Apr 30, 2008

Things I Like About Finland 1: No Radio Edits

In an effort to be more positive, and with my time in FI drawing to a close, I thought I should write up some of the things I really like here. Consider this part 1 of a series.

Things I Like About Finland 1: No Radio Edits.

The radio stations here, at least for English-language lyrics, don't censor swearing in songs. No bleeps, blanks, or PG word replacement. I think this is great, also more honest. Really, all of us know what those lyrics are, even the 10 year olds who are supposedly traumatized by hearing them. I'm guessing that the type of people who are traumatized by swearing probably aren't listening to that station anyway.

Anyway, the result is, at any time of day, morning, noon, whenever, you can hear undiluted Eminem or Rage Against The Machine. Or this charming little tune that was blasting out my car radio at lunchtime today:





Goodness. I haven't been that impressed with sexy-yet-completely-unromantic use of the f-expletive since Closer.

I've asked about radio edits here, and was told it's just not done. Possibly English swearing doesn't really bother people because it's not the native language, and therefore doesn't have the same impact. Similarly, I know a few choice Finnish words, and while I can shock the locals a bit by using them, they don't do anything for me because they're just sounds. I don't know if they censor the Finnish-language songs.

1 comment:

Rekaelle said...

No, they don't censor swear words in television or radio in Finland. Finnish people, expect the elderly, are aware of the meaning of English swear words but it would be hypocritical to censor those in mass media since most people use those in everyday life anyway. However, excessive usage and usage without suiting context are consideret bad taste.