Monday 30 September 2013

How is the music industry regulated?

The music industry has to be regulated for many reasons, for example - to protect people from content that could potentially offend or upset them.

Ofcom is a UK communications regulator that operates under the 2003 Communications Act. One of their legal duties is to protect people who watch TV and listen to the radio from potentially harmful or offensive material. In order to protect people the company have a set of guidance codes, if something/someone has breached one or more of these codes then Ofcom have the duty to take necessary action against the material.

An example of Ofcom regulating the music industry happened in June 2012 when Ofcom fined the music channel Scuzz TV a sum of £10,000. The fine was in relation to an incident that happened on 19 August 2012 when the channel broadcasted a music video by the band Hollywood Undead. The video contained offensive language, nudity, drug taking and sexualised imagery, and was found to breach six Broadcasting Codes. Ofcom fines Scuzz TV

In the last few years there has been more of a need to regulate music videos as they have started to contain more sexualised content than ever before. It is essential that music videos with things like drug taking and unnecessary sexual content are regulated for the sake of children. Such videos cause a big concern for parents, and without regulation of this material it would be impossible for parents to shield their children from every inappropriate song and music video that is distrubuted.
A recent example of a music video causing a concern for parents was a video by the artist Rihanna in which she shoots a man that raped her. Music videos face crackdown over sexualised content

In my opinion I think it is absolutely necessary that the music industry is regulated. Without regulation children of a young age would be exposed to inappropriate songs and music videos that would set a bad example for children and could possibly change their views on subjects like drug use and sex.

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