Music Television (MTV) was born on August of 1981, before cable was popular. It was suppose to not do well, receiving no attention from the press during its first three months of existence. (Banks) It's first music video, the Bangles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" was hardly seen by anyone. (Banks 4) Because of this, MTV decided to make its station more appealing to the younger, hipper crowd. (Denisoff) It was designed to look spontaneous, like something in a college fraternity house. So thanks to cutting edge, flashy graphics, plenty of promos, and hip artists doing music videos, MTV became highly popular, especially among high schoolers. (Banks 6) Today, MTV is a cash machine, producing profits of over $100 million a year from advertising, merchandise, and paraphernalia. (Heins) According to a recent poll by high schoolers, 85% of them that have basic cable regularly watch MTV, while 80% of them claim that they watch MTV two hours a day. (Banks 9) MTV was highly popular, but its strong image made it a punching bag for censors to hit.
Many of their music videos were highly questionable to the PMRC's tastes in the late 80s. Tipper Gore demanded that a picture of the Parental Advisory sticker would be placed on videos containing violent or sexually explicit lyrics or imagery. (Nuzum "Parental") But they backed down, since they realized they were powerless to comtrol MTV. (Denisoff 40) The PMRC did not give up; they decided to implement the same tactic they used to get the Parental Advisory stickers on the albums: get the media attention to pressure MTV. Soon, the media and the PMRC pressured MTV to do something about the music videos. It had a effect on the station, which began to reject or request edits for a significantly higher percentage of submitted videos. (Denisoff) MTV was in a battle of its own, trying to save itself from the wrath of the censors. (Denisoff 41)
According to a former MTV executive, "You have to understand the presure MTV is under. If the cable operators are pressured by the townships they're in, they'll put the pressure on MTV. If they really get in a battle, they'll consider jerking the channel." (Banks 13)To avoid getting jerked, MTV had to act like a censor to their music videos. In 1984, MTV created the Standards Department, which consisted of one person who had complete control over every MTV video that came in. (Banks) The department was increased to five people in 1989. According to Serge Denisoff, author of the book, Inside MTV, "Guidelines used by the Standards Department, though inconsistently applied and completely open to subjectivity, rule out videos showing drug use; excessive alcohol consumption; explicit, graphic, or excessive sexual practices; gratuitous violence (such as knifings or physical restraint); or derogatory characterization of ethnic or religious groups." (Denisoff 44) According to the same MTV executive, "naked women running around or throwing babies out of trucks would not be permitted." (Denisoff 45) If MTV thought something in the video was inappropriate to them, then they would return it to the record company. In 1984, MTV demanded music video edits from out out of every ten; by 1994, it had increased to one out of three. Some videos had to be returned as many as six times for edits! (Banks 13)
Many of the videos MTV censored were questionable. For example, the Fuzztones' song "Nine Months Later," a song promoting kids to have safe sex, was banned because it contaned a reference to condoms. (Denisoff) According to a spokesperson from the band, "MTV was getting a lot of pressure from conservatives to remove all sex from videos. At the time, no one of the U.S. had heard of the Fuzztones -- so we were an easy target. They never would have asked Madonna to change the lyrics." (Denisoff 271) MTV wanted the Fuzztones to especially change one lyric, from "Well if you don't wanna live this life of shame, be sure to wear your rubbers when it rains" to "wear your raincoat when it rains." (Denisoff 74) MTV eventually approved the revised video, but only aired it once. MTV once censored Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" because they thought it might offend African-Americans. "But," according to Denisoff, "they censored Dire Strait's 'Money for Nothing' which constantly referred to homosexuals as faggots!"
Another way MTV dealt with criticism, was to put questionable music videos in the late-night hours. (Rehman & Denisoff) Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" and Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" were two videos that were aired at that time. According to an MTV spokesperson, "Where it gets tricky is drawing the line. It's never a black and white issue. There's a lot of gray stuff. Is that too much of Cher's ass? Somebody has to decide." (Banks 33)
Obviously, MTV censored all these videos, so they could stay on the air. For example, several stations refused to air MTV in 1984 after Surgeon General C. Everett Koop claimed that video fans had become "saturated with what I think is going to make them have trouble having satisfying relationships with the opposing sex...when you're raised with rock music that uses both pornography and violence." (Jansen 27) Although he had no scientific evidence, it was widely quoted. MTV was removed from several stations, especially from the Southern states. (Jansen 28) |
