What the heck is up with the censorship?

[Vlek Norris]

Okay, now I know American's are INCREDIBLY messed up when it comes to marijuana, but.... but....

In Gouge Away by The Pixies marijuana is censored, but in Casey Jones and Truckin' by the Grateful Dead cocaine isn't!!

So marijuana is worse then cocaine? If Rock Band is going to be dumb and censor the songs we're paying to download at least they should be consistent. :)

VN

[dady5000]

I don't know why.


Radio edits are usually what gets sent to HMX so yeah....

[Fausttt]

has anyone proven whether it is HMX doing the censoring? or the masters they recieve are the already radio-edited versions? that would explain why the censoring is inconsistent

[killer_roach]

I'm pretty sure it's what they're sent to work with that determines it, whether it's a radio cut or a "clean" version of an album...

<Ozzy>
But if the ****ing censoring ticks you off that ****ing much, grab the ****ing mic and sing the real ****ing lyrics your own ****ing self, for ****'s sake.
</Ozzy>

[DodoBurd]

heres another one: "whore" is censored to "wolf" in Welcome Home, but there is a very distinguishable "whore" in In Bloom

[HeavyMetalKing]

And I can tell you that in the radio edit for Welcome Home they don't use wolf in place of whore, they just blank it out. So either Coheed did another version for Rock Band (probable, but I don't know how likely) or HMX just plugged those words in somehow. How that would work I don't know...I had 3 hours of sleep. Fun day ahead.

[Fausttt]

i've heard different radio edits of the same song on the same station (usually time dependant) so that doesn't mean the radio edit you heard is the ONLY radio edit out there

[CONAN9845]

It usually comes down to context and repetition if it's a word that isn't an actual curse. Whore in Welcome Home is referencing an actual woman, whereas in In Bloom it's only referencing nature. God in This Ain't a Scene is said so many times that it has to be censored.

I would be willing to bet that HMX is working with what they are given first.

[Spandrel]

They should just give us the option of downloading the Uncensored versions of songs.

[CONAN9845]

They should just give us the option of downloading the Uncensored versions of songs.They don't get to make that decision. They must use whatever they have the rights to use. They also have to keep the "T" rating in mind.

[mazzy]

Lol... we probabl;y do not want to get into a "Should Marijuana" be legal debate. But it is pretty silly that people go to jail for it....

I also agree that HMX is probably working with whatever version is sent to them.

[GuitarZero]

Yeah, it's perfectly normal that we've outlawed the thing that makes you "sit around eating potato chips." Now we don't have to worry about that getting in the way of our alcohol consumption, which turns us into the obviously superior drunken fools that get in fights and kill people with their cars. Horray! ;)

I don't drink. Personally I think that drunk drivers should be automatically thrown in jail and those that kill people should get the death penalty.

[TornShaun]

God in This Ain't a Scene is said so many times that it has to be censored.

That is the one censored song that bugs me the most, i really can't see what the problem is with saying god damn ?

[InsoFox]

Well, if we're going to talk about whores, what about all the ones in 'Hey' by Pixies?

[rab39]

I don't drink. Personally I think that drunk drivers should be automatically thrown in jail and those that kill people should get the death penalty.

You'd probably then be able to "personally" drive on the streets practically by your lonesome. There wouldn't be enough jails in America to hold every person who has ever driven drunk once.

[Axe Man]

That is the one censored song that bugs me the most, i really can't see what the problem is with saying god damn ?

I assume by the above statement that you don't have any children playing Rock Band with you. This is the fifth reincarnation of this thread so to summarize; this is a FAMILY GAME played by 8 to 80 year old people. I don't want to hear my daughter or mom or grandparents having to sing gratuitous profanity. Radio edits are fine, that is what everyone hears on the radio anyway. If you feel the need to belt out "God damn" in your house then by all means do but don't make the rest of us put up with the cd cut that we would never buy.

