Danny Yee >> Internet Censorship in Australia >> Music Censorship


  From: j.stokes@student.anu.edu.au (Jason Stokes)
  Subject: [ARIA-censorship] Triple-J on ARIA censorship
  Newsgroups: aus.censorship,aus.music
  
  It seems that I'm becoming a regular poster on this topic, hence the standard
  header.
  
  Triple-J ran a story on the ARIA and their new cennsorship code this morning.
  It's quite illuminating.  I've belted out this transcript (this is almost
  certainly copyright of our national public broadcaster, but hell, they keep telling
  us it's *our* ABC, right?)
  
  From Rachel Kerr's comments it looks like Triple-J is starting to get edgey
  about these developments.  And they should be;  it was only last week that Arnold
  Frollows played some free-the-marijauna style reggae compilations on his new
  music segment - now *that* will surely not be allowed any more.
  
  Jason Stokes: j.stokes@student.anu.edu.au
  Ph: (06) 291 93 84 (home)
  
  ---------------------------------------
  Triple-J Report
  
  27 past ten now on the morning show - Jenny Aldershaw here with you!  Good
  morning.  Hope it's going well for you.
  
  Well when are song lyrics too explicit and offensive?  That's the debate
  the Australian Record Industry Association or ARIA has been having with both
  federal and state governments since late last year.  Finally compromise has
  been achieved and ARIA has introduced its own code of conduct - which means
  you'll find a bunch of new stickers on CDs in record shops across the
  country.  Rachel Kerr has the story.
  
  [music - "Express Yourself"]
  
  I'm expressing with my full capabilities
  And now I'm living in correctional facilities
  'Cos some don't agree with how I do this
  I get get strait - meditate like a buddist
  I'm dropping flavour my behaviour is heredity
  But my technique is very necessary
  
  Rachel Kerr:
  
  Censorship is a dirty word in this country.  And recently all Australians
  were reminded by prime minister John Howard that we all enjoy free speech. 
  But that's highly debatable when it comes to the argument that the
  Australian music industry is having with the government over swear words and
  drug references in songs.  ARIA - the industry body which represents
  Australian music - has been under a lot of pressure from both federal and
  state governments to get tough on explicit and potentially offensive
  language in song lyrics.
  
  ARIA was given the choice to self-regulate, or have legislation written for
  them.  And what they've produced is a code of practice with three levels of
  labelling.  The first is a black warning notice which indicates the
  recording contains explicit language.  And that covers the kind of words
  that can be heard in pubs and playgrounds across the country - and includes
  mild drug references.
  
  The next level of classification carrys a red sticker - warning it's not
  recommended for under eighteens.  ARIA's Emmanuel Candi explains just how
  explicit and offensive lyrics have to be to earn this classification.
  
  Candi: It's a fair whack of explicit words combined with violence or drug
  use.
  
  Kerr: Can you give me some examples please?
  
  Candi: [vaguely] Buy some drugs, give it to somebody else... isn't it
  great... we all should use drugs and... go kill someone or whatever.  That..
  that's going to get you into the next category.
  
  Now, this is the category that we've had a big argument about, because the
  pressure was on to have it banned for people under eighteen, and we went
  back out and we consulted, and we could... the overwhelming response was,
  that's wrong, it should just carry a higher a warning, it shouldn't be
  banned, and there were a couple of reasons.  One, it's always been the case,
  two, the retailers said on a practical level have you ever tried to tell the
  difference between an eighteen year old and a ah...  which in itself is not
  a great excuse.  Three, this only applies to the sale of the physical
  product of the CD or cassette - you can still turn on the radio and hear the
  song.  In fact Triple J's name came up a lot in all that, and Regurgitator,
  and bands like that...
  
  Kerr: [interrupting] I'm gonna ask you, where does regurgitator come in this
  argument? "I sucked a lot of cock to get where I am" - would that be not
  recommended for under eighteens?
  
  Candi: If it was coming out now, rather than before the new system, [it]
  probably would have spilled over into the higher category.
  
  Kerr: And would that mean under eighteens couldn't buy it without proving
  some identity?
  
  Candi: Under the system proposed by the Attorney-Generals that would have
  been the case, but under our system, which we've now got through and they've
  said we can have a year to trial it, you can still buy it if you're under
  eighteen it just carries a warning that it's not recommended for people
  under eighteen - now, at a retail level there is a long standing practice,
  retail practice, that even with a general warning, if it is a particularly
  young person or a particularly young teenager they'll probably won't sell
  it to them anyway without... mum or dad coming in or the older brother
  coming in and saying, no it's cool we want him to listen to it.
  
  Kerr: So in other words there's a great onus now on parents to be
  responsible for, you know, moral guardians for their children's musical
  habits and tastes.
  
  Candi: Always has been, and we've always said at the end of the day the
  government's not there to do everything that a parent should do and nor is
  a record company.  
  
