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Korean Fans Tire of the Banhammer?

Written by Ashley On September 3, 2011

In music, censorship is a serious thing. America’s “fight against indecency” led to the creation of the Parental Advisory sticker affixed on any CD thought to contain lyrics or themes inappropriate to listeners under the age of seventeen. Regardless, these haven’t greatly affected production in the USA’s enormous music industry- save for individual incidents, the government still extolls creative freedom among artists as long as it does not harm others.How South Korea deals with censorship issues are another matter altogether.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is the entity that oversees the country’s music industry. According to the Joongang Daily, the Ministry recently announced it will establish a new rating system for music that adds a new category for children under 12 on top of the current categories of under 19 and over 19. There are already criticisms that the categories are too broad, and with a whopping 2,600 songs banned in the last couple of years for containing “hazardous” material, artists and Korean bloggers are speaking out on the inconsistency and inanity of some of these rulings.

Wall Street Journal Online quoted several South Korean commenters who left disgruntled posts on the Ministry’s website, so many that the site crashed for several hours on August 25, 2011.

Numerous net users, mimicking how the Ministry place bans on cultural contents, have posted funny messages requesting it to ban random objects. Some examples read [ko]: “Ban ice creams, since the process of eating/licking it evokes a rather erotic image”, “Ban Apple (the electronics company), since its logo reminds people of a woman’s buttocks”, and “Ban USBs [ko], since sticking it into the computer reminds me of sexual intercourse.”

G.NA‘s song ‘Banana’ is a recent victim, and after thoroughly listening to the song, as has been mentioned previously on this site, I found nothing offensive or untoward in the song. Well, other than the fact that the title references a fruit that is on occasion used as a phallic symbol. Which wasn’t the situation in this case. Part of the issue is that I believe the Ministry is recruiting “experts” on English phrases and idioms and the meanings behind them which can differ greatly between languages, particularly between English and Korean and English and Japanese. Misinterpretation is easy, particularly if one does not take the country’s culture in mind when translating as well.

Which is how, after it left the editing table, we got that Frankenstein-esque version of DBSK’s ‘Mirotic’ in 2008. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the activities of the Korean government (as much as I’d like to), but there are reports that they may be in desperate need of injecting some new blood into their decision-making ministries. In this case, to me, it would be simple to get intelligent Korean-Americans to decipher whether “under my skin” has sexual connotations and have them think up a better replacement than “under my sky.”

Do you think a major overhaul needs to be made to Korea’s music review system, or would the country be better off without the Ministry altogether? Do you see significant changes happening due to that ever present buzzword: globalization?

(Joongang Daily, Wall Street Journal)

Mer

There needs to be a major overhaul. They seem to ban the weirdest things and let the obvious slide. Also, I’m confused about the banning songs that mention clubs and drinking when everybody can look at drama and see it all.

It’s growing pains. The US went thru this and is still going thru this to a certain extent. We still have folks here trying to legislate morality.
Mgflutie87

No kidding. Seeing as its all too random and lots of them are BS. At this point the reason has to be the people of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family are corrupt and trying to get bribes from the companies or else get the ban hammer.
Looe

She looks like a tranny in that pic (O.O)
Revy

Guys we should all remember that in Korea there are no clubs, drugs, alcohol, or sex. Sarcasm aside i think they need a overhaul with their double standards. And seriously if parents raise their kids well enough they won’t go around and do what 30 seconds of a lyrics says.
hkg

I’m so glad people are speaking up against the over banning of songs and that there are a couple of lawsuits against the Ministry for this reason. I’m not against censorship but their needs to be clear guidelines as to what a society considers acceptable. There also needs to be ways for the artists to follow the guidelines but still maintain their creative freedom. I don’t know if this means having artists release multiple versions of their songs (one for broadcasts and one showing how the artists intended the song to be) or playing songs with the parts considered offensive cut out during broadcasts like they do in America. Whatever the solution I hope it stays consistent with guidelines for other programs. Banning a song for a reference to alcohol while a drama shows their characters drinking never made sense. Also, it’ll be nice to hear adults singing songs that reflect real life not a just a very disneyfied safe version.
JW

banning in korea is totally bs.
Making a huge deal out of the lyrics while all these idols (females/males) getting half naked or wearing provocative stuff on stage. Makes freakin’ sense.
Anonymous

They freaking banned GD&TOP Knock Out for having slang and let the sexy dances slide lmao
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