Clean in the US, but dirty everywhere else

[Jamie (K)]

No wonder people in so many countries think the US spreads obscene cultural filth around the world, while Americans wonder why they think that. The typical American doesn't hear a lot of what is exported.

One of my students told me she was shocked, because one American hit song uses the word "love" in the US, while in France that is replaced with the F-word. This was merely interesting to me until yesterday.

Last night I was watching Czech and Hungarian TV shows streaming over the Internet, and some of them included music videos. When one American song began playing, I just about shot through the roof. I couldn't believe how graphically obscene this song was all the way through -- and I don't normally shock easily! The song would never get on the radio or TV in the US.

The difference evidently is that US TV and radio stations broadcasting obscenity have to pay a fine of $250,000 for each incident. If a disk jockey, for example, says the F-word twice on the air, and listeners complain to Uncle Sam, it will cost the station half a million dollars. And believe me, the material has to be VERY obscene before the station is punished!

However, it appears that some countries don't have such penalties for obscene broadcasting, or else they don't enforce them when the material is in another language. This means that all around the world, people are hearing and seeing some really bad American smut that the average American doesn't even know exists.

[Ns]

where is the song??
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I can eat 5 plates of chicken rice at 1 go...!

[*Delta*]

it's a great rule really
this word is using all most every where now
even here in the arab world
that is really aweful
i wish that other countries will have a rule about it too

[Rosalisa]

Really, there must be rules to prevent obscene words/stuff off the Radio and TV everywhere.

Has anybody listened to one song by Snoop Doog? "I wanna love you." but shockingly the lyric of the song contains a sentence "I wanna *F* you." and if you listen all the way to the end, you'll find some parts quite obscene." This has been horrifying the listeners here and elsewhere the most. But as I have observed the song may have two versions, of which the first one is entitled the latter quote while the second one is a bit reformed.
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If you want to change the world, be one of the change.

[Jamie (K)]

[Prezbucky]

lol, that is hilarious.

The difference between "love" and "F-word" is so big -- it goes from being a catchy hip-hop song to being shocking, slightly-to-majorly-awful song.

i can imagine what people must think. what an extremely crass, forward line when it has the F-word in it.
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Aleaf]

Jamie:

Do you think the TV series <Sex City> acceptable? It has won many prizes in the Untied States, but there was so much sex in it. And i think this tv series won't be shown in china officially in the recent tens of years. Most of chinese won't accept it. Is it the real opinion of americans on sex? so easy?

aleaf
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

I think that "Sex and the City" has too much sex in it, both explicit talk and acts. I consider it to be softcore pornography, and when I was in high school it couldn't have been on TV.

It's a very interesting study in what happens to a TV show after its original run. When it was first shown, it was on a special cable TV channel, late at night, supposedly so that children wouldn't be able to see it. After such "late night" shows have finished their original run, however, they almost always go into syndication, which means that the episodes are sold to other stations, where they are shown anytime the station management wants to. This means that some of these shows will appear as early as 4:00 in the afternoon, about the time kids are coming home from school.

TVs now have something called a V-chip in them, which allows parents to filter out shows with sexual content, excessive violence or bad language, but the system is not foolproof, and many American parents simply limit their kids to a very small number of carefully selected programs each week. I also know some parents who limit their younger children completely to DVDs, because this way it's easier to monitor what the kids see.

[Aleaf]

Jamie:
Did the plot happened in this series reflect the true life of the average americans?or it is just a kind of exaggeration?

aleaf
_________________
Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

No, it doesn't reflect the way most Americans really live. One of the mistakes that gets foreigners into trouble, when they first arrive in the US, is to think that Americans behave in real life the way characters do in movies or in the more risqu? TV shows. When my younger sister was in college, she encountered a lot of problems with men who were being sent from the Middle East to study at her university. Because they'd seen American movies, many of them thought they could simply approach any American girl they liked and have her in bed the same day, or the same week, the same month or the same year. When the girls wouldn't sleep with them, some of the men took it as a personal insult.

You should realize that people in the TV and movie industry, who write, direct and act in movies and TV shows, tend not to think the way ordinary Americans do, and their products reflect this. In fact, when someone writes a movie that does not contain any obscenity or vulgarity, he may have a lot of trouble getting the movie financed and distributed. Often he has to get his financing from outside the film industry, and even if his movie ends up being very successful, he may have the same trouble financing and distributing his next one.

In the past decade or so, there have been situations in which sponsors of TV shows have felt they couldn't find any shows "suitable for the whole family" that they would like to put their advertising behind. In this situation, a few of them have original shows written at advertising agencies. The shows themselves aren't advertisements, but this arrangement allows the sponsors some control over the moral content, so that they don't end up with angry customers. Having advertising agencies write and produce shows used to be normal in the days of radio and of early TV, but it's now unusual. One show that was done this way was Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which is no longer produced but is still popular in syndication.

There are also now a lot film companies that bypass the film industry completely, get their financing from other sources, and initially show their films at large churches. This evidently creates enough buzz for a film that the DVD sales are healthy, and the company makes a profit.

[Aleaf]

Jamie:

After your explanation, the image of americans has been ichanged a little in my heart. In fact i was affected by Mass media so much that i had thought there were only sex, violence , money and relegions . Although i knew several native speakers in my real life they were my former english teachers and they were really kind persons, i still believed that most americans were very casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior.
Many chinese have the same opinion toward americans as me. One of my former teacher told us that in china every time when he said hi to any stranger (female)who came towards him or in a lift , the female stranger would ignor him. But he said that people would say hi each other just out of politeness.i think the reason of it is that when a foreigner in china says hi to a female, the female will think:"what is the intention of the foreigner? i should be very careful."

aleaf
_________________
Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

Well, Aleaf, I can't understand why you're lumping "religions" in with sex, violence and money. It's usually the religious people who work most to end the promiscuous sex and the violence.

This difference in how Americans really live, and the image that pop culture projects around the world causes some problems for us. An American writer named Dinesh D'Souza has written a lot about this problem. Here is one of this articles:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DineshDSouza/2007/04/09/its_the_culture,_stupid

[Aleaf]

Jamie i have been thinking about the confusion you mentioned above these days. But when i put forward the words i just listed a few words which could represent the USA in my mind. It doesn't mean religions are as bad as as the others words.
I know many foreigners can't understand why we chinese don't believe in any religions.
Americans sholdn't blame people of other countries criticize them because it is the usa itself that always shows its bad image to the world by mass media by wars and so on.
And i think the usa shouldn't expecet people of other countries find the truth in the USA themselves. anyway not everyone can read english articles.
_________________
Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

[Lost_Soul]

Hi, Jamie

What do you think of South Park (I reckon you know this cartoon)? Not long ago I started watching this cartoon and find it cool. The language they speak is really coarse and they "squeak out" (i.e. erase by using squeaking sound) F and C words (only them). They also say that it (i.e. the cartoon) is supposed to reflect the American style of life.
Do you agree with it (of couse if you have seen it).