Music News

Ed Vaizey, the Tory culture minister, has pledged to try and convince international partners to adopt the British idea of providing age ratings for music videos on the likes of YouTube.

Currently videos from foreign, and in particular American companies, are unrated on Youtube.

Online music videos from the British arms of Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music are submitted for age BBFC ratings if they meet a long list of specifications under which they would qualify for a 12, 15 or 18 rating.

The current system means that while UK-made music videos which are only suitable for adults (of which there are hardly any) are captured by online parental filters, those produced in America are not.

Mr Vaizey revealed that the government will attempt to convince Britain's global allies to adopt the ratings system when challenged in a parliamentary written question. Vaizey said:

We were pleased therefore to announce recently that the industry and the BBFC were putting their online music videos ratings scheme on a permanent footing and extending it to include videos produced in the UK by independent labels, as well as by major UK labels.

We welcome this voluntary action by industry and will now be looking at how the lessons learned in the UK could help international partners adopt a similar approach.

Government is committed to working with labels and platforms towards seeing age rating on all online music videos.

In fact there are hardly any music video that have been rated 18. More typically videos are rated 12 or 15 for strong language. And of course such language is notably difficult to encode into international standards.

Definitely a policy more about politicking than practicality.

My Boomerang Won't Come Back is a comedy song from Charlie Drake dating back to 1961. It was controversial at the time but has just hit the news again after just being banned in Australia on grounds of political correctness.

The song is about an Aboriginal boy banished from his tribe because he can't use a boomerang and includes the lyrics:

In the bad backlands of Australia
Many years ago,
The aborigine tribes were meeting,
Having a big pow-wow.

My boomerang won't come back,
My boomerang won't come back,
I've waved the thing all over the place,
Practised till I was black in the face,
I'm a big disgrace to the Aborigine race,
My boomerang won't come back.

When the song  was played on ABC's radio station in Hobart, Tasmania, in September one listener complained that it was racist. Now the broadcaster's Audience and Consumer Affairs Department has upheld that complaint, saying:

The track as not in keeping with the ABC's editorial standards for harm and offence; there was no editorial justification for playing it.

The song was not on a regular ABC playlist but was aired because it was requested by a listener. This error was due to staff not being familiar with the track's lyrics.

The ABC apologised to the complainant, removed the track completely from the system and took steps to ensure that this would not happen again.

At the time of its 1961 release. The BBC refused to play the original version which contained the line: I've waved the thing all over the place/practiced till I was black in the face , so it was re-recorded as blue in the face .

Its lack of political correctness also means an Aboriginal meeting is described as a pow-wow , a term usually associated with Native Americans, while the chanting on the track sounds more African than Aboriginal.

During their show in Beijing on October 6th, Megadeth was abruptly canceled only an hour into their performance by Chinese Censors.

After finishing Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? Dave Mustane politely waved and thanked the audience for attending the show, Thank you for leaving so that we can come back and play again. Mustaine commented later in the tour about the Beijing gig:

Show before last was a little interesting because of the lyric content. We had to play some songs instrumentally and some songs we just had to plain avoid. But in the end love of music always conquers love of power.