By the way to the person who said to make two versions to download; it is a great idea but it would push the price of the DLC up. Not that I would mind if it would make everyone happy but then people would complain about the price:eek:.

[zurgrock]

heres another one: "whore" is censored to "wolf" in Welcome Home, but there is a very distinguishable "whore" in In Bloom


Maybe because its saying what the whore is doing . ****ing up all I do.
While in bloom, it just says nature is a whore, but maybe not intending anything sexual.

(edit) even though the in welcome home it may not be sexually intended, but the censored word has other meaning than messing up.

[Electric_Zen]

Look buddy, if whatever country you're from is fine with having its citizens being a bunch of slacker potheads, that's your business. Don't call Americans "messed up" because we don't want our country turning into a bunch of wasted losers like the Netherlands.

That said, I'll agree with you that if marijuana is censored, so should cocaine.

Furthermore, I'm assuming you agree that all of the violent references should be excised from the song as well.

After all, if hearing the world 'marijuana' will turn us into a nation of slacker potheads, then hearing a description of violent acts will certainly turn us into a nation of homicidal maniacs.

Let's do a recap guys:

Censored content in Doolittle:

1) A reference to smoking marijuana

2) A description of a tattoo on the breast of a beautiful woman

Uncensored content in Doolittle:

1) A man is tortured for three days and has his eyes gouged out

2) A man destroys a building, killing three thousand people in the process

3) A dead girl floating in the water

4) A description of a woman's eyeball being sliced open

5) A man committing murder-suicide with his wife and kids

[Electric_Zen]

I assume by the above statement that you don't have any children playing Rock Band with you.

I assume by the above statement that you don't put any effort into parenting.

I have children who play Rock Band with me. There is uncensored content in Rock Band that I feel is inappropriate for my kids. There is also content on broadcast TV that I feel is inappropriate for my kids.

So I don't make that content available to them. If Sex Type Thing is made available as DLC, then I go through this simple process:

1) Check out the song, and see that it is sung from the perspective of a man committing a rape

2) Don't make that song available to my young kids

The idea that I should download all these songs, let my kids play them, and then wail because Harmonix didn't censor them to meet my standards of what should be experienced by a six-year-old is ludicrous.

[instantdeath999]

Furthermore, I'm assuming you agree that all of the violent references should be excised from the song as well.

After all, if hearing the world 'marijuana' will turn us into a nation of slacker potheads, then hearing a description of violent acts will certainly turn us into a nation of homicidal maniacs.

Let's do a recap guys:

Censored content in Doolittle:

1) A reference to smoking marijuana

2) A description of a tattoo on the breast of a beautiful woman

Uncensored content in Doolittle:

1) A man is tortured for three days and has his eyes gouged out

2) A man destroys a building, killing three thousand people in the process

3) A dead girl floating in the water

4) A description of a woman's eyeball being sliced open

5) A man committing murder-suicide with his wife and kids

Gotta love Gouge Away. I agree it's really odd, though. Slicin up eyeballs? That sounds worse than marijuana.

[hmxhenry]

So there's like three threads about censored lyrics up on the forums right now. I will provide the same response as I have in the past, and will continue to post in the future until we have more detailed information we can pass along.



I think it's safe to say (looking at past threads about censorship and the HMX response) that there are many possible reasons why This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race includes a brief edit. It could have been anything from an internal decision to a decision made by the band, their label, the ESRB ratings board, etc. Why was the FOB song edited but Weezer's El Scorcho was not? I don't know. Again, completely different band, management, label, and ESRB submission process. I guess this goes to show that there is no 100% clear cut way to determine which song will get edited and which song won't.

The meat and potatoes of the song is still there. I don't think that the edit changes the meaning of the song, and I haven't found the lack of GD jarring at all when singing. Sing it if you want to. I'm not endorsing censorship of the arts, and I'm not using this as a platform to weigh in on the religious implications of the word edited out. I just wanted to point out that the editing / ESRB process may vary from song to song, so we should all get comfortable with that idea sooner rather than later.