Inspired by Clear Channel Media's unprecedented, wide-ranging and apparently random list of "questionable content" songs that its stations can't play in the wake of the WTC/Pentagon disaster ...
(see link, below)
I propose a station that plays nothing BUT music with "questionable content". If a song's going to offend somebody, somewhere, KQCM will play it. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, KQCM cranks out nothing but off-color, poor-taste, bad-timing music, both hits and misses. Here, you can catch Ms Benatar's "Hell is For Children", Nirvana's "Rape Me", The Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me", and Leonard Nimoy singing "If I Had a Hammer". Marilyn Manson has his own drivetime show. Wilson Phillips and Michael Bolton songs occasionally play, just to offend any regular listeners.
I for one would love to hear "It's the End of the World As We Know It", right about now.
Postscript: thanks to my boyfriend, who showed me the list below in the first place. How well he knows my hair-trigger sense of outrage ...-- 1percent, Sep 20 2001 Objectionable Music Radio http://www.fuckedco...archannel_email.cfmThe list. You won't believe it. [1percent, Sep 20 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] Alternative article http://www.pioneerp...ERT/docs/137030.htmHere's a ref to the list that my proxy doesn't block for containing the word fuck in the URL. [pottedstu, Sep 20 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] Fatal Auto Collision Song http://www.halfbake..._20Collision_20SongA better use for the 'Questionable Content Music' list. [phoenix, Sep 20 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] (??) Decent Argument Against the Clear Channel List http://www.latimes....00075068sep19.storyOne of the few times I've agreed with Robert Hilburn. [iuvare, Sep 20 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] WFMU http://www.wfmu.orgA great freeform radio station. Not always objectionable but very eclectic. [revbucksatan, Jan 29 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004] I'd like to be able to say "what a dumb idea. Do you really think that anybody's going to listen to a radio station on the off chance that they might get offended?" But I know better. This idea will sell through the roof.
Take for example, daytime talkback radio. The most listened to segments are the ones in which a caller gets abused by the announcer and is offended and embarrassed. The morning banter DJs do it too by way of demeaning competitions. Why so popular? It must be the anarchic cannibal instinct in us –maybe we like to see others suffer to a degree, or maybe it is comforting to know there are people worse off than us.
My advice to you, Anne, is to get a license and set up a radio station.-- sdm, Sep 20 2001 Although it is rarely acceptable deliberately to offend people, there are times when you have to say 'enough is enough'. Someone, somewhere is going to be offended by anything that could be said, but there has to be a 'get over it' point. I would personally ban most Metallica songs on principle, but 'Morning has Broken'? Please.Incidentally, it's strange how Tom Petty's 'Free Falling' is banned, but not 'Learning to Fly', although 'Learn to Fly', by the Foo Fighters is on the list. Also, they can't spell 'Jimi'.-- angel, Sep 20 2001 Yeah ... the inclusion of "Morning Has Broken" stumped me too, until I remembered that Cat Stevens is now one of those dangerous Muslims.
As for the Foo Fighters' "Learn To Fly", I see some good old arbitrary panic at work there. Or perhaps it has something to do with the video, in which Dave Grohl takes the piss out of everyone who ever flew, boarded, or served drinks on a plane.
I'm big on conspiracy theories.-- 1percent, Sep 20 2001 Those of us surfing from our offices tend to have evil filtering software that (though random in many ways) tends to object to domain names like fuckedcompany.com. So I found another reference, which doesn't claim to be the complete list, but looks pretty full to me.
