Fwd: Marsh vs. A*L

Sat, 27 Oct 2001 06:58:12 EDT

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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 06:41:56 EDT
Subject: Fwd: Marsh vs. A*L
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Return-path: <DethRokrX@aol.com>
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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 04:09:18 EDT
Subject: Fwd: Marsh vs. A*L
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=A0=20
American Grandstand=20
American Grandstand is a weekly column by prominent pop culture and music=20
historian Dave Marsh. =20

=A0AOL Keyword: Censorship
Dave Marsh  =97 Monday, October 22, 2001
On AOL's Bruce Springsteen discussion board, the fans wanted to talk=20
politics. AOL said its infamous Terms of Service (TOS) forbade such=20
controversy. So the fans talked about song lyrics, and several posted=20
excerpts from Bruce's songs. Everyone who did this was served with a TOS=20
violation and the posts were deleted. When the posters asked why, they were=20
told that the lyrics were "vulgar." If they protested further, they were=20
suspended from AOL for a week.
Among the lines that TOS find too vulgar: "Bobby said he'd pull out / Bobby=20
stayed in" ("Spare Parts"), which explains how Janey got pregnant; "Janey's=20
fingers were in the cake" ("Spirit in the Night"), which is as gross as=20
"Little Miss Muffet;" and "Pink Cadillac," where Springsteen declares "My=20
love is bigger than a Honda, it's bigger than a Subaru."
Now if Springsteen were to do something truly vulgar, like use "Pink=20
Cadillac" to pimp for General Motors, TOS wouldn't ban it. AOL crams=20
vulgarity of that sort down the throats of its subscribers the instant they=20
log on. As for the sexual stuff, one of the highest traffic areas on AOL is=20
its chat rooms for kids, which a child abuse expert told me he considers the=
=20
single most effective trolling ground for child sex predators. AOL has never=
=20
done anything meaningful to protect subscribers from that.
AOL basically doesn't have to care. If you want to be in on that Springsteen=
=20
discussion, you'll play by its rules, even if those rules basically leave yo=
u=20
nothing to talk about, including the color of his wife's hair. ("Red Headed=20
Woman" was banned in its entirety.) If you object, they'll toss you out and=20
don't expect to get a refund on this month's bill.
This isn't about Springsteen or Bruce fans. It's about AOL, which happens to=
=20
be one of the corporations in the American record industry cartel. Will=20
artists signed to its Warner/Reprise, Atlantic and Elektra subsidiaries face=
=20
pressure NOT to release songs with lyrics like "taste your sweet red wine" o=
r=20
"late at night when I'm dead on the line / I think of your pretty face when=20=
I=20
let 'er unwind," the offending passages from "Book of Dreams" and "Ramrod?"=20
(That line isn't even actually in "Book of Dreams.")
One of AO-Hell's kingpins is Robert Pittman, the first honcho of MTV. Pittma=
n=20
forbade MTV to show any video featuring black artists, on the grounds that=20
viewers wouldn't put up with race mixing. Pittman, a native Mississippian, i=
s=20
also a major supporter of the most infamous advocates of music censorship, A=
l=20
and Tipper Gore. The record division of AO-Hell is under his direction. One=20
of the first things that happened after Pittman took the helm was that Howie=
=20
Klein left. Klein ran the Sire and Reprise labels with great success, in par=
t=20
because he refused to put warning labels on releases by, for instance,=20
Madonna and Alannis Morrisette, among others.
Many AOL subscribers have hard drives loaded with.mp3 files, none of them=20
purchased from the cartel (because the cartel doesn't sell them). Presuming=20
that the record biz ever realizes its dream of being able to invade the hard=
 d
rives of file-sharers to find such "evidence," who do you think the first=20
people they attack are going to be?
Is this paranoid? Don't ask. You might find your account suspended.

(c) Copyright 2000 Dave Marsh
Syndicated by ParadigmTSA=20

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