Vulgarity Substitutions on Commercial Radio

I stopped scanning radio stations yesterday to listen to the clean version of Ludacris' "Move Bitch," from his 2001 album, "Word of Mouf," on the Def Jam label. It took me a while to realize that all the screams, barking dogs, and glass-shattering noises in the song indicated censorings of vulgarity. Or rather, judgments about what constitutes vulgarity from a self-proclaimed authority.

Coming to this realization enriched the remainder of the song for me. I found myself rebelling against the censors and imagining various words bad enough to warrant replacement. I appreciated the artfullness of the integration of the noises, but laughed out loud at the sheer quantity of them. It's no wonder they had to find something artful, since every other word is considered vulgur.

Reading the lyrics to the song, I find the song ultra-violent. It seems ironic to me that the authority who defined parts of the song as too vulgar for public consumption gave the ok to ultra-violence. Weird.