Bush. He stated that he “didn’t have the grounds to call him a racist” however, he somehow defended his actions by claiming that, “in a situation of high emotion like that, we as human beings didn’t always choose the right words” (De Moraes). If that was not bad enough, he went on to accuse Lauer of manipulating his answers to respond in a certain way. Then West is libel by writing a tweet saying “HE TRIED TO FORCE MY ANSWERS” (Michaels). Fortunately, “the rapper has since resolved not to ‘do press any more’” (Michaels).

By Jaclyn Quitzon

Works Cited

De Moraes, Lisa. “Kanye West’s Torrent of Criticism, Live on NBC.” The Washington Post

(2005). Web.

Itzkoff, Dave. “Kanye Wes Criticizes ‘Today’ Show for ‘Brutal’ Interview.” The New York

Times. (2010). Web.

Michaels, Sean. “Kanye West Apologises for Calling George Bush a Racist.” The Guardian

(2010). Web.

Warfield, Katie. “What Boobs and Pink Nail Polish Really Mean.” COMM 1100. Kwantlen

Polytechnic University. 31 January 2012. Lecture.

Warfield, Katie. “Why We Love and Hate Celine Dion and Nichelback: Self and State

Regulations.” COMM 1100. Kwantlen Polytechnic University. 14 February 2012.

Lecture.

Imagine…

Making a socialist statement is rarely brought to our attention through song lyrics today. Most lyrics are about what is, not what could be or should be. When we look at the meaning of the ideology “socialism” we would see statements such as “co-operation rather then competition”,  “focusing on laborers rather than on industrial or political leaders and structures”, and also “society run for the common good” etc (lecture). When looking at these phrases which socialism consists of, a song that is very socialist and also full of optimism is John Lennon’s song, “Imagine”. This entire song is based off what our world should be like, with no wars, religion or private property.

“Imagine there’s no countries


It isn’t hard to do


Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too


Imagine all the people Living life in peace… ”

The socialist parts of the song come out when he talks about having no religion, nothing to kill or die for, etc. Whereas when he is expressing his optimism, that is shown when ever he says imagine. This is making an image of what he wants the world to be like, and what it ought to be, he truly believed doing these things would make the world come together as one.

“You may say I’m a dreamer


But I’m not the only one


Hope someday you’ll join us


And the world will be as one”

Not only did John Lennon write these lyrics through a simple thought process, but he also strongly believed in them and showed them through various actions, which have been titled as “pranks”. John Lennon’s famous pranks on the stage while the Beatles played in Germany included mocking the Nazis’ salute and wearing a toilet seat around his neck. Another one of John Lennon’s pranks was when he urinated from the rooftop of a Liverpool church upon nuns passing below.

John Lennon was not the type to stay silent about his beliefs, and the position he put himself in society. He expressed his ideologies through his music and they were a very clear message, which is why his songs, especially “imagine” became so famous. He knew what the world was, but he also knew what it could be and what it ought to be. He was a socialist and also an optimist, and this is shown through his song “Imagine”.

Sources:

Katie Warfield. “discourses and ideologies”. lecture. January 31. 2012.

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/john_lennon/imagine.html

http://paddyavfc.hubpages.com/hub/Imagine_by_John_Lennon

http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/imagine_by_john_lennon.php

By: Breanne Kamrudin

Changes

Creating music means expressing yourself, your views, your thoughts, and your ideologies. Ideologies are views in which groups of people see the world and expect it to work. Many song artists have presented their own ideologies through their song lyrics, expressing how they believe the world should be. Tupac Shakur, one of the most popular black rap artists in the world was known for his powerful song lyrics about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers. One of his most famous songs, Changes, caught the attention of people all over the world, as he expressed his views of the world, what it was like to what it should be. This song was released in 1998, where equality between blacks and whites was still not even. In his song, he writes:

 It ain’t a secret don’t conceal the fact, The penitentiary’s packed, and it’s filled with blacks,

expressing the ideology at the time, where people believed that black people were “bad” and “dangerous”, unlike white people. Throughout this song, Tupac continues to speak of the negative discourses of racism, that the world saw black people just as “Negros”, rather than equal human beings. Near the end of his song, he writes about his and other black people’s ideologies, about what the world should be like:

We gotta make a change… 
It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes.
Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live
And let’s change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do
What we gotta do, to survive. 

He raps about unfair treatment between white and blacks, and about conflicts between black rappers themselves. Because black people weren’t given equal treatment and black rappers were murdering each other for power, Tupac wrote this song in an attempt to change people’s behaviours, and to make them understand that we all need to work together to make the world a better place. Tragically, on September 13 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot and killed at a Las Vegas night club. Although he wasn’t alive to see his hit single reach the top of the billboards, his powerful lyrics touched the hearts of people all over the world, wanting to fulfill his dream of changing the world.

Sources:

http://www.lyrics007.com/2Pac%20(Tupac%20Shakur)%20Lyrics/Changes%20Lyrics.html

http://www.biography.com/people/tupac-shakur-206528

http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=tupac&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=tFoUPeYVL6to2M:&imgrefurl=http://poetsrow.com/collages-tupac-shakur-wallpapers-backgrounds/&docid=47sXnuOrLXo79M&imgurl=http://i1.ambrybox.com/211210/1292960573741.jpeg&w=370&h=370&ei=WDFDT762OImMiAL75dGMAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=179&vpy=159&dur=351&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=83&ty=143&sig=116695537863262370748&page=2&tbnh=142&tbnw=142&start=21&ndsp=28&ved=0CPwBEK0DMCo

By: Guninder Rai

Do We Know Where the Love is Now?

