Censor-y Deprivation: When Governments Can Control The Music

posted in: Music News

Canadian country band Cowboy Junkies changed their moniker last week”but don’t worry, the name change will only be effective in China. In order to get clearance to perform in a Beijing music festival organized by famous Chinese DJ Youdai, the Toronto-based four-piece was asked to change their name to Cowboy Fan.

Junkies guitarist Michael Timmins has since downplayed the name change, telling Spinner, “A person in China who knew us would refer to us as Cowboy Junkies, but the censors, or whatever you want to call them, need to know what the name means. That’s a hard name to interpret, so they interpret it as ‘Cowboy Fan.’ They know what ‘cowboy’ is because they have a translation for that. But for ‘junkies,’ well, what does that mean? So the thing they came up with is ‘junkies’ — that’s somebody who is obsessed with something. So they said, ‘Okay, we’ll call it ‘Cowboy Fan.'” But while the band may not feel that the censorship was too harsh, they did have to eliminate certain songs from their setlist due to lyrical content, including “I Cannot Sit Sadly by Your Side” and “Third Crusade.”

Here in the US, we’re used to a certain degree of censorship in our music”songs must have clean lyrics to be played on the radio or on television, for example, and bands who want to sell their CDs at Wal-Mart are forced to put out an edited version. But we’re lucky; generally censorship means YouTube temporarily pulling down M.I.A.‘s violent “Born Free” video or radio stations changing the lyrics of Tom Petty‘s “You Don’t Know How It Feels” from “let’s roll another joint” to “let’s hit another joint.” (And by the way, how is that any different?)

In some countries the government will do far worse things than edit your song if they don’t approve of your subject matter. Kurdish musician Newroz faced imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Iraqi government when he refused to stop singing in Kurdish or censor his overtly political songs. He was eventually exiled from Iraq.

In other nations, censorship means your music is banned entirely. Guns And Roses‘ Chinese Democracy is banned in China, and the country has also banned Western religious music. Oasis was banned from playing in the country after it was discovered that Noel Gallagher appeared at a Free Tibet concert in 1997. And, in order to tour China in 2003, the Rolling Stones had to agree not to play “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Beast of Burden” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” It isn’t just China”Lady Gaga has felt the sting of censorship from other countries. “Born This Way” was censored in Malaysia due to its references to homosexuality, and her controversial single “Judas” led Lebanese officials to impound shipments of the CD on the grounds that it was offensive to Christians. However, the government later released a statement that “The CD has received approval for entry and distribution in Lebanon.”

So, the next time you sit down with a copy of Sticky Fingers or Born This Way, make sure you really soak in Mick Jagger’s lewd lyrics and all the things that make Gaga’s “gay anthem” so enjoyable. Not everyone has that luxury.