
How Does Kidz Bop Censor Songs? - feross
https://pudding.cool/2020/04/kidz-bop
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fiblye
I didn't look too much into this, but is it possible that the increase of
censorship isn't just that Kidz Bop is stricter now, but that pop music today
has more profanity?

>Kidz Bop is teaching gender role conformity and race identification and
pushing kids to grow up quicker, a sociological phenomena known as “kids
getting older younger” (KGOY).

This is another weird thing. It's assumed that we're all legally kids until 18
now, and that's being extended with more people attending college and it often
being seen as a time to have fun, relax, and enjoy yourself without serious
responsibility. Many of our ancestors were working jobs at 13 and some were
having kids of their own. Not to say that's the way it should be, but recent
trends make it feel like childhood has extended. I personally didn't really
feel like an adult until solidly into my mid-20s.

Edit: It seems like "kids" here might be referring to smaller children acting
like teenagers. Even in that case, I think little kids playing with toys and
games all day is fairly new. Most were doing chores or actual work throughout
history.

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knolax
> Most were doing chores or actual work throughout history.

I have to disagree, the young of other social animals like dogs and lions all
spend most of their time "playing". This, combined with the fact that a human
child is comparatively underdeveloped compared to the young of every other
animal makes it hard to conceive of any useful task a child could do in a
neolithic society. It's not like toys are some recent invention, they're one
of the oldest types of artefact we dig up. I believe "chores" are a modern
invention that exists mostly to act as busywork. Washing dishes doesn't teach
you anything important but many types of play exist as a sort of simulation of
adult life.

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WalterBright
Having summers off from school is so the kids can help out with the farm
chores.

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_nhynes
I thought the same thing until I was recently introduced to the Wikipedia
article [0] that suggests it’s actually for the purpose of family vacation.

[0]:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_vacation#United_State...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_vacation#United_States)

~~~
lonelappde
Fine, spring an fall break for farming.

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watersb
Regarding the actual music, I actually love it. I was exposed to KidZ Bop as a
parent with little kids ten years ago, and now I can torture them as teenagers
BWAHAHAHA

As a technical style, consider how this is produced: Record every take many
many different performances, then splice together the best in very short bits,
usually one phrase at a time. Wouldn't be viable before , but perhaps easy
enough now.

We take digital non-linear editing for granted now, but kids I dare you to try
this on a Tascam 4-Track...

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dehrmann
> splice together the best in very short bits, usually one phrase at a time

Max Martin does this for a single singer all the time.

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alanfalcon
Very cool site/presentation of a mildly amusing and thought provoking topic.
The quiz was just the right length to leave me wanting more rather than
bouncing. And it all works great on mobile.

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fennecfoxen
until you want to go back from one list of censored words to the page you were
on right before, and then you're back here at HN

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etrabroline
When browsers give up control to web pages, we can't be surprised when a
website's poor design decisions affect the browsing experience itself. (and
not just the look of a page)

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pimlottc
This looks cool, but unfortunately the text doesn’t all fit on one screen on
my iPhone SE and there is no way to scroll.

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freehunter
Same on an iPhone 11. Bottom is cut off and no way to scroll down.

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dehrmann
I can't imagine what they'd do with "Semi-Charmed Life." One of the radio
edits cuts half the bridge.

I could also see some artists just saying "No, this song is about drugs and
sex; you can't cover it."

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judge2020
There's almost zero-reason for a record label or artist to turn down a kids
bop cover if Kids Bop thinks they can rewrite it to work for their exclusive
audience.

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jariel
I can barely believe I'm reading this.

I mean, of course many artists would allow it, but it should be obvious that
many wouldn't consider it for a second.

You do realize there was a time when artists wouldn't allow their music to be
used in commercials, and this kind of thing, right? Completely distorting a
bit of art for the 'target demographic' is usually way out of most artists'
area of interest.

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reaperducer
With advances in deepfake technology, it would seem possible that in the near
future, this sort of thing could be automated.

If I ruled the world, I'd run all popular music through a deeepfake AI that
corrects the grammar.

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saagarjha
Interesting, but quite unusable on iPhone SE :( It’d be nice if they nice if
they explained why certain things were censored as well; I couldn’t figure out
some of them. I wonder how Kidz Bop comes up with their replacements…

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catchmeifyoucan
This is a cool way to get people to label data and validate data models with a
varied set of people

