Lady Gaga censored in Malaysia

There was Red's thread about if kids music should be censored, some said yes and others said no.

A radio station in the predominantly Muslim country has censored the line 'No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I'm on the right track, baby' from Lady Gaga's song "Born This Way" in order to avoid risking government interference. AMP Radio Networks told The Associated Press, "The particular lyrics in 'Born This Way' may be considered as offensive when viewed against Malaysia's social and religious observances. The issue of being gay, lesbian or (bisexual) is still considered as a 'taboo' by general Malaysians."

However, not everyone in Malaysia agrees with the radio station's decision.

Pang Khee Teik, founder of Malaysian anti-discrimination movement Sexuality Independence, explained, "Lady Gaga was attempting to address this very thing in her song. How dare they play that song and cut out its shining heart. We just want the same thing as everyone else: to love, be loved and have our songs played on the radio."

And all who were around in the early 90s I'm sure haven't forgotten the controversy behind 2 Live Crew's album As Nasty As They Wanna Be being banned by local authorities in Florida on the basis of obscenity. The group was later arrested for performing material from it on stage.


My question is: should music ever be censored, or banned outright, for any reason? If it's obscene, exploitative, hateful, violent, in contrast to 'community standards.'

Chris wrote:
And all who were around in the early 90s I'm sure haven't forgotten the controversy behind 2 Live Crew's album As Nasty As They Wanna Be being banned by local authorities in Florida on the basis of obscenity. The group was later arrested for performing material from it on stage.


My question is: should music ever be censored, or banned outright, for any reason? If it's obscene, exploitative, hateful, violent, in contrast to 'community standards.'

Yes, I was around for this gov't debacle, that was finally won in court by Luther Campbell. Ironically, when writing to my two Senators about this I found that Connie Mack (Rep) was more supportive of this group's civil right to free expression than the "see-which-way-the-wind-blows" Bob Graham (Dem). Hate politicians - all they care about is getting elected by the Christian majority.

No, music should never be censored, or banned outright, for any reason in a secular, free society.

Which brings me back to the Muslim majority in those benighted countries like Malaysia. Those wanting any civil liberties in a country dominated by such a backward religion will probably have to take it to the streets and many will have to die to get it.

Censoring Lady Gaga is no loss. lol I think radio stations have the right to censor whatever they are broadcasting to meet their standards. As long as people are able to get the real thing, broadcasters should play what they want. Of course, they could just not play Gaga and play something better!

FM, is it pretty safe to assume that you're not a fan of Gaga's? lol

Chris wrote:FM, is it pretty safe to assume that you're not a fan of Gaga's? lol

That'd be one of the few safe assumptions about me that people here have made.

Don't like it don't listen, stop trying to legislate for everybody else.

If somebody wants to listen to Lady Gaga, they should be able to listen. However, a radio station also has the right to put whatever kind of censors it wants up on music. As long as the government isn't getting involved, then I got no issues with a radio station deciding that it wants to censor Gaga. If you don't like it, don't listen to that station. A station shouldn't be forced to play anything it doesn't want to and if it doesn't want a single line of a Gaga song played, then so be it.

Censored in the U.S. where we are (supposed to be) “endowed with certain unalienable Rights”? No. Censored in a country where secular law is part of the judicial system? If you don’t like it, move.

In this country we've got a first amendment which means we have freedom of speech and I think this does apply to music as well. However, for everybody in love with the idea of free speech, there is also unprotected speech that this amendment doesn't cover, and among that includes vulgarities and obscenities, so, and I'm guessing here, if a radio station thinks certain music contains said elements of unprotected speech in it, they would have a right to yank it if they felt like it. Of course people are probably going to say well then what's left in music?, but for the most part I agree with the others, if a radio station doesn't want to play something, that's their right, censoring it...censoring music goes back a long way, American Bandstand wouldn't take Lloyd Price and his song Stagger Lee until he did a second version that wasn't about one guy shooting another but instead about them fighting over a girl.

Before:




And after:




So this is certainly nothing new.

I don't agree with objectionable music being banned....like with the 2LC shit....adults should be able to make the choice to buy whatever "art" they please. However I have no problem with things being censored for broadcast.

Forgiveness Man wrote:Censoring Lady Gaga is no loss. lol I think radio stations have the right to censor whatever they are broadcasting to meet their standards. As long as people are able to get the real thing, broadcasters should play what they want. Of course, they could just not play Gaga and play something better!

Censoring music, IMO, is silly and help makes the unedited version all the more desirable to listeners.