BLOG: on Abortion, Rape, Art and Humor.

[Jo Just Go Nameless]

Well I shall be drafting out a LOT of letters during my free time in work today to send. I find it kind of funny that TV Channels such as Scuzz, Kerrang and The Box especially are censoring it, when I have watched uncensored videos on all of these channels that while didn't bother me THAT much, seemed a lot more offensive than a tongue in cheek song about reality. One song, for example, I can't even remember the rapper guys name, or the song title, but it was basically this quite young guy from England who was wrapping about just being in it for the pussy, and basically had sex with all the girls in the video, uncut and not long after 9pm. Even I, who it takes a lot to offend was a little taken aback by how they could show this video completely uncut, when they blur out the joint smoked in Green Day's 'Jesus Of Suburbia' video 99% of the time. The censorship rules seem to change so often it's hard to know what's ok and what isn't these days.

Oasis, to me, would never be offensive in any way. It's blatant parody. The video, whilst pretty literal could have been a LOT worse and a lot more scathing. As it is, it's funny and unless you really missed the point isn't even remotely offensive.

I thought the UK was a lot more liberal with this kind of thing than the US, although I think after the big Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross scandals and with the whole Prince Harry and his racial slurs debacle that the media at large are treading on eggshells in reguards to Political correction and what to censor.

[quack]

After 9/11, comedians were making jokes about it pretty quickly.  Audience members shouted "Too soon!" when Gilbert Gottfried told an airplane-into-tower joke only three weeks after the tragedy, but he's now credited with helping to break up the sense of numbness and shock.

Of course then he decided to launch straight into one of the funniest and filthiest versions of The Aristocrats.

[Lyman Sinister]

Isn't it great that we have all these dimwits to protect us from ourselves? What would we do without people making the big boy decisions for us?

The music industry needs to wake the fuck up. The game is over. You have been proven wrong at every turn.

They said songs have to be 3 minutes or shorter to be a big hit. Then came Stairway To Heaven. They said some lyrics are too dark and scary to sell to a mass audience, then came The Doors, Slayer, Marilyn Manson ect. They said that some music is too complicated to sell to a broader audience, then came ELP and Genesis. They said home taping would kill music, HA! They said mp3s would kill music. Music is just fine. The industry however...

Maybe after years of radio playlists being narrowed down, the death of the real DJs, the consolidation of radio stations and record companies, the broken promise of MTV, the death of artist development and fear of offending people with real art, rock concerts turning into pep rally instead of a party, THE INDUSTRY CAN LOOK IN A MIRROR AND BLAME THEMSELVES. YOU FUCKS ARE KILLING ROCK 'N ROLL, and the only fitting punishment torture by LOUNGE MUSIC!!!!

[music box]

damn amanda... i could just hug you right now. that blog was full of awesome. satire and humor is an essential part of life that is slowly getting lost. it is upsetting and makes me worry because i find humor and jokes in everything. you can't take everything too seriously.


and i wrote an email to mtv. i don't live in the uk, but i figured why not write something short and sweet with terrible 7am writing...

"MTV,

I just wanted to inquire about recent news. I listen to musician Amanda Palmer, and her band The Dresden Dolls, and it was brought to her fans' attention that networks and radio was refusing to play her song "Oasis" or play the video. I think this is outrageous. The song is poppy fun and isn't poking fun of rape, religion, or abortion. It's taking the subject matter and putting a humor twist to it. The video is a literal representation of the lyrics and nothing more. It is satire!
I've seen worse things played on MTV. You think showing people having sex underneath the covers or people drinking themselves into another dimension and causing fights on The Real World is a better thing for people to see? That's ridiculous.

I have seen Amanda Palmer in concert and when she played "Oasis" the audience started going wild. Everyone was laughing,  singing along, clapping, dancing, etc.. Your network not playing the song/video is upsetting and you are going to lose viewers and listeners because of it. I thought the point of MTV was to show and promote music from all kinds of artists."