  Kerr:  That's the second level of classification, what about the third, how
  serious does that get and are we talking about banned material?  We're
  talking about censorship at last.
  
  Candi: Yeah we are talking about censorship, I've had a lot of trouble
  convincing the record companies we have to live with this, it's the level
  which says the record company won't release a particular CD or cassette
  because the material on it is so abhorrent that it's beyond the pale for a
  reasonable standard.
  
  Kerr:  We're talking about pedophilia, necrophilia, bestiality, the kinds of
  things that are banned anyway right now.
  
  Candi:  Yep.  It matches what happens with books and movies.  So, there are
  a whole lot of movies and books I understand that are refused
  classification, they can't be sold in Australia, they can't be circulated
  and it's a criminal offense to do so.  But in addition to that there just
  aren't that many recordings that we know of or that we can recall that could
  ever fit that category.  There's been one recently, Cannibal Corpse, one
  that had a... I think the song that tipped it over was the one where the
  person deliberately drives into a family, head on crash, and then has sex
  and eats the bodies or something.
  
  [fade into [presumably] cannibal corpse song but doesn't get to the part
  where the vocalist shouts his lyrics in such a gutteral roar that every
  lyric is completely incomprehensible]
  
  Kerr:
  
  Now as you've heard this is a self imposed code of conduct which is reliant
  on the compliance of retailers and parents.  And it *is* only a twelve month
  trial.  After that Attorneys-General from across the country will determine
  just how successful it's been.  The speculation from across the music
  industry is that the government could well end up writing its own
  censorship code.
  
  Candi: If that happened, either immediately or over time, we could end up
  with state variations - which makes the idea of free trade amongst the states
  in this federation a mockery - but also makes marking records a complete
  nightmare because in some states you might be able to sell it, in other
  states you can't, and if somebody takes copies across the border it'll end
  up being the record company's problem even though they might not have sold
  them blah blah blah.  So, like the defamation laws which have cause immense
  difficulties in this country for many years and they're trying to
  standardise that, we'd be going back in time rather [than] forward.
  
  Kerr:  Just a few months ago our prime minister John Howard said that we
  were a country that enjoyed free speech; that obviously doesn't extend to
  musicians and songwriters.
  
  Candi:  Yeah I think it's hard to reconcile that general statement that the
  pall of censorship or whatever was said has been lifted...  I think he made
  it in regard to a different matter or different context but it's hard to
  reconcile any form of censorship with a general statement that there is no
  censorship.
  
  Kerr:  How do you see something like this new classification system
  affecting something like our radio station, Triple-J?  Obviously we monitor
  what we play and we don't play what we consider to be incredibly offensive
  stuff, but we do have drug references because this is the music that is
  there, that is being presented to us.  And swear words because that is part
  of the lexicon.  What will happen to Triple-J if the government comes in
  with a really hard and fast code saying no explicit material or drug
  references to under eighteens?  
  
  Candi:  Well that's a really interesting question because during all this
  I've picked up quite a bit of flavour of the thinking in regard to radio
  from government.  If this code is not taken is being successful
  after twelve months they will legislate and when the legislate they will
  do... my prediction is that they will incorporate radio, and radio will be -
  particularly Triple-J - which is being watched very carefully by the
  Attorneys-General - will cop it.  Now, I think that would be a disaster, but
  it has come up, it's come up in every conversation that I've had.  And there
  are a couple of ministers out there who think that Triple-J is really over
  the top and they can't understand why it's on there.  Now we've always said
  to them, well mate, it's a very good radio network and it's serving an
  important role and I think you oughta let them do what they do.  But I've
  picked up a certain flavour in political land that Triple-J is offending
  somebody, but not us.
  
  Emmanuel Candi head of ARIA there speaking to Rachel Kerr.  He's the head of
  the Australian record industry association, he was talking about a new code
  of conduct regarding explicit and so-called offensvie language in music and
  on radio.  Interesting stuff.  24 minutes away from eleven now on Triple-J -
  here's Regurgitator.
  
  [music - Regurgitator, "I sucked a lot of cock to get where I am."  It
  reminds me of Candi's role in this.]
  
  I sucked a lot of cock to get where I am
  I only want to be the best that I can
  My mouth is stained, I can't complain
  Just keep on rinsing out again and again
  
  whaooa.. yeah yeah yeah
  
  Take a look at me, tell me what do you see? 
  I've got all I want
  I'm on top of the heap, now they suck up to me
  I sucked more cock
  
  You can get what you need, just get down on your knees
  
  You sucked a lot of cock to get you are
  Your smile is stretching but you're gonna go far
  Your life is pain, you can't complain
  Just keep on rinsing out again and again
  
  I know... I sucked a lot of cock to get where I am
  I know... I only want to be the best that I can
  
  I know....  
  
 

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