This is an interesting question in my eyes, I think that the record companies do take responsibility already in putting parental advisories on the music they distribute. I feel that this is and is not effective. I am not yet a parent so from that view point I don’t know how effective that is. I know that some artists distribute two versions of their albums, one uncensored and the other censored. Walmart usually will carry the censored versions of albums if available. Perhaps the parental advisory is effective in that some parents can protect and censor their children to what music they listen to. I do know that some people listen to music for the beat and disregard the lyrics totally. I think the parental advisory is an option to leave it in the parents hands, just like an R rating for a movie a child under 17 would have to get permission to watch the movie in a theatre. I think for the parents who choose to shield and protect their children the parental advisory is effective. I also however feel that people tend to not even pay attention to the parental advisory labels. In some ways I feel this covers the record companies for any legal situations. Parents can’t sue record companies for what their children listen to. People can get very sue happy so anything they can blame problems on they go for it.
I just want to touch on one thing again. I respect the artists and musicians who choose to release two different kinds of versions censored and uncensored. Not only is this a smart business deal because you will get more fans that way but it gets your story out to a larger audience. Not that all artists need to censor themselves, some only play to certain audiences.
I also want to point out that when I do see a parental advisory label, it will make me second guess what the cd is about. Does it have parental advisory for the violence and crude sex lyrics? Does this cd cuss the whole time? Is it a good cd? Will I like? So in this way I can see how recording labels putting these labels on there can have a negative effect. Some people buy on feel and some people purchase on urge. For those on feel this could second guess the buyers purchase.
So in many ways recording labels are effective putting on the parental advisories. On the other hand they may not be so effective to those who are by passing it. Either way I don’t see recording companies have a negative or positive effect but a neutral effect in deed.
I know in my wide music collection I have albums with parental advisory labels and ones without them. Music is music at the end of the day, and what we all choose to listen to may not have an effect on emotional purchasing but urge purchasing. I leave you with this music video!
Cheers
Great job on this blog I really enjoyed reading it this week.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that record companies do take responsibility already for putting a parental advisory on the music that they distribute. They also take a very big risk as you pointed out people might see the parental advisory as a negative thing and maybe will not even want o buy it. They might see it and think that it’s a CD full of cuss words and might just a horrible CD. I believe that it is the parent’s job to do the rest of the work when it comes to stopping their kids from listening to music. All those kids are not the responsibilities of the record companies so I do not think that they should go any farther than putting parental advisories on the music they distribute. It is the parents fault if the kids still listen to this music, this shows that parents are too lazy to take their time and see what their kids listen to. They rather just blame the big record companies and the artist for their kids listening to it when it reality it is all the parents fault because the parents do have all the power when it comes to what their kids listen to.
I absolutely agree with you, I believe that record companies do their job in advising people about what they are buying and it’s up to the adults and parental guardians to decide whether or not it’s ok for their kids. I also love that you touch the artist themselves in this blog. I love the fact that they will take the time or their record label will take the time to be courteous and put out two versions. I’m not a parents either and so I can only comment on what I have seen and heard, but I think the record labels do a great job of protecting them by trying to help parents make a decision. When I was younger, I remember not being able to purchase CDs if they had that parental advisory on them. I am unsure if that is still what stores do, but I think it’s a good idea, because it forces the adults and parents to be the ones who decide if they want their kids to listen to it or to be able to buy it in general. I also like the fact that young children or even teens can’t get into a rated R movie without a parents’ consent. I feel that as a nation we should really take a look at what we allow our younger generations to watch, read and listen to. I say that only because if they don’t truly understand what they are hearing then who knows how they will interpret it and what they might do with that.
ReplyDeleteI like the video you included. It was nice and relaxing. It shows that you don’t have to put anything off color in a song or a video to make it a good one. I agree that the record co.’s have to protect themselves legally, but it doesn’t help very much. I’m sure most parents don’t look at the music their kids even listen to. Just like a movie a CD should have some sort of purpose to the rateing. It seems like they little black and white symbol probably goes unnoticed more often than not. It’s a good idea for an artist to release two copies of the same CD, I agree also because it guarantees them both sales. Sometimes people will not buy and CD because of the warning and others will only buy the CD that is in the artist’s original form. It probably evens out in the end, but the ones that have the two versions are going to make the sale either way.
ReplyDeleteI also mentioned how parental advisories are already present on music. I am now siding with your view; I may not have explained it very well in my blog. But I agree that the total effectiveness that the advisories have are split. I did not even think about how artist put out two versions of their albums. It is funny, most of the time I prefer the edited version better. It may have something to do with listening to the edited versions so much on the radio, and it gets me used to hearing it that way. I recall that many times when I happen to listen to the explicit version of songs I do not like them at all. Most stores only carry the “clean” versions of albums. But we should keep in mind that CD’s are not really sold in stores anymore. Now the norm is to buy music online (iPod’s and other devices). Buying CD’s is a thing of the past. It is true that people do not really pay much attention to the parental advisories but when the stores are in control, it turns out that most of the albums available are the censored versions, which overall affects everyone in a huge way.
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