[Jo Just Go Nameless]

I am been writing letters to the address' Amanda suggested on her blog. Whilst doing so however I realised that although it would be GREAT to see 'Oasis' played on the Box, I don't see it happening given the type of channel it is (I wish, but it's mostly top 40 pop, hip hop, r n b, trance, sometimes indie-mainstream music). I still emailed, but I was trying to think of other channels in the UK that would be more likely to accomodate the video and came up with Rockword.tv and Fizz (while it plays pop, it seems to delve more into the alternative/minor label/unsigned categories) to add to the list.

If anyone is interested the contact details for those channels (to request the video, not necessarily to condemn their censorship as we don't know these channels actually refused the video) are

Rockworld TV :info@rockworld.tv

Fizz - website is www.fizzmusic.com - the site is blocked on my work system, but there should be a contact address on there if someone can pass on?


Here is an example of what I have been sending to each station (changing slight names and details obviously) in case anyone who wants to email either doesn't really know what to say, or hasn't got the time to write a letter themselves, feel free to copy and paste this, and amend it as you see fit if you'd like to.



'I am writing to you in relation to the new single and video 'Oasis' from Amanda Palmer's new album 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer. It has been brought to my attention that NMEtv have refused to play the video as it "makes light of rape, religion and abortion". Reading this made me sad, and a little angry, especially in the UK, the land of the blackest humour imaginable.

Without going into details of my life, I have been directly effected by both the issue of date rape and abortion, so in theory I should be the first in line to be offended about such mockery of such serious issues. This song is about neither of those things. It's a song about a girl who is in denial about the awful realities of her life, a song about a girl who uses her love of a band to get her through the bad times and as a coping mechanism through the hardship. The video, while a literal intrepretation of the song is not graphic, nor scathingly attacking  any religion directly and I really feel that there is no way it should be pulled from the airwaves on this reasoning. Amanda does not condone rape, or condemn victims of date rape, She does not make light of abortion. She uses humour to draw attention to the frighteningly commonplace and real issues teenagers(and other people) have to face on a day to day basis. If we can't joke about the darkness, the darkness wins.

I realise that in light of some recent scandals, the press, especially TV are staying away from the controversal and anything that could be misconstrued but as a tv channel that promotes real music, I think that this video deserves its chance to be seen with the others. This song is art, the artist should be able to comment on life, and not be censored for it. If censorship won, there would have been no Sinead OConnor, no Rage Against The Machine, No musicial revolutionaries who try to get issues out in the open and understood. I really hope you reconsider your initial decision on pulling the video from our screens and I'd like to request that you give the video another go. I know that you will be missing out on a lot of viewers you could gain by playing and supporting this artist.

Thank you for for taking the time to read my opinion on the subject, and I hope that you change your minds.

Joanna (Northern Ireland) '

[BHA/Sarah]

God, I was thinking about 'doing something funny for money' this year for comic relief,
imagine if I got a bunch of people to sing Oasis!
But ofcourse no-one would GET it and then i'd be sad, and get no sponsors :/

I started e-mailing the various places,
I too find it crazy that channels notorious for 'pushing boundries' or 'showing it like it is' etc.
are claiming this one's just too much for them?
What the hell.
I especially (nicely) ranted at NME because they're all for promoting Skins which is full of
drug abuse and teenage sex (and an abortion!) yet they feel that, what? Amanda's going to offend a whole load of British people. Talk about insulting our intelligence/taste in humour.
The amount of people I talked to, including myself, who thought that whole Jonathon Ross thing went waaaay too far, and was pointless - there's even numerous facebook groups for it! Such as 'GIVE RUSSELL BRAND & JOHNATHON ROSS A BREAK AND TAKE A SODDING JOKE!!'

When I wrote to NME I also told them about the book 'An Evil Cradling' which is a true story written by a man called Brian Keenan, who was once taken prisoner in Lebanon and imprisoned for *four* years.
His only escapism and defense mechanism whilst in that cell was Humour.
When he felt like ending his life, he used humour to talk himself out of it, planning crazy ways to escape.
He gave each of the guards a light-hearted nickname, so that when they came close to shooting him or tortured him; he could look beyond it and laugh, making the pain become less. He 'used humour as a sheild'.
So, basically we all need humour, we all need to laugh about horrible things so we can take the power that it has over us away; and we can rise above it.
That's why I love this song so passionately - and will challenge anyone for the right to let it be heard.