It has been a decade since the single, “Where is the Love?” by Black Eyed Peas was released yet the ideas and beliefs of it still persists today. This song addresses many issues of the United States of America and the world at large.  The words of this song make reference to the discrimination and inequality of races, war, terrorism, untold truths, greed, falsehood of media, and the negative influences of all these issues on young children.

“But if you only have love for your own race, then you only leave space to discriminate. And to discriminate only generates hate, and when you hate then you’re bound to get irate.” This line sung by Will.I.Am, one of the artists of the group Black Eyed Peas, talks about racial inequality.  It addresses the fact that people believe one race to be better than another which leads to hate and anger.  “Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight.”  The group emphasizes on the importance of love.

“If love and peace are so strong, why are there pieces of love that don’t belong.  Nations droppin’ bombs, chemical gasses fillin’ lungs of little ones. With ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young.”  In these lines, there is a message about how wars affect youth.  The U.S. are still involved in the war against Afghanistan. This war evolved after the issue of 9/11 and is still ongoing a decade later. “Overseas we tryin’ to stop terrorism/ But we still got terrorists here livin’/ In the U.S.A., the big CIA, the Bloods and the Crips and the KKK/ But if you only have love for your own race/ Then you only leave space to discriminate.” This specific line written by Will.I.Am was written with 9/11 on the back of his mind; he had some socially conscious thoughts he held in after 9/11. Children are born into an era where wars are still ongoing yet still expected to carry on with their everyday lives that include fun, education, friends, family and so on. Children may be too young to realize how ironic this is; to find peace in a world that contains wars.  The reference to youth as [the] “little ones” makes an emphasis on how they are insignificant in the decision makings of war but the matter of fact is that they are vastly harmed by the results of it.
In another line, “Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria, kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema.”, the lyrics talks about how youth are easily influenced by the mass media which they encounter while growing up.  If their nation or country is involved in war, kids may grow up thinking that violence is a way to solve problems.

The issue of untold truths and false messages spread are expressed in the lines, “A war is goin’ on but the reason’s undercover. The truth is kept secret, it’s swept under the rug. If you never know truth then you never know love.” and “wrong information always shown by the media.”  We as a nation know there is a war, but why? And even if we claim to know the reasons, on what grounds are we justified in believing so?

The lyrics outline the ideologies that The Black Eyed Peas believed in, and that is world peace and equality between different races. The lyrics tell us that they believe the world is a place for love and that having love within oneself and with those around us may lead us to create a better world. The Black Eyed Peas believe that all of us ought to share the love and not discriminate one another.

“The world needs a this song right now“, says Will.I.Am.  And I believe the world still needs this song today, a decade later.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/blackeyedpeas/whereisthelove.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1484775/making-black-eyed-peas-where-love.jhtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/07/politics.september11

By Chantal Chow

Miscommunication in Popular Song Lyrics

Communication is one of the most important elements in the music industry, as every song is made to communicate to its audience. But, when there is communication, there is miscommunication. As different artists with different opinions continue to rise, miscommunication is going to take place. There have been many incidents of controversy song lyrics in the past, just as there will be in the future. When the band Body Count released their hit single “Cop Killer”, in 1992 big controversy erupted. Ice T, the band’s lead vocalist wrote the song “Cop Killer”, in which he referred it as a “protest record“. The chorus of the song, “Cop killer, better you than me, Cop killer, I know your mama’s grievin’, Cop killer, but tonight we get even“, outraged government and country officials all over the world, because they conceived the song to be an encouragement for society to kill cops. The police commissioner of New Zealand said “anyone who comes to this country preaching in obscene terms the killing of police, should not be welcome here“, trying to keep Ice T from performing in the country. However, they had it wrong. This song was released in 1992, the same year that the LA riots took place. The LA riots occurred after the civil rights movement, when police were accused of being racist and prejudice against citizens, disregarding their true duty to society. One of the biggest racist incidents involved Rodney King, an African American male, who was beaten severely by a group of cops that were caught on camera doing nothing about this unfair treatment. In response, massive riots took place, and later that year this song was created by Ice T to encourage freedom of speech and to teach citizens to stand up for themselves against unfair acts. After much controversy over his music, Ice T told reporters that his lyrics were misinterpreted, saying, “I’m singing in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality. I ain’t never killed no cop“. People had the wrong picture of Ice T, thinking he was nothing but a murderer. Another line in the song, “F*** the police, don’t be a pussy“, is an example of the miscommunication of this song. The word ‘pussy’ is used in its connotative meaning, meaning ‘afraid’ or ‘weak’. Ice T here is encouraging the citizens to stand up for themselves and not be afraid, whereas some people believed he was poking fun at cops, calling the “pussies”. Although society has a set langue that they think is right, song writers produce music in their own language, which is why they are always facing controversy regarding their lyrics.  As the music industry continues to grow, people are going to cause controversy as words in music will always be interpreted differently by different people, just like almost everything else in the world!

Here is a link to the Rodney King beating:

References:

http://writing.wikinut.com/Controversy-in-American-Popular-Music/d.r6cega/#Cop-Killer-Body-Count-1992

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Killer_%28song%29#Defense_of_the_song

Song Lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/body+count/cop+killer_20022078.html

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDIXiuS4

By: Guninder Rai