The Totally Clean Explicit Post

As you all may agree, the black and white striped sticker displaying the words "explicit" on music is a bad thing. This means that the content you find may be inappropriate. That's a good thing, right? If you don't like swearing, or immoral lyrics, the sticker warns you that it may not be a good purchase for you. It warns you that rappers like Lil' Wayne or Snoop Dogg are going to rap about sex and it warns you that rappers like Eminem are going to swear non-stop. It's quite a good system. Here's the problem though. While it does a great job at warning you about the content of rap and rock, the system isn't always reliable or trusty. Here are some examples.

I have found two songs by The Script so far that say the f-word (on their self-titled album), yet, they don't put an explicit label on the album. It will tell you on iTunes which songs are explicit, but what if you buy it at Wal-Mart? You'll be listening to it and the f-bomb will drop in. A lot of the other songs are clean, but thats no excuse to just leave it unmarked. On the other hand, the song "Sell Your Soul" by Hollywood Undead is marked as explicit, but all it censors is the word kill. It is true that it is quite violent, but I've heard violent songs that aren't explicit. It's also true that almost all the other are WAAAAAAY explicit, but that's not an excuse, really. Also, Blue October's "Into the Ocean" is marked, but it's just a metaphor of suicide. Just like the last song, like three songs are marked explicit. (It's also marked on the cover.)

SO what's with the explicit sticker being marked or not marked when needed? It's quite simple: the content is judged by the record company, the guys who produce and sell the music and what-not. The company decides what's explicit or not. That's why it all varies.

Below is an album that's from the 80's or 90's. (I can't remember.) It is the cover of rap group's self-titled album. Read the white box below.

(Here's what it says for those with bad eye-sight.)
"Def American Records is opposed to censorship. Our manufacturer and distributer, however, do not condone or endorse the content of this recording, which they find violent, sexist, racist, and indecent."

That's right. The manufacturer found the music to be so raunchy, they added their own warning label to the album! As far as I (and Wikipedia) know, this is one of the only few albums ever produced to have this kind of label. I find it quite funny, actually.

Just as a side-note, there is an album by a certain rap group that was so bad, it was briefly banned from being sold in Florida for a time! Talk about immoral! Oh, and the only reason I know this was because I had a question concerning the information I gave to you at the top.)