[MeAndMyCharms]

So I have about 4 or 5 things that really get my back up when they get brought up in conversation. And this is one of them.
I was just talking about this kind of thing at work a couple of days ago. Censorship and political correctness are turning kids of today into a bunch of useless retards. They are so sheltered from everything, and when they get into the real word, they can't handle it because they have been babied their whole lives.
Life isn't a bunch of puppies, glitter and strawberry scented bubbles. Fucked up shit happens. And it will continue to happen.
People get raped. People have abortions. People are going to write about it. Sing about it. Talk about it. No amount of Family First groups are going to change that, and the more they get anything relating to these issues banned or unaccessible to people, the more naive and useless people will become.

The whole political correctness/censorship thing is getting out of hand. I'm never going to change the way I am because of this. If you get offended by my choice should I choose to ever get an abortion and then draw a picture of it, fuck you. Don't look at it. Go back to your sheltered little life and keep pretending that rape doesn't exist in your world because you have good Christian values

[heartstringz]

Amanda, 'Oasis' makes perfect sense to me, and always has done.  I've never experienced rape or abortion, but the denial themes of the song resonate deeply with me.  It has helped me to understand why I act the way I do about my life.

Plus, in my profession I have seen so many people make jokes about the hardest aspects of their lives.  It helps them to cope, it means they don't have to relive it so deeply again if they can make light of it.

I know it must feel like everything is so tough this year but I think you'll come through it stronger than you were before.  *hugs*  Hang in there, and try and forget about those people who can only see the literal side of everything.  As you said, there will always be someone who gets offended about everything.  If someone sneezes in the street, someone will spend the entire day offended by it - why?  Because some people are way too uptight.  They need to relax, see the funny side of life and look deeper at situations as opposed to just the external facade.  Because everyone has one of those - a facade, and if you never learn to look past it you will never get the real measure of a person (or a song, for that matter!)

Rock on Amanda, don't let these people get you down - you have all your fans to support you!

I'm about to go and draft some letters to the media addresses given, even though I don't live in the UK.  I'll post them here when they're done.  Go the rebellyon take two.  Although I don't think the name 'rebellyon' really works this time around.

Edit: Here we go.  This is a letter. 

So this is the ideal letter, the one I would send if I knew that the execs had the time and patience to read a ‘novel’.  The real one is still on the editing table and will be posted when it’s done (and any constructive feedback would be appreciated to help the process along).  Anyway, enjoy – this is the reason I write stories and not letters.  I’m not succinct enough.  But I’ll get there.

Dear …(whoever),
      I am writing because I heard that you have refused to play ‘Oasis’ by Amanda Palmer because it ‘makes light of rape and abortion’.  I wanted to put my viewpoint across.

If you take the song literally, I can see where you are coming from.  However, not everything in life is intended to be taken literally.  The thing about Amanda’s music is that it is thought-provoking.  You can listen to it in a shallow, blinkered way as I’m sure many people do, and you will pick up on the obvious, surface topic.  Or, you can listen to her music in a deeper, more meaningful way and then you will begin to understand the underlying meanings of the song.

‘Oasis’ is not about making light of rape and abortion, it is about denial.  It is about a teenager who says “it doesn’t matter, because I got an autographed photo of my favourite band!”  Yet chances are, somewhere on the inside, they are screaming.  That is called a façade.  We all have one.  I believe there are two ways to view people – we can look at them in a shallow way where we simply see and believe the façade, or we can view them in a deeper way where we break through the façade and see the true person inside – their true hopes, fears and pain.  The same goes for songs.  You have failed to get the true measure of ‘Oasis’ because you have failed to look any deeper than it’s poppy, light-hearted façade.

Also, research shows that the human brain has not reached maturity until we are in our twenties (Google is your friend!)  Therefore, how can we expect someone whose brain has not yet reached adulthood to deal with deep, complex emotions in an adult way?  You must know at least one teenager (and if you can really say that you don’t, go and ask one on the street) so talk to them about how they deal with deep emotions.  Chances are (if they are being honest) they will tell you that they don’t know how to.  Therefore they often make jokes about it.  That is the point of ‘Oasis’ – it’s a way of coping.  Humour is one of the few coping mechanisms that teenagers have at that point in their lives.

