Re: OT: Censorship American style

On May 21, 9:51 pm, "Raymond O'Hara" <raymond-oh...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=410538&GT1=28102

Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy
May 21, 2009, 6:34 AM EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you
won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.

The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD,
"21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for
language and content, and they refused.

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't
carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe
Armstrong said in a recent interview.

While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including
Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs,
which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's
view, "There's nothing dirty about our record."

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there,"
he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're
in 1953 or something."

"21st Century Breakdown" contains curses and some references considered
adult.

Wal-Mart said that it's the company's long-standing policy not to stock any
CD with a parental advisory sticker.

"As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want
to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that
would remove a PA rating," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "The
label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately
can not offer the CD."

But guitarist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America,
they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art."

Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn't stop the band - which kicks off a U.S.
tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 - from landing at the top of the album
charts this week. "21st Century Breakdown" sold about 215,000 copies since
its debut on Friday.

The album is the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD
"American Idiot," and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While
"American Idiot" spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W..
Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion
in today's society.

While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without
Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store's policy is disappointing, considering it
has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music
stores.

"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ....
to think that to get record your out in places like that, but they won't
carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he said..
"I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind
making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play.
You have to refuse to play it."

What's your point?
.

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