Thursday, December 17, 2009

Rage against the machine

There is a great shortage of speech programs on the radio. In England we have two, provided by the BBC, Radio 4 and Radio 5. This morning on Radio 5 live an American rock group called 'Rage against the Machine' were invited to perform live on the airwaves. I didn't hear them, but there has been a public outcry because the song they shouted out contains in its lyrics certain swear words.

It seems that the BBC were very naive to think that they would refrain from swearing on air. I heard an excerpt of their performance later (without teh swear words), and I have to say that the noise they made bears no resemblance to what I would call music, but nevertheless I object. Not to the lyrics, which I never heard and therefore cannot have been offended by, but to the encroachment of pop music onto speech programs. Is there not enough pop music on the airwaves? Please BBC, give us our sanctuary for speech.

2 comments:

Burke said...

Just think doc, in a free society, people would be getting what they wanted and paid for. When things (like the airwaves and medicine) are "public, they just fight like animals over whatever there is.

There is a reason for the idea of property rights.

rakeback said...

I like the idea a lot. Im so sick of the bubblegum pop music with these talentless kids selling music purely based on their image...Miley Cyrus is the name that comes to mind immediately. I hope they make it to #1.