[Music] Kesha's 'Die Young' Song Being Yanked Off Playlists

[Seasz]

Kesha's 'Die Young' Song Being Yanked Off Playlists

There are various reports today that "Die Young" by Kesha is being pulled from radio station playlists in reaction to the Newtown, Conneticut shootings. Last week the song was a Top 5 hit or better at some stations. According to mercurynews.com: "By Saturday, airplay dropped by 3 million listeners. By Monday, 'Die Young' took a big hit on the radio, dropping down to 148 million listeners, a 19 million drop from what was a pretty steady rotation before the shootings." (Kesha performing in 2011, Photo: Peter Neill, Creative Commons)
It's not the first time radio has turned its back on music because of societal events. In 2003 various stations banned Michael Jackson music in response to his child molestation trial.

In 2001, after 9/11, Clear Channel Radio allegedly compiled a list of banned songs considered in "bad taste."

In 1968, Chicago Mayor Daley ordered local radio stations not to play "Street Fighting Man" while the Democratic National Convention was in town in anticipation of riots.

Source: about.com

[nnelson54]

I think my favorite kneejerk censoring of a song is still Juicy by Notorious BIG. After 9/11 the censored and radio versions censor the line, "Blowin' up like the World Trade", a reference to the 1993 bombing(and not a display of Notorious BIG's psychic powers of prediction).

[Catta]

Didnt they ban a whole lot of songs after 9/11
I remember
99 Luftballons for some reason
Another one bites the dust
and prolly many others

[Rukentuts]

Kesha's 'Die Young' Song Being Yanked Off Playlists

Was anything of value lost? Personally I find this "artist" to be utterly terrible.

[Veyne]

Was anything of value lost? Personally I find this "artist" to be utterly terrible.

Opinions are opinions. I'm not a fan of hers, but this course of action is just plain silly.

[Deleted]

HAHAHAHA REALLY!? Holy shit, now, I don't give a flying shit about kesha but seriously, banning a song!? Haha only in america

[Rukentuts]

HAHAHAHA REALLY!? Holy shit, now, I don't give a flying shit about kesha but seriously, banning a song!? Haha only in america

You know there is a distinction between a 'ban' and radio stations just choosing not to play it, right?

---------- Post added 2012-12-18 at 08:17 PM ----------

Opinions are opinions. I'm not a fan of hers, but this course of action is just plain silly.

It's probably why they don't play "I Shot the Sheriff" in Cold Spring, Minnesota right now.

[djtravitrav]

i remember the 2001 list, EVERY single rage against the machine song ever was on it. haha

[CheeseSandwich]

Please please please can the same thing happen to One Direction's 'Live while we're young'. Make it my Christmas present.


EDIT: also, after 9/11, a New Zealand band called Shihad (pronounced Shee-Had) had to change thier name to Pacifier because it was to similar sounding to Jihad.

[kukui]

Was anything of value lost? Personally I find this "artist" to be utterly terrible.

just because you do not like the artist, does not mean others do not.

Just a little fun fact: Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single and Also more than anything by Adele or Nirvana.

[nnelson54]

Was anything of value lost? Personally I find this "artist" to be utterly terrible.

Poor Kesha is a product of today's music business. She can write her own songs(she wrote all of her music before she got signed to a deal and became another cog in the machine) and can play 11 instruments, but the music industry has turned her into another faceless pop nobody who is completely indistinguishable from the last one and the next one. I couldn't name any of her songs and only vaguely know of one of them(that song that mentions brushing your teeth with Jack... which is something I can get behind!), but she is a talented young woman who was eaten up by the corporate machine that is the modern day music industry.

Though the piles of money surely help her sleep at night.

[Deleted]

just because you do not like the artist, does not mean others do not.

Just a little fun fact: Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single and Also more than anything by Adele or Nirvana.

Fun fact.

Popular does not equal good.

And whilst she may have sold more SINGLES then either of the 3 bands you mentioned, all 3 of those Artists have ALBUM sales that she will never achieve. Seeing as all 3 of them have a single Album that is rated Diamond.

[Dakia]

Look, the entire situation sucks, but the knee jerk reactions don't make it any better.

The reality is that this will be forgotten about by the media in a month and everyone will move on as before with songs, etc that are poor, but unintended references being released anyways. Remember 'The Watch' was, IIRC, delayed due to Zimmerman, but came out anyways.

[Adam Jensen]

Opinions are opinions. I'm not a fan of hers, but this course of action is just plain silly.

This.

This sort of kneejerk reaction is retarded. The song was made before the tragedy, clearly there's no connection between the two.

We don't need to randomly censor crap just because some buffoon might misinterpret it and get offended.

[Ausr]

Think they've delayed a couple of movies that have violence in them. God forbid we don't watch the thousands of other movies with violence in it. I was over this event the day after it happened and it's hilarious watching all this knee jerk reaction crap happen. Sad that we're going to drag this shit out for far longer than it should giving this guy probably what he wanted in death: us remembering him through this.

[semaphore]

I don't think it's a kneejerk reaction, I think it's more like the stations being sensitive about what it'll be reminding people of.

[Vivek]

Was anything of value lost? Personally I find this "artist" to be utterly terrible.

I think the topic of discussion here is compromise of a valuable principle rather than support of a singular artist or any of their works.

"Kesha" and the travesty that is her music is really a non-issue here, the issue really is whether we should be censoring certain things because of their contents or how they are named simply because of a singular event or chain of events surfacing as opposed to picking one position/stance on free speech and art and sticking to it through thick and thin.

[Edison]

Had never heard the song so i went and hit it up on youtube to check it out, all i've gotta say is WTF is up with all the illuminati and satanic symbols?

[Immitis]

i dont agree with their reasoning but hey whatever gets her off the air im cool with put someone like example on or something.

saw her on the graham norton show a while back and let me tell you she CANNOT sing without auto tune O-O

[Giants41]

I get why it was banned although i do kinda think its catchy... I'll miss it coming up on the radio when i'm driving