'Baby It's Cold Outside' banned by Cleveland radio station

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

I can see both sides of this - yes, people sometimes use language that sounds an awful lot like not obtaining consent to flirt. Yes, sometimes it's harmless. Yes, sometimes it seems to promote the idea that guys can be pushy to get what they want and that "no" might be a flirty way of saying "yes."

Since I wasn't around when this song first came out, I'd be curious to hear people for whom this was contemporary. I assume some of them have been burned by the culture of the time- they said no and the guy was pushy and they felt violated. I assume some of them got through unscathed. But it would be interesting to hear.

I suspect there was a fair amount of date rape/sexual assault then as now, but no one gave a shit about the victims.

[formergothardite]

11 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

I used to listen to that song all the time, really liking it.... It didn't occur to me what it really was about until someone pointed it out. I guess I'm kind of dense. lol! 

I didn't either! It has such an upbeat tune! One day I wondered why kids better outrun the bullets, googled the lyrics and was horrified!

ETA: It looks like radio stations did say they would no longer play Pumped Up Kicks. After the Sandy Hook shooting radio stations got complaints and they listened. Listening to what people want to hear and what they don't want to hear is what radio stations do and that is why it really isn't a massive deal that a radio station did what listeners wanted when it came to Baby It's Cold Outside. 

[libgirl2]

3 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I didn't either! It has such an upbeat tune! One day I wondered why kids better outrun the bullets, googled the lyrics and was horrified!

I know! It is so upbeat and catchy! 

[formergothardite]

1 minute ago, libgirl2 said:

I know! It is so upbeat and catchy! 

 They wrote it to bring attention to school violence but Foster the People have said they totally understand why it isn't played anymore. 

[Vivi_music]

On 12/5/2018 at 11:46 AM, Alisamer said:

I wish the local station would do a poll on that godawful Paul McCartney song. I've never heard anyone say they like it.

Darn! I feel so lonely now. Will people hate me if I say I kinda like it? ?

My favorite Christmas song? Nope. Thoughtful lyrics? Nope. Very intricate melody? HAHAHA nope. A deep and powerful message? Triple nope. But it has grown on me and makes me think of my Mom (because we grew up with it and it seems she is a McCartney fan, even for his not-so-great songs).

[littlehouse]

Well holy shit.  I had no idea what the lyrics were in pumped up kicks.  With my hearing loss all I could every hear was the all the other kids with the pumped up kicks and nothing else.  I am shook.

I turn the channel every time baby it is cold outside.  I have family who are stupid pissed that it has been removed, and I have to admit it makes me laugh that they are furious that it is gone.  Not because it is a slippery slope to banning and removing other things, but more the fact that they grew up with the song and it is part of the good old days.  Such as riding in the bed of a truck or not strapping your kid into rear facing carseats etc.

 

 

[nausicaa]

35 minutes ago, Vivi_music said:

Darn! I feel so lonely now. Will people hate me if I say I kinda like it? ?

 

I really like "Wonderful Christmas Time." Like, it's in my top five favorite Christmas songs. ?

I'll see myself out...

[Maxwell]

This is probably the only possible parody of "Wonderful Christmastime".  Oddly, I hate it less than the original.  Apologies in advance.

ETA:  This thing is 5:10 in length, please don't assume you'll miss something if you stop listening OR that it gets any better.  5 to 10 seconds anywhere in the song and you'll have the whole song.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  ?

Spoiler

 

If you're looking for the absolute WORST Christmas song, this one should be in the running -- intentionally,  The first 45ish seconds explains the remaining 14 minutes.  If you like Father Guido Sarducci, you might make it all the way through.

I'll try to refrain from posting more but I reserve the right to do so if relevant and/or necessary.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 4:07 PM, OGEmoji said:

I'll be glad when the #offendedbyeverything movement is over.

But I think getting offended because someone chooses not to play a song on the radio is a part of this movement...

All radio stations ever always pick and choose what they play and what they don't. I listen to a radio station that mostly plays 80's and 70's pop music, and they never ever would play the newest hard rock hit or even the latest recording by Madonna.

 There is plenty of music that never gets any airtime on [insert your favorite station here] and adding one more song to that list is not an awfully big deal.

[formergothardite]

30 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

But I think getting offended because someone chooses not to play a song on the radio is a part of this movement...

