If it doesn't meet the standard of hate speech it should be allowed.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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Unpopular Opinion
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"Hate speech"
As defined by who?
You want Trump defining it?
To confirm, if we don’t want our kids to hear cursing, we should avoid the song.
But if you don’t want to hear the censored version, you cannot avoid it?
Agree, no censorship for music and art in general. Censorship also involves some songs being not available to stream. While not as convenient, I buy all my music and (I might be on a spectrum or two) play it when it's listening time. I LOVE music, but not while doing other activities. Rarely though, some wallpaper music.
Unpopular, my ass lol
I doubt it is unpopular in Lemmy's demographic, but I think it probably is quite unpopular within the general population
In the backward and religious USSA probably.
I should mention that cunt Tipper Gore and her crusade.
No other country cares
I'll give you that—you could be right.
Not even this song?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_Hitler_(song)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge48j5lplo
American rapper Kanye West has been blocked from entering Australia over a song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
I think there's a difference between blocking an entire song and censoring out / replacing a couple choice words in the middle
Completely agree with you.
Also be surprised if this is an unpopular opinion.
It's going to switch from popular to unpopular once you say "songs that ask for the extermination of all people in Gaza" shouldn't be censored.
There should be a line where songs/anything should be censored, but curse words obviously aren't it.
Agree. If you want your music to be "kid friendly", then don't swear in said songs. Easy.
There are musicians that do go to extremes with jargon and swearing but nonetheless those are words. Words convey meaning, which convey ideas and experiences.
Collectivelly, there should be no need to worry if a song is "kid friendly". Parents, adults, listening to such music should teach children those words are valid in that context but not valid in others.
Education is better than censorship.
Ya I was going to mention that part about the kids too, agree with that also. It just gives me religious ick, because it reminds me of the same idea about sex and naked bodies and how poorly they're viewed by certain religions.
Censorship but it gets renamed as "shame".
I hate it as well because it creates a weird alternative reality where people only know the censored version of the song. Also very often the songs contain themes way to mature for kids and censoring a few rude words does not change that.
Yep. Don't like it, don't listen to it (or watch it, or read it). Your views shouldn't remove my ability to enjoy something as it was intended.
Suck a dick up til you hiccup, motherfuckers.
But the record label wants maximum air time
Your problem isn't censorship, your problem is relaying on services to listen to music. Be it Spotify or the Radio, you're listening to public music; you have to share. And preferences of others are going to override yours, be it business decisions, or just people who'd rather hear the censored version.
You're trying to ride the bus, and mad because it doesn't drop you off at your front door.
The most bizarre censored song I've heard is probably Where The Hood At. For some reason, the only censored line of the entire song is "empty out, reload, and throw more slugs"... even on the "explicit" version. The rest of the song with lots of homophobia and such is completely uncensored.
This has to be a streaming service issue? I don't purchase censored music and therefore don't have this issue .
Do streaming services seriously put everyone in the children's tier? That and live versions would have me cancelling so fast.
There has to be an Adult option, right?
I know some songs on Spotify have the explicit symbol and are also censored lol. Its brutal.
Bro tell me about.
Imo the greatest nu metal album of all time is Hed PE's Broke. But Spotify only has the censored version, and let me tell you how incomprehensibly worse the album is without profanity.
Censorship is becoming a major problem, all these streaming sites control everything now, they can do whatever they want with the movies it seems, the free streaming sites usually edit the movies and I found Amazon did a few times as well back when I was using that crap, when those movies aren't available anywhere else and the streaming ones are all censored then people have to essentially break the law to see the original movie, which I have no personal problem with, but it's just a hassle. Hang on to that physical media. I know this is about music but it's basically the same.
I know right, everyone is all what about the kids? But as our very president and his pals said and did over and over, fuck the kids.
I remember listening to BBC radio 1 when they accidentally played the uncensored version of Closer of the Sunday afternoon chart countdown.
Summer of ’69 by Bryan Adams was recently censored. The song seems to be about Americana and teen romance, but at the end he says “me and my baby in a 69” but people still didn’t get what it was about. Then he told people to check his birth year. All of a sudden that line had to be changed.
And yet The Who still get to say “who the fuck are you?” in Who Are You…
The censored version of "Last Resort" is my thirteenth reason. The whole song is about being lost, angry and in pain, how else are people meant to express it?! 😑
as long as we don't ban the uncensored versions it's just more choice for the people. i believe that language is power, and ridiculous overuse hurts it and our expression. thus there are songs where i prefer the clean versions.
I'm guessing you meant censored, and not "uncensored", as the censored versions would be the clean versions you prefer.
The only concern for you would be that clean versions won't be made. And, that's the artists' choice, regardless of whether censorship exists.
Some are made by the artists themselves.
The reason is that they can be played on the radio, and sold in Walmart. Those are less of an issue now, but they aren't nothing. Which is why it's still done.
I would say it must be done more creatively. With a similar sounding funny word.
Nine Inch Nails' Closer could be:
"I want to [Cluck/Duck/Chuck] you like an animal"
Money. The real ultimate reason for the censoring. There is a large contingent of pearl clutchers and religious nutters in the world that believe no-no words have real power (nevermind that the replacement words mean the exact same thing or the bleeps don't actually obfuscate the intended words - real lower half of the intelligence bell curve kinda stuff). And upsetting them means less money in the label's/artist's pocket.
I feel that when Weird Al sung Closer as part of the Alternative Polka, the censoring greatly added to the experience.
I always lose it at that part.
Hot take, the radio edit of CeeLo Green's "Fuck You" actually flows better.
You know, this is actually the one singular song where I actually prefer the censored version. 99.99% of the time it just dulls the edge of the song and nothing more, but in this case it kinda changes the meaning of the song. To me "forget you" sounds like he's trying (albeit struggling) to move on from the girl. The "fuck you" version comes off as way more bitter. Plus like you said, it flows better
The radio edit I've heard just blanks out the "fuck" and the n-word and doesn't change anything to have altered the flow. Is there another version or something?
I always assumed this was the radio edit. I think I was mostly listening to classic rock stations at the time...
That does sound better than what I've heard and now I am wondering why the radio station I heard it on choose the crappy one.
More proof that fediverse is just 4 edgy teens in a trenchcoat