MTV's Censorship

MTV has previously come under criticism for its censorship, stating that it is too politically correct and sensitive. Music videos are frequently censored, moved to a late night position or sometimes banned entirely.


MTV has edited music videos due to references of drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia and advertising. For example, in the song Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) by Katy Perry, the word 'Ménage à trois' was cut out completely and was not replaced with any other lyrics. Videos with risqué content usually get pushed back to a late-night rotation on the channel. A video that was pushed back was Maroon 5's This Love. The video for Megalomaniac by Incubus was also put on the late-night rotation but not due to risqué content, the video showed depiction of German Leader Adolf Hitler and people drinking oil and so MTV declared it not suitable for the daytime rotation.


Many videos have been banned by MTV. Some of these video's include Rihanna's S&M, Closer by Nine Inch Nails and Body Language by Queen. These videos were not played at all on any MTV channel. Some of the banned videos have been heavily edited to allow airing time on one of MTV's sister channels. One example of this is 30 Second's To Mars - Hurricane in which MTV edited the video to be played on the late night rotation on MTV 2. In some circumstances, the artists themselves have created a censored version to fit with MTV's guidelines.


MTV's censorship rules will apply to our video. We wish to use drugs in our video, to fit with MGMT's psychedelic genre. Therefore, our video would probably have to be edited by MTV to be shown on their channel. The lyrics to the song contain no profanities or controversial references and so the song would fit MTV's censorship regulations.