Exactly. People getting offended because a radio station is doing what radio stations always have done and then complaining that others are too sensitive makes me roll my eyes. 

 

[Maxwell]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

All radio stations ever always pick and choose what they play and what they don't. I listen to a radio station that mostly plays 80's and 70's pop music, and they never ever would play the newest hard rock hit or even the latest recording by Madonna.

You're right.  The job of a radio station is to play songs that their audience wants to hear so that they hold the audience long enough to get the commercials in -- that how and why they get paid.  They aren't there for the greater social good or to play uplifting songs or to make a statement of any kind.  A station selects a format that they think will fit with a large number of advertisers in the market and that is unique enough to define itself.  Middle aged women are often the target group -- they're the ones that have kids and shop for the family.  Listen to the ads, it's not hard to pick out the audience demographics.  But I digress.

Play the song... don't play the song... I don't care.

What bothers me most is that this is purely a publicity stunt, nothing more.   The station is loving the attention and other stations are now doing the same thing to cash in on the hype.  They don't really care about the outcome, as long as it gets them attention and allows them to sell more ads.

I'm so done with commercial radio/TV -- well, commercialism in general.  Alfred said it best, "Yeah, there's a lot of bad 'isms' floatin' around this world, but one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck. Even in Brooklyn it's the same--don't care what Christmas stands for, just make a buck, make a buck."  Unfortunately, that statement was incredibly ironic.

[Maggie Mae]

8 hours ago, Maxwell said:

You're right.  The job of a radio station is to play songs that their audience wants to hear so that they hold the audience long enough to get the commercials in -- that how and why they get paid.  They aren't there for the greater social good or to play uplifting songs or to make a statement of any kind.  

Well, the job of a commercial radio station (most are owned by two or three companies nationwide, anyway) is to make money. However, in the case of a natural disaster, radios are still used to convey information to citizens, quickly. In that aspect, they can be there for the greater social good, or whatever. There are still stations - college stations, mostly, that play what they want to hear and talk about what they want to talk about. 

Local radio also has the 'pulse' of cities and areas -  or at least they used to. AM radio broadcasts news and sports, local and national; FM radio has music. Ads were first used to pay for the music, and it was cool because it was so specialized to the area.  You wouldn't hear the same songs in Detroit as you would in Grand Rapids, and you wouldn't hear the same songs in Seattle. That's all changed. I find it depressing. 

[smittykins]

On 12/5/2018 at 12:18 PM, libgirl2 said:

On 12/5/2018 at 9:39 AM, formergothardite said:

 

I used to listen to that song all the time, really liking it.... It didn't occur to me what it really was about until someone pointed it out. I guess I'm kind of dense. lol! 

Anyone remember Suzanne Vega's "Luka"? I used to listen to on the radio, not really paying attention to the lyrics, until it came on American Top 40 and Casey Kasem said "Here's Suzanne Vega's current hit about child abuse."  When I listened to the words for tbe first time, I was like "Whoa."

[VelociRapture]

Another song and movie I don’t like is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The song isn’t quite as bad since there’s only one brief mention of Rudolph being bullied, but we watched the movie with our daughter for the first time recently and I almost turned it off halfway through. I forgot just how horrible that movie really is between the bullying and sexist remarks. I don’t intend to watch that with her again until/unless she’s old enough to understand why the messages of the movie (“People only like you once you’re useful to them!” “Making fun of others with genetic conditions is ok!” “Adults bullying kids is normal!” “Manly men need to protect their helpless little women!”) are problematic.

Frosty the Snowman, on the other hand, is still a pretty fun and lighthearted song and movie. My daughter loves the movie and would watch it everyday if we let her. 

[ADoyle90815]

21 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

Well, the job of a commercial radio station (most are owned by two or three companies nationwide, anyway) is to make money. However, in the case of a natural disaster, radios are still used to convey information to citizens, quickly. In that aspect, they can be there for the greater social good, or whatever. There are still stations - college stations, mostly, that play what they want to hear and talk about what they want to talk about. 

Local radio also has the 'pulse' of cities and areas -  or at least they used to. AM radio broadcasts news and sports, local and national; FM radio has music. Ads were first used to pay for the music, and it was cool because it was so specialized to the area.  You wouldn't hear the same songs in Detroit as you would in Grand Rapids, and you wouldn't hear the same songs in Seattle. That's all changed. I find it depressing. 

