Nickelback have re-released their song ‘Rockstar’. For those that don’t know, Nickelback are a popular beat combo. I rather like the song; however, VH1 has a different take on things.

VH1 have censored some of the lines. They are, with the inaudible word in italics,

the drugs come cheap

Everybody’s got a drug dealer on speed dial

and

Gonna pop my pills from a pez dispenser.

I think for VH1 to censor drugs references is, frankly, daft and particularly so in this song. It’s a song about wanting to have the lifestyle of a rock star. Given that Ms Amy Winehouse, a popular chanteuse, has today been seen smoking what is allegedly crack and that rock stars are pretty well known for their narcotic-enhanced activities, it can hardly be said to be to stop people being influenced by their idols. The network cannot turn around and say that news reporting is in some way different because VH1, so far as I know, doesn’t censor the video for Drop It Like It’s Hot by Snoop Dogg. In this video, particularly dense smoke is seen emanating from a hood worn by Mr Dogg. It is meant to be cannabis smoke.

Well, perhaps you can’t be sure, but we can’t be seen to be promoting something illegal. Cannabis smoking is implied but not explicit. Let us return to Nickelback; our wannabe rockstar wants to

Hire eight body guards that love to beat up assholes

which is pretty close to conspiracy and would probably not meet with the approval of the Security Industry Association. I suppose it’s possible to believe that drug taking is much more common and much easier to achieve than hiring goons¹. There are plenty of other things in the Nickelback song, though, that are achievable and are at least as objectionable on the basis of promotability as drugs. They include:

Excess production of carbon dioxide:

I’ll need [...] a big black jet with a bedroom in it

A second count of excess production of carbon dioxide:

And live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars

Promiscuity:

The girls come easy

Anorexia:

We’ll all stay skinny ’cause we just won’t eat

Laziness:

Sign a couple autographs / So I can eat my meals for free

Conspiracy to outrage public decency:

I’m gonna sing those songs / That offend the censors

Exploitation of the weak:

Get washed-up singers writing all my songs

and Fraud:

Lip synch ‘em [the songs] every night so I don’t get ‘em wrong

Rockstar is an amusing, catchy, tongue-in-cheek song about the pointless behaviour that rock stars can engage in and the drudgery they can avoid because of their great wealth. It is not serious and does not encourage the behaviour just by talking about it. The paranoia around drugs is such that it is impossible to have a serious debate about them because merely using the word ‘drugs’ is inflammatory. I would add that we live in a society oppressive to women; where there would be hue and cry over not censoring the word drugs, talking about misogynistic behaviour is absolutely fine. It would seem that there is such a thing as ‘cultural censorship’; I suspect that most people woud not give a fig about using the word ‘drugs’ in a song, but the ones that do, rather than changing the channel, cause a huge stink.

Gah.

xD.

1 - “I prefer the personal touch you only get with hired goons” - C. Montgomery Burns

Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Categories: Music.
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