Gun control in the US was at its zenith. And any reference to firearms in an MTV video was bleeped out like it was profanity. Like the very existence of firearms was an obscenity. Like ‘they’ were trying to influence the culture into seeing an object as some sort of unacceptable independent moral actor. Like Britain. When Der Spiegel says the US has to stop trying to be like Europe, we REALLY need to stop trying to emulate Europe.
Oddly, Uncle mentioned 80s music a few ago.
Yeah, I'm probably making too much of it. MTV censored a lot of stuff. Drug references, fire references, knife references, butt references. And they weren't even consistent with their censorship. So perhaps I am being too oversensitive with my observations.
MTV did go from this:
to this, with 'barrel of a .45' editted out on broadcast:
back to heavy rotation of this, with 'barrel of a gun' included.
All in a mere 5 years.
Yeah, I'm probably making too much of it. MTV censored a lot of stuff. Drug references, fire references, knife references, butt references. And they weren't even consistent with their censorship. So perhaps I am being too oversensitive with my observations.
MTV did go from this:
to this, with 'barrel of a .45' editted out on broadcast:
back to heavy rotation of this, with 'barrel of a gun' included.
All in a mere 5 years.
1 comment:
I never really thought of why media censored guns. It's sort of like an anti-fetish that was going on. The scene in ET where all the cops were chasing the kids with...guns, but then they replaced them with...flashlights or something.
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