One of my friends at work got me into a nearby college radio station KXLU,  which I love to listen to until I lose the signal on the way home. Like other college radio stations, they play a wide variety of genres of music, from punk all the way to opera on Monday nights. What I love about that station is that it's one where you don't hear what's on corporate owned stations, as they play stuff you won't hear anywhere else. Basically, college radio stations are really the last that have the "pulse" of the area, while pretty much every other radio station is now corporate owned.

[singsingsing]

Nothing has been 'banned' or 'censored'. Those words are being tossed around and seriously misused. I think 'Pumped Up Kicks' is a great example. I happen to really like that song. I also totally get why radio stations won't play it. I can jump on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube and listen to it anytime I want.

If TV stations decided they weren't going to play 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' because of the problematic aspects, same deal. I'm sure it's easy enough to find a DVD or to stream it online.

The point is that no one's being banned from listening to the song. A radio station deciding not to play it is not remotely the same as telling people that they can't listen to it whenever they want. No one's making it illegal to listen to 'Baby It's Cold Outside'. Nobody's coming and confiscating your CDs or deleting it from your playlists.

I have seen multiple posts on social media from people in an absolute uproar about this stupid song being 'banned' and exactly zero posts from anyone who's actually offended by the song itself. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. Once again, it's the people who call others 'snowflakes' who are proving that they're by far the most sensitive and easily butthurt. Ridiculous.

[Palimpsest]

Well I wish someone would ban "Ruldolf the Red-nosed Reindeer" AND "Grandma got run over by a reindeer."  I just heard them both in the grocery store and couldn't turn them off.  

Wanders off to play Barrington Levy at full volume.  I really dislike that particular Christmas song as usually heard but love reggae and his version. 

Spoiler

 

 

[louisa05]

This may be the worst Christmas song ever written and recorded. Fortunately, it has not caught on. Yet. 

Spoiler

 

Also, sorry to anyone who had yet to be exposed to it: 

 

 

[formergothardite]

That is horrible @louisa05. I'll listen to Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time before I'd listen to that. 

[Maxwell]

Barbara Whitehead gives it 5 stars and leaves the comment, "Great Book."

You know, the song itself was not great but tolerable for me (although "tolerable" means "I made it all the way through but won't be listening to it again").  But when you couple it with the video -- yikes!  Some times I hear a commercial and have to ask myself, "Who, in their right mind, approved that ad?  What corporate schlub signed off and said, "Yeah, I want *that* ad to represent our company!""  I had the same thoughts about that video.

[Maggie Mae]

I only made it to about halfway. The style of music is awful. The reviews are hilarious. "Voice of an angel" "incredibly original" yeah, no one has ever pointed out that jesus is the reason before.

And what's up with selling 5 versions of the same song? 

I am afraid it will catch on.

[Maxwell]

46 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

And what's up with selling 5 versions of the same song? 

I am afraid it will catch on.

The full version is for those that love the song and want it in their iPod Christmas rotation.

The Instrumental (Full Version) with Choir is for the solo "Special Music" or the smaller church's Christmas program.

The Instrumental (Full Version) without Choir is for the large church Christmas cantata/play/pageant where a full choir is available.

Not sure about the Demo versions.

Please see the upstream quote about commercialism as this song sums it up nicely.  It wasn't written because someone had a concern about all the trappings of Christmas, it was written to make money & sell product.  Although, at $0.99 a pop, they aren't making much.  And, being that it's been out for 8 years now & this is the first we're hearing of it, I think we can safely assume that it will NOT catch on.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 7:25 AM, ViolaSebastian said:

Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.” Nobody wants to help your drunk ass to bed, Eric. 

I think that's one of the most beautiful songs .

[Terrie]

I'd like to see everyone get tired of "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus" and stop playing it. It's always done in some cutsey kid style and it grates on my ears.

[nausicaa]

7 minutes ago, Terrie said:

I'd like to see everyone get tired of "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus" and stop playing it. It's always done in some cutsey kid style and it grates on my ears.

Yes, right up there with "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." It's always some precocious and cloying child singer phrasing the whole thing in that overly studied Broadway style. 

BTW, I didn't get "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" was about a kid seeing his mom kiss his dad dressed up as Santa until, oh, two years ago? I really thought mom was catting around with Santa.