Why are they banning Alanis's "Ironic"? Are they worried that people are going to start wandering around New York saying "Mmm, world's greatest superpower brought to its knees by criminals armed with knives stolen from supermarket shelf stackers. Ironic." Or just coz it's crap?-- pottedstu, Sep 20 2001 According to this week's New Musical Express, rock band Primal Scream are currently considering if they'll ever be able to play their recent composition "Bomb The Pentagon" again. But seeing as it's not on the list, I guess it's OK.-- pottedstu, Sep 20 2001 [pottedstu]... I think the banning of Alanis (which, I agree, is no bad thing in itself) may be due to the verse where she illustrates the man who had been afraid of flying all his life then took a flight "and as the plane crashed down he thought, well isn't this nice."-- lewisgirl, Sep 20 2001 <puts on his favourite burt bacharach album...>
"what the world needs now, is love, sweet love..."-- mihali, Sep 20 2001 On the day of the events themselves I couldn't help stop "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles going through my head. It just seemed to fit. With regards to Ob-La-Di being on the list - I just think they didn't want to push an already fraught nation over the edge.-- Redbrickterrace, Sep 20 2001 you too mihali?! easy-listeners-r-us!-- lewisgirl, Sep 20 2001 Bizarre list. Perhaps it's impact could be better judged if they said exactly how many times they'd played each song in the last year. My guess is 'very few'. Corporate tokenism at it's worst.-- DrBob, Sep 20 2001 lewisgirl: we just had a visit with our wedding videographer, and that's one of the songs she's going to use on the final product. we felt that, especially with the events of last week, it is a particularly fitting song.-- mihali, Sep 20 2001 A lot of the songs are relatively innocuous, but have one "touchy" lyric. Some people might be put off by "now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall."-- bookworm, Sep 20 2001 The one that has me *completely* stumped -- the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian"?!
Is it on the list just for making reference to a country in the Middle East, or is it something even more lame than that?-- MrWrong, Sep 20 2001 congratulations, mihali!The Bangles: "If they move too quick (oh-way-oh)/They're falling down like a domino" w.r.t the towers, or perhaps "The blonde waitresses take their trays/They spin around and they cross the floor/They've got the moves (oh-way-oh)/You drop your drink then they bring you more" w.r.t. Consumer culture having taken over the Western world, or finally, "If you want to find all the cops/They're hanging out in the donut shop/They sing and dance (oh-way-oh)/Spin the clubs cruise down the block" just for the yaa-boo aspect of it.Yes, pretty lame, MrWrong.-- lewisgirl, Sep 20 2001 How can they have Louis Armstrong "What A Wonderful World" or Neil Diamond's "America" on the list. I thought those were uplifting songs. People getting a little too PC for me. Just because these songs are on the list I am going to vote for this idea.-- barnzenen, Sep 20 2001 The list itself aside, every teen in America would listen to KQCM/WQCM on general principle.
Addendum: I just occured to me that the songs on this list would be most appropriate for the 'Fatal Auto Collision Song' idea. Added link for same.-- phoenix, Sep 20 2001, last modified Nov 20 2001 <pun alert> If they've banned the Bangles for a reference to Egypt then why haven't they banned Flock of Seagulls for "I Ran"? </pun alert>-- DrBob, Sep 20 2001 pottedstu: I can only guess that the "panel" who put together this list either had at best a vague idea of what they were trying to do, or -- more likely -- had little to no interest in broad-spectrum music, including rap and alternative.
This is the only way I can explain the omission of songs like "Come As You Are", Siouxie & the Banshees' "Your City Lies In Dust", or anything at all by Pearl Jam (especially the soaring "Alive").
UB: soul brother! I thought I was the only person in the world who knew "Another One Rides the Bus"! The song is brilliant, by far the best of Weird Al's parodies. "Hey/ I'm gonna sit by you, another one rides the bus ..."
Really takes me back. Thanks!-- 1percent, Sep 20 2001 I don't know, [1percent],Weird Al's "Yoda" has always had a special place in my heart. "Y-O D-A yOda..."-- barnzenen, Sep 20 2001 you don't love me anymore has to be the best, or maybe barneys on fire or.... well all of them realy...-- RobertKidney, Sep 20 2001 Yeah, I saw the Clear Channel list. I like the part the reads: "All Rage Against the Machine."I mean, how reactionary can you get?
