Celebrity Chatter: Tasteless Lyrics Or Overreaction?
Radio Group Decides Certain Songs Shouldn't Be Played
Are there songs that are just too sensitive for the American psyche right now? One corporation seems to think so.
Program directors for Clear Channel Communications have compiled a list of 150 songs that may contain lyrics that some radio listeners might see as inappropriate or insensitive after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
I understand the reasoning behind some of the choices: I don't think I'd be in the mood right now for REM's "It's The End of the World As We Know It." Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was scary before and it remains scary today. Everything by Rage Against the Machine was on the suggested list. Go figure.
But here are some of the choices I just don't get. I can see the double meaning here, but maybe this is taking things just a little too far.
Like Dave Matthews, "Crash Into Me." Yes, the title could be misconstrued, but ask Matthews and he'll tell you that the song is about an innocent college-boy crush. It's an extremely provocative song and not one that deals with catastrophic disaster.
Or how about Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again?" Far-reaching implications or chirpy '70s song? It's Three Degrees, a one-hit wonder band who was singing about some heartbreak relationship.
Well, the list goes on and on. View the list for yourself and see if some of these titles are too much of a stretch.
By the way, these songs have not been altogether banned from radio stations for the time being, but should be left up to the discretion of the program directors of Clear Channel's 1,170 stations.
"It is up to every radio station ?.to understand their market, listen to their listeners, and guide their station's music selections according to local sensitivities," Mark P. Mays, president and chief operating officer of Clear Channel said in a press release.
I must admit that it seemed strange on the day after the attacks when I was sitting in a piano bar and the performer (an older woman who has probably played the same exact set of songs at the same exact time for forty years) sang a rowdy rendition of "New York, New York" (also on the banned radio play list, I might add.)
My Cosmopolitan drinking buddies and I questioned her choice: Did she play the tune as a tribute to the Big Apple? Or was she just insensitive to her audience? Were we being too sensitive? Were we being too critical? And maybe we shouldn't have even been out drinking Cosmopolitans on the night after the worst disaster in American history.
There were all of these questions even before the suggested play list was released.
Then there was the caller in Washington who had an immediate reaction when radio station WASH-FM played Kool and the Gang's "Celebration," which is not on the suggested play list of no-nos.
The listener was polite, the Washington Post reported, and was assured by the station that the song's broadcast was a mistake.
No more celebrating, the caller was promised.
Some stations adhered to the voluntary list, while others said that they were disregarding it.
Bob Buchmann, the program director at WAXQ-FM who is also an on-air personality at 104.3 FM in New York City said that some songs on the list happened to be among the most-played songs on his station immediately after the disaster.
Songs such as Don McLean's anthem "American Pie" and John Lennon's gentle "Imagine" were not only the most-requested songs on WAXQ, but around the country.
Buchmann used his own discretion in playing some of the songs that weren't on the list and decided to pull the song "When You're Falling," a collaboration between Peter Gabriel and Afro-Celt Sound System, from the airwaves.
The fictional lyrics were just too eerily similar to the truth, according to Buchmann.
Michelle Solomon's gossip column, Celebrity Chatter, appears each Monday. Got a question about a celebrity? E-mail us (please include your first name, city and state) and we'll find you the answer. Michelle Solomon@Celebrity Chatter.
Program directors for Clear Channel Communications have compiled a list of 150 songs that may contain lyrics that some radio listeners might see as inappropriate or insensitive after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
I understand the reasoning behind some of the choices: I don't think I'd be in the mood right now for REM's "It's The End of the World As We Know It." Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was scary before and it remains scary today. Everything by Rage Against the Machine was on the suggested list. Go figure.
But here are some of the choices I just don't get. I can see the double meaning here, but maybe this is taking things just a little too far.
Like Dave Matthews, "Crash Into Me." Yes, the title could be misconstrued, but ask Matthews and he'll tell you that the song is about an innocent college-boy crush. It's an extremely provocative song and not one that deals with catastrophic disaster.
Or how about Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again?" Far-reaching implications or chirpy '70s song? It's Three Degrees, a one-hit wonder band who was singing about some heartbreak relationship.
Well, the list goes on and on. View the list for yourself and see if some of these titles are too much of a stretch.
By the way, these songs have not been altogether banned from radio stations for the time being, but should be left up to the discretion of the program directors of Clear Channel's 1,170 stations.
"It is up to every radio station ?.to understand their market, listen to their listeners, and guide their station's music selections according to local sensitivities," Mark P. Mays, president and chief operating officer of Clear Channel said in a press release.
I must admit that it seemed strange on the day after the attacks when I was sitting in a piano bar and the performer (an older woman who has probably played the same exact set of songs at the same exact time for forty years) sang a rowdy rendition of "New York, New York" (also on the banned radio play list, I might add.)
My Cosmopolitan drinking buddies and I questioned her choice: Did she play the tune as a tribute to the Big Apple? Or was she just insensitive to her audience? Were we being too sensitive? Were we being too critical? And maybe we shouldn't have even been out drinking Cosmopolitans on the night after the worst disaster in American history.
There were all of these questions even before the suggested play list was released.
Then there was the caller in Washington who had an immediate reaction when radio station WASH-FM played Kool and the Gang's "Celebration," which is not on the suggested play list of no-nos.
The listener was polite, the Washington Post reported, and was assured by the station that the song's broadcast was a mistake.
No more celebrating, the caller was promised.
Some stations adhered to the voluntary list, while others said that they were disregarding it.
Bob Buchmann, the program director at WAXQ-FM who is also an on-air personality at 104.3 FM in New York City said that some songs on the list happened to be among the most-played songs on his station immediately after the disaster.
Songs such as Don McLean's anthem "American Pie" and John Lennon's gentle "Imagine" were not only the most-requested songs on WAXQ, but around the country.
Buchmann used his own discretion in playing some of the songs that weren't on the list and decided to pull the song "When You're Falling," a collaboration between Peter Gabriel and Afro-Celt Sound System, from the airwaves.
The fictional lyrics were just too eerily similar to the truth, according to Buchmann.
Michelle Solomon's gossip column, Celebrity Chatter, appears each Monday. Got a question about a celebrity? E-mail us (please include your first name, city and state) and we'll find you the answer. Michelle Solomon@Celebrity Chatter.
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