Grammy Bleeps Leave Fans Fuming

(AP)  Did anybody notice that, late in Sunday's telecast of the Grammy Awards show, the sound went on the fritz?

The mikes went dead for seconds on end, over and over, like some kind of short circuit no one could fix.

This apparent technical snafu seemed to crop up during the big production number with rap artists Eminem, Lil Wayne and Drake, who ended up miming as much as singing for the TV audience.

More than coincidence?

Not to any of the 25 million viewers wondering why certain recording stars were invited to appear on a show while the sort of music that earned their invitation was turned into audio Swiss cheese.

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What You Didn't See on TV

To be honest, the rap medley of the songs "Forever" and "Drop the World" contained some lyrics you might not hear in Sunday school. But this wasn't Sunday school - it was actually late Sunday night, on a TV extravaganza celebrating a wide range of music.

CBS, caught in the dilemma of having it both ways, sought to include on the Grammycast cutting-edge artists whose music is selling like hotcakes, while, at the same time, it felt compelled to take every precaution to prevent a vocal version of a wardrobe malfunction.

"It was a rousing musical performance, but words were edited from the live telecast that didn't meet our broadcast standards," said CBS spokesman Chris Ender. "We have great respect for artists' creative freedom, but there are certain things you can't say, or sing, on television."

Even so, New York magazine's Web site was among those wondering "why were whole lines being cut to avoid one profanity? Why was the music cut out along with the mikes? Did the bleep button keep getting stuck in the on position or something?" Then, helpfully, the
Web site posted annotated lyrics to the performance, with bleeped portions highlighted. (It also noted the performers "were doing a pretty good job of censoring themselves, making the silences all the more pointless.")

On Twitter, Mandypeacelove complained that she "only gotta hear freaken half the song. KINDA makes me mad." And Staciallthetime suggested to CBS, "If you are going to bleep out more than half of the song then don't put it on!"

Paul Levinson agrees.

"Don't have performers on the show if you're going to bleep the hell out of their performance," proposed Levinson, professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University.

Levinson argues that the Grammycast did an injustice to the performers' music as well as to the audience expecting to hear it.

He pointed back a half-century to when CBS' "The Ed Sullivan Show" refused to show Elvis Presley on camera from his gyrating waist down, and when, at Sullivan's command, the Rolling Stones substituted the line "Let's spend the night together" with the seemingly less racy "Let's spend some time together."

"We laugh at Ed Sullivan today," Levinson said. "But that's exactly the same thing CBS was doing Sunday night."

By Frazier Moore

[droopee]

Doing something like this is utterly disrespectful to the artist. If CBS had issues with the lyrics and KNEW the act would not be fully aired, they should either have 1: Not allowed them to perform or 2: alerted the masses to the fact that the Grammy's would be "censored". Just because this is "rap" music, doesn't give it any less credibility to it's claim of creativeness. The issue has nothing to do with the music's excessive use of "foul" or "questionable" language. That is the way that the person who created the music wanted it.

Music is an art form and should be treated as such. The intellectual rights of the musics creator should be retained. It has long been accepted by the masses and the media to allow for multiple versions of a song to be released and played in different venues. This should have just been a case of the Grammy's stating that they can only sing the edited songs. Should they want the airplay and exposure they would more than likely agree to the stipulations. However "bleeping" out a majority of an exhibition is ludicrous.

As I said, if the general public would have been alerted to the fact that some performances would be censored, it would be a totally different issue all together. The way they went about "bleeping" out a majority of the song was wrong. If that was the plan all along, the act should have never been booked.

[droopee]

Doing something like this is utterly disrespectful to the artist. If CBS had issues with the lyrics and KNEW the act would not be fully aired, they should either have 1: Not allowed them to perform or 2: alerted the masses to the fact that the Grammy's would be "censored". Just because this is "rap" music, doesn't give it any less credibility to it's claim of creativeness. The issue has nothing to do with the music's excessive use of "foul" or "questionable" language. That is the way that the person who created the music wanted it.

Music is an art form and should be treated as such. The intellectual rights of the musics creator should be retained. It has long been accepted by the masses and the media to allow for multiple versions of a song to be released and played in different venues. This should have just been a case of the Grammy's stating that they can only sing the edited songs. Should they want the airplay and exposure they would more than likely agree to the stipulations. However "bleeping" out a majority of an exhibition is ludicrous.

As I said, if the general public would have been alerted to the fact that some performances would be censored, it would be a totally different issue all together. The way they went about "bleeping" out a majority of the song was wrong. If that was the plan all along, the act should have never been booked.

[Idntv]

I agree with CBS... Clean up the music and you will be heard throughout all the song, not just half it.. Their lyrics is one of the reasons I will not listen to Rap.. Same with Heavy Metal!! I do not believe that a person has to use the language they do to put out decent music.. I am not above using a few bad words occasionally, but I do watch where and when I use them.

[sonofabitch7]

If the performers would watch their language and keep it clean, the editors and broadcasters nationwide wouldn't have to babysit the speakers/winners/performers. Acting "thug-like" isn't really where its at, stop the fighting, the name calling...get a clue start acting like normal people. If you want someone to look up to, don't look their way....Clean it up and become the Idol we all want to flurish in the business. STAND OUT FROM THE REST.......Keep it clean for all to watch and hear.

[SocietysNightmare]

Grammy Bleeps Leave Fans Fuming

Viewers Question the Amount of Censoring Done to Rappers Eminem, Lil Wayne and Drake's Grammy Performance


Proof-positive that people need to get a life. It was a rap performance! Only the FaceBook generation would give a *bleep* about something so unimportant. Too, when does Lil Wayne report to prison? I'm sure the inmates are more anxious than Ginuwine to meet him.