A decent argument against the list was in yesterday's LA Times (see link).-- iuvare, Sep 21 2001 hehe, this is baked, at least in NZ. It's called student radio! My radio station, Radio Control has various shows such as the "Twilight Zone" for music that "some social retards may find offensive".-- zero5, Sep 21 2001 30 second look at list... Didn't see these on list - this is just from 1/4 of my CD collection I bothered to look at or remembered Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide - Album Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water - Brian Eno - Baby's on Fire Robert Johnson - Terraplane Blues - John Mayall - Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton - Hideaway Little Milton - If Walls Could Talk Wes Montgomery - Gone With The Wind New York Dolls - Jet Boy Yoko Ono - Midsummer New York Yoko Ono - Hell In Paradise Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power - Album Parliament - Give Up The Funk [Tear The Roof Off The Sucker] Portishead - It's A Fire Prince - I Would Die 4 U Rolling Stones - Rip This Joint Rolling Stones - Soul Survivor Diana Ross & Supremes - Someday We'll Be Together Van Halen - I'm on Fire-- thumbwax, Sep 21 2001 Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets - Album-- thumbwax, Sep 21 2001 The Cure "Killing An Arab" The Only Ones "Why Don't You Kill Yourself" The Clash "I'm So Bored With The USA" Mojo Nixon "Let's Go Burn Old Nashville Down" PJ & Duncan "Let's Get Ready To Rhumble" Kenickie "Something's Gotta Give" Prodigy "Firestarter" Sex Pistols "Bodies", "New York" Spice Girls "Goodbye", "Two Become One", "Stop", "Holler", "Too Much", "If You Can't Dance" Bee-gees "Blame It On The Boogie"-- pottedstu, Sep 22 2001 I didn't see Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" , "Nothing Else Matters" or "No Leaf Clover" on there, I was kinda suprised. Other songs that should probably be on the list are Powerman 5000's "When World's Collide", Rob Zombie's "Living Dead Girl", and Creed's "America". I can understand NIN's "Head Like A Hole" and Godsmack's "Bad Religion". They're all good songs, but I think that some (ok a whole lot) of people would be offended.-- moonsprite, Sep 27 2001 Ironically, and perhaps intentionally, the first song I heard on the radio after they backed off the 24 hour-a-day news coverage was "It's The End Of The World As We Know It"-- Needles, Sep 27 2001 Just came back from a local watering hole in Brooklyn, NYC, where I picked up a handbill for the month's events, including, on 9/15, a band called "I am the World Trade Center. The handbill was obviously printed last month. Creepy.-- snarfyguy, Sep 27 2001 Rods - You live on the corner of Synthy and Twiddling? I live right down the street!-- AfroAssault, Sep 27 2001 Celine Dion "Falling into you"
J C Mellencamp "Paper in Fire"-- Helium, Sep 27 2001 I'm one block down on Thumbs and Twiddling-- lewisgirl, Sep 27 2001 Why don't they ban all Monty Python? Or at least that song, "Never Be Rude to an Arab"?-- jabbers, Sep 27 2001 And we can't forget Ray Stevens famous Ahab the Arab.-- barnzenen, Sep 27 2001 1%, haven't seen you posting lately but support for your idea seems to be growing, or as the French would say, _croissant._ French-Algerian guy would be proud.-- daruma, Sep 28 2001 Monty Python, "I Like Chinese"-- Popageorgio, Oct 10 2003 I'd listen to it.-- Eugene, Oct 10 2003 Louie Armstrong's "What a wonderfull world", the Bangles' "Walk like an Egyptian"? How the hell are they questionable?
Thanks for bringing this list to my attention, it's one of the funniest things I've read in a while...-- Pac-man, Jan 24 2007 Yeah, that's funny!-- quantum_flux, Nov 11 2007 What? "Walk like an Egyptian" was probably banned because Egypt is near Iraq. "What a Wonderful World" is because...I have no flipping clue. Maybe they don't like hope. I can understand "Bodies" though. I'm playing that song at my funeral. And I laughed when I saw that they banned "all songs by Rage Against the Machine". And that, while banning some songs along with their covers, some songs/covers are banned while other versions that seem exactly the same are allowed. This idea gets my bun for playing my favourite songs.-- Shadow Phoenix, Nov 11 2007 random, halfbakery