dyer@vaxuum.DEC (WE decided? MY best interest?) (12/13/84)
MTV Censorship of Bronski Beat_________________________________________________
The Bronski Beat is my pick for this year's Best New Band. Two songs,
"Small Town Boy" and "Tell Me Why", sound like sure hits. The video for "Small
Town Boy" is supposed to be excellent. There's only one thing that could get
in the way of this group's success: homophobia.
The group, you see, is gay. Some, if not most, of their songs are
about being gay - including the two I just mentioned. The video for "Small
Town Boy" is supposed to be the same story as the lyrics of the song: a gay
man living in a small town with nobody to cry to but his soul.
The video is not being shown on MTV.
Well, let's do something about it! Anybody out there have any ideas?
I have a few, for starters:
o Write to MTV and complain. Anybody out there have their
address?
o Get the ACLU involved. Anybody out there know how to do
this?
o Get gay groups involved.
This band makes great music and (I hear) great videos. They should
not be censored.
<_Jym_>
:::::::::::::::: Jym Dyer
::::' :: `:::: Dracut, Massachusetts
::' :: `::
:: :: :: DYER%VAXUUM.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
:: .::::. :: {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vaxuum!dyer
::..:' :: `:..::
::::. :: .:::: Statements made in this article are my own; they might not
:::::::::::::::: reflect the views of |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| Equipment Corporation.jr@bbncca.ARPA (John Robinson) (12/14/84)
[If you don't get this line, let me know] Worse yet, I heard a news story on WBCN that their visas for an upcoming US tour are being held up. Definitely ACLU material; I think you can just look them up in the phone book. /jr decvax!bbncca!jr
mjc@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Monica Cellio) (12/15/84)
Uh, no. You can't get the ACLU to fight MTV because (last I heard) MTV is a private corporation that has the right to air or not air whatever they choose. They can cite reasons ranging from "it doesn't sell" to "we just don't like it" and there's nothing you can do about it except complain, boycott, and publicize your complaint. There are no civil liberties involved. If there's more to it than that (like they are being banned by local governments from playing in an area or something) you might be able to do something about it. I couldn't say; I'm not a lawyer. A local chapter of the ACLU will be listed in your phone book. -Dragon -- UUCP: ...seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!lll-crg!dragon ARPA: monica.cellio@cmu-cs-cad or dragon@lll-crg
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (12/17/84)
Interesting to stumble across this discussion now. My exposure to
Bronski Beat has been:
1) Hearing "Small Town Boy" on the radio.
2) Seeing the video for it on MuchMusic (the Canadian pay-TV music video
channel, which also is broadcast unscrambled by a Toronto TV station
late at night). The video is indeed better than most - just simple
images that fit the story in the song, not silly images of a band
playing the song.
3) Buying the record ("The Age of Consent")
4) Reading the lyrics. Only at this point did I realize that at least the
songwriter is gay.
I haven't had another chance to see the video since figuring this out,
so I don't know how obvious it would be in retrospect. There certainly
wasn't anything in the video that I could see offending anyone.
And there isn't anything specifically gay about the lyrics of "Small Town Boy"
at all.strock@fortune.UUCP (Gregory Strockbine) (12/17/84)
A friend saw Bronski Beat's Small Town Boy on MTV around 4:30 AM (Pacific time), 17 Dec.
merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant) (12/18/84)
> > > A friend saw Bronski Beat's Small Town Boy on MTV around > 4:30 AM (Pacific time), 17 Dec. { Click! } Hmm...think the MTV music person subscribes to net.music? Great. They are now playing it. So what's the problem? -- Peter Merchant
betsy@dartvax.UUCP (12/19/84)
> > I haven't had another chance to see the video since figuring this out, > so I don't know how obvious it would be in retrospect. There certainly > wasn't anything in the video that I could see offending anyone. > And there isn't anything specifically gay about the lyrics of "Small Town Boy" > at all. Oddly enough, just as I was reading this article I heard familiar lyrics coming from the TV set "run away, turn away, run away..." Sure enough, it was "Small Town Boy" by the Bronskii Beat on MTV. As usual, MTV will censor anything (remember Eurythmics and Michael Jackson?) until it's too saleable to ignore. -- Elizabeth Hanes Perry UUCP: {decvax|linus|cornell}!dartvax!betsy CSNET: betsy@dartmouth ARPA: betsy%dartmouth@csnet-relay