One of my long-time favorite bands, Green Day, just raised themselves up a little higher in the pantheon of musical gods for me. Their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, will not be sold at WalMart. The company wanted them to edit (censor) their album so they could sell an edited (censored) version of the album, and GD said no. Billie Joe continued by saying. "We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something." So kudos to the boys, I'm glad their sticking up for what they believe in while so many other bands cave and edit their albums just to appease the mega-corp. Are the few extra sales really worth the slow loss of your integrity and soul? It would seem so. What WalMart is doing is dumbing down music, making it safe and palatable for everyone, so your teenagers and tweens can have those new, top-ten albums without the bad words and messages and reality and all that terrible stuff.When I was younger, dumber, and more naive about the world, I ended up with a few edited albums. I always felt something was missing, and got annoyed by the skips and reversed words in the middle of songs. It totally changed the mood of a song, pulling you out of a vibe and wrecking the continuity. I couldn't have said that then, but I still knew something was wrong. I turned completely against edited music within a few short years, got rid of my tainted albums, and started appreciating music. I still have a hard time listening to the radio because many songs, particularly good ones, end up edited. I cringe every time I hear an edited Pink Floyd or Alice in Chains song. But radio is a whole other problem.
The problem here isn't necessarily rooted in WalMart, it's the customers. WalMart is just trying to cover their asses while getting the maximum sales possible. I'm sure a team of lawyers concocted this to end the angry letters and phone calls because poor, innocent little Jimmy ended up with a CD that had a few swears on it. It's not right, it's just business.
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