Censorship

"As the concept and medium of a music video is a form of artistic expression, artists have been on many occasions censored if their content is deemed offensive. What may be considered offensive will differ in countries due to censorship laws and local customs and ethics. In most cases, the record label will provide and distribute videos edited or provide both censored and uncensored videos for an artist. In some cases, it has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety as they have been deemed far too offensive to be broadcast."

1980's

The first ever video to be banned on MTV was in fact "Body Language" by Queen this was due to homoerotic undertones, lack of clothing and the amount of sweat shown in the video! During this era this was seen as unsuitable for the television audience!

Not only did MTV ban videos, the BBC banned the song "Girls on film" as they thought it was to sexual. Showing several sexual fetishes though out the video.

1990's

Shocking in 1991 MTV banned a danced sequence by the king of pop Micheal Jackson as it was said that he was touching himself inappropriately in the video. The most controversial video of Michael's was "They don't care about us" being banned from MTV, VH1 and even BBC because stating the alleged anti-semantic tone of the song.

The most famous song known to every girl born in the 90's which was banned was "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. This video was banned due to the highly sexual connotations. Some other of her songs were banned because of the reference to homosexuality and group sex in "Justify My Love"

"Smack My Bitch Up" was banned in several countries because of the reference to drugs, nudity and sexual content. They also had the anthem "Fire starter" banned by the BBC due to the obvious reference to arson.

2000's

The era of my childhood, Robbie William's video "Rock DJ" caused excitement in the media. People stating the controversy of William's nude body and peeling off his own skin revealing his flesh. This was banned in the Dominican Republic and was censored in the UK!

In 2002 t.A.T.u (Russian duo) caused mayhem with their debut single "all the things she said" as it evidently showed 2 girls embracing their emotions for one another and eventually kissing. Richard and Judy (two well known TV presenters) began campaign to have this particular video banned, they thought this was inappropriate and would appeal to pedophiles around the world (as the girls were in school uniforms). However the kiss was choreographed into the girls LIVE performance and cleverly in top of the pops just about when the kiss was due in their performance the camera man showed the footage of the audience so this type of behaviour was not shown.