I wrote another article that deals with my feelings on profanity in today's music. If you haven't read it, basically I wrote of how common profanity has gotten. It no longer is exclusively in Rap or Urban music but becoming more and more common in Top 40 Music. I mention in my earlier article that there is a song entitled F*** You by Cee Lo Green, a song that is currently still in the Top 40 and was a Top Ten song in Billboard's Top 100. Someone asked me for that song and then proceeded to sing it, belting out every f-bomb loud and clear. My article addressed this situation. In the end I asked for us, as a society, to be more sensitive to the use of profanity and for us to each do our individual part.
The reason that I feel a need to write a second article to deal with the very same subject is this: I was telling my wife about this article that I had written on profanity. I almost never show her the articles that I am writing beforehand. In my mind, whether justified or not, that would be like ringing the death knell to my writing career. I don't want to have to edit my writings because of someone else's input, which I feel I might do if I were to let my wife see my articles before I publish them. However I still respect her opinion so I did recite the essence of my article to her. Well her input was "Why are you even offering that song in the first place? After all, if you want to see profanity taken out of today's music you shouldn't even have it available."
That viewpoint, of course, got me to thinking. Should I remove the song completely? My wife further suggested that I should post a set of Acceptable Guidelines. Many others have statements such as "We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone." Maybe to avoid further incidents like the one that inspired my first article I should have a sign posted that profanity will not be allowed. I've been of the mindset that I should allow people to buy what they want. But then again, I run my own business. I can determine the things that I offer. If I'm going to encourage a call for action then I cannot be a pacifist.
With that in mind, did I mention that I'm referring to 'Karaoke' music? There are no vocals on Karaoke tracks so if someone wanted to clean up the previously mentioned song, for instance, then a karaoke track would be the perfect way to do it. In fact my daughter informed me that the song that got me on this 'crusade', "F*** You by Cee Lo Green", was actually entitled 'Forget You'. She did not know of the 'dirty version' but was only familiar with the clean version. This shows me two things; that if an artist really felt that his song would be 'harmed' commercially by it's liberal use of profanity then he or she will offer a 'clean' version in order to have his song played on more stations and sold to more listeners. Most of today's Top 40 songs are sold by the appeal of it's music and not necessarily because of it's lyrical content. Secondly I can see the usefulness that a karaoke track can have in offering clean versions to these songs with 'explicit lyrics'. The trouble lies in the fact that many times, although the karaoke track may not actually have the questionable vocals recorded on it, there may very well be the very same lyrics that come up on your attached screen. Ninety-Five percent of the music I sell is offered on Compact Disc + Graphics, DVD, VCD, MPEG4, MP3+G, or some other format that will display the lyrics to the songs. I don't think it would be wise of me to justify the sale of a song, citing that the customer can 'clean up' the song, if the lyrics are blatantly displayed. If everyone in the room can see the actual lyrics, while the singer is performing an edited, clean version to the song, there still is a problem. All those that can read have just seen the words that I am trying to get out of the music. As I mentioned in my earlier article, if you not only hear but also see profanity often enough, then it will no longer have the shocking effect that it should have. Your ears and eyes will have been calloused to it's use.
So this is what I intend to do. I will look at the songs that I know of and only offer the songs that do not display the actual explicit lyrics on-screen. Also if background vocals can be heard that contain profanity, I will "quarantine" these tracks. I know that I may never be able to eliminate all the karaoke songs that have visible or audible profanity in their recordings but I'm going to try. I know I can't personally listen to every disc that has the warning "Explicit Lyrics" but I will do my part and start out with the best selling discs. Thereafter if any are called to my attention I will also take positive action. Will this action affect sales? Possibly, but in the long run I hope it affects the sales of the companies that are not offering 'clean' versions' of the songs that we hate to love. Also I think I will follow through on the idea that my wife had of posting a conspicuous sign that states "No Profanity Will Be Tolerated". Although it really hasn't been a problem that I believe merits putting up this sign, I think posting up my feelings on profanity may help others think about the effects vulgar language can and does have.
So it seems that there isn't any etiquette when it comes to profanity. Maybe it's because the use of profanity shows a lack of training. We've been trained from childhood to eat with our mouths closed, not to pick our nose, to present ourselves in such a way as not to offend those around us. There was a time when parents would make their children wash their mouths out with soap if they were heard using vulgar language. I think that happened to me once but I think that I may have had to wash my mouth out with soap because of the way I spoke to my parents and not necessarily because of the words I said. Whatever it was, I am not advocating going back to that extreme. The training that I'm talking about is letting others know how their language affects you. Let's be more 'pro-active' in our view of the public use of profanity. I was of the viewpoint of live and let live, you can do what you want, c'est la vie. But with that viewpoint we will see very little change. So if vulgar speech offends you, speak up. The next time that you're sitting in a restaurant and you hear people in the next booth over using profanity let them know that it offends you. If one of your friends or associates often embellishes his stories with the use of profanity, let him or her know that the story will have the same meaning without the added vulgarity. Remember that change starts with each of us individually. There should be no need to use literal soap to clean up our language but the symbolic soap may be needed. Let's clean up our language - that's a good place to start in showing courtesy and respect to one another.
I know my customer did not intend to offend anyone. To him cursing has no shock value; it means nothing. To me it does and I know that my viewpoint may be viewed as old-fashioned. It even makes me feel old writing this article with this viewpoint. However if we, as a society, if we as individuals, become more sensitive to the use of profanity, then maybe little by little profanity will be taken out of the music that we listen to. Let's leave cursing for the frustrating moments in life when the instruction manuals make no sense, when you pound the wrong nail (the finger nail instead of the metal nail), or when nothing is going your way. Even then maybe keep it under your breath. But vulgarity and cursing does not belong in our music - let's take profanity out of music.
I have been selling Karaoke Products for over 20 years so I have seen a lot of changes in this industry, most of them good and some, as my article mentions are not so good. When I started selling Karaoke Products most people did not know what karaoke was, there was no Karaoke Section in the Yellow Pages, the internet did not exist, and a loaf of bread sold for 5 cents. (Okay, I'm getting carried away here - bread sold for a little more but wasn't sliced yet). Back then the most popular format for karaoke was Laser Disc. Karaoke music was quite expensive, a typical Karaoke Laser Disc had around 28 songs and sold for $150.00 or more. The machines were pricey also, costing upwards of $500. Now, however, instead of paying over $5.00 a song, you can buy digital music for pennies a song. Quality Karaoke machines are priced as low as $100, which makes karaoke so affordable that every home should have a karaoke machine and music, just in case a party breaks out. Check out my website at http://www.800-karaoke.com/ or give me a call at 1-800-KARAOKE.
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