So get out there and talk to some teenagers, then put yourselves in their shoes and listen to ‘Oasis’ again.  All it takes is a little thought and a little imagination.

Look deeply, think deeply, feel deeply, listen deeply………………learn.
Play Oasis……………..educate.

Think about it.

Regards,

Heartstringz

[NaturalTalentsWasted]

I'm not sure if anyone's keeping track of the media on this, but jezebel.com, one of the best websites on the internet (if you're me), posted about this: http://jezebel.com/5146609/date-rape-and-abortion-no-match-for-men-playing-with-their-balls-on-british-tv#viewcomments
they did a whole post on the rebellyon, too, and there's lots of love for Amanda there, so .... um .... yeah. Just wanted to let people know this was getting media coverage.

[Alexbt]

Oasis is one of my favorite songs on the album... I'd totally cover it if I weren't a dude, because it wouldn't make sense... (or would it matter?)

I was actually suprised that stations DIDN'T want to play it. Having worked in college radio, while being college radio, they do try and maintain standards of the FCC. Basically we were always told that if it didn't have expletives, it's safe for the air.

True, this is England we're talking about (curious to know how the song's doing here in the States), and I don't know how they operate, but still... A fun song like Oasis with controversial lyrics... I here stuff like that all the time...

In fact, just two weeks ago, I heard a (not so fun) song by Nickelback, and they were singing "I like it when you put it in your mouth"

I'd like someone to explain to me how they let that one go...

[JennieJ]

Controversy is a great publicity tool. It's a great song, and anyone that doesn't have an agenda regarding abortion will get the joke. The rest wont get it even if you spell it out, because it's not up for discussion in their minds. And yes, they DO want you to hang your head and demurely cry about it. After all, isn't it always the girl's fault?
Anyway, my point is that no publicity is bad publicity. Did you by any chance get some extra hits on your youtube post?

[hateandjealousy]

I never though Oasis was making light of Rape or Abortion, they just can't deal with anything that is not about how sad every thing is, which is what Oasis  is about, just with high happy tune.

[Iknowprettythings]

Aye, Amanda was right in her blog. Humour IS a way to defend yourself, and I never took Oasis to be making fun of rape, abortion, religon or anything else. I see the song as a girl who is trying to block out all the horrible stuff in her life by focusing on the one good thing that happening, which is Oasis sending her a photograph. Not everything has to sound sad to be sad, and not everything has to be sad just because it's about something sad.
I hope that made sense ;P

[BaronLaCroix]

Amanda, darling, you clearly missed the memo: if you sing about it, it must be true.  Cannibal Corpse really do kill all those people.  Slayer, too.  And so to sing about date rape and abortion so lightly clearly means they should be taken lightly.  I mean, impressionable young men will hear "Oasis" and think "gosh, it must be okay to rape, since this woman is singing so chipperly about it," and so rapes will skyrocket.  Impressionable young women will hear it and think "gosh, abortions must not be that uncomfortable, since this woman is singing so chipperly about it," and so abortions will skyrocket.  And worst of all, you clearly didn't consider the implications that those poor, young, lost souls would hear it and think "gosh, Oasis must be a good band if they're mentioned in this song," and so Oasis will skyrocket.
Really.  Think of the children.
Won't somebody please think of the children?
Yours
-Baron La Croix

[TeaTime]

I understand the need for humor, and think Oasis should get radio play, but I once was obnoxiously singing Oasis next to a friend of mine who is currently the vicitim of violent sexual abuse, and promptly felt fucking terrible once I realized what I was doing. I can find no humor at all in her situation, and havn't been able to listen to Oasis without feeling guilt since. I know it's kind of defeating the purpose of the song, but it's not my position to help her find humor in her horror if she's not ready for it. SHE'S not in denial about her situation, she's coping the best she can. Fuck, I don't know what to do.