Censorship in Pop Music

The first time we heard "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, we were driving around Iceland. My wife and I both liked the song, but had no clue whether it had broken in the US or not. When we got back to the states, we quickly found out that it had--it was all over every radio station. I remember jokingly telling my wife, "I'm surprised nobody's tried to ban the song for mentioning suicide." Remember, I was JOKING here.

Then, I see this on MTV's Battle of the Videos blog. For those of you too busy to click the link, it's the video for "Beautiful Girls," but with the line "you'll have me suicidal" muted every time Kingston tries to say it (full lyrics here).

Hey, I'm as sensitive to the issue of suicide as the next guy, but with all the stuff that's NOT cut out of pop music nowadays, someone actually made a fuss over a song saying "You'll have me suicidal"? Is this really something worth protesting? Are they now going to search out every song with a line similar to "your love is killing me," "I'm dying," etc.? What about Heartbreak Hotel's "I'm so lonely, I could die?" Are you going to start censoring Elvis, Mr. or Mrs. protector of the innocent? It's all metaphor, jackass. Nobody's really dying. It's hyperbole.

I mean, come on, the song isn't called "Suicide... You should do it!" It's a man singing about how low he'll feel when/if his girlfriend leaves him. I can't see any value in cutting out the words in the music video and ruining the song. They're not really protecting many kids, anyway, since every top 40 station plays it with the normal lyrics. And MTV is a network that can be screened out by wary parents using a vChip. Anyone who would be easily shocked by these lyrics should just block the station in their household. But Pop radio is a lot harder to block. By now, the only teens who haven't sung along with that song are Amish kids who've never sung along with ANY pop music.

Anyway, as a parent of two young kids, I'm constantly shocked at the excesses of our own society. It scares me to think of where things are going and what dress, music, language, entertainment, etc. will be like when my kids are teens. But I have to admit that in this situation, I was a little shocked at things being steered too far the other way. Who made this decision, and what were they thinking?