Certain organisations are in operation across the world, and more specifically the UK to regulate the imagery, lyrics and generally music videos that are shown to the potential audience (which may be on television or on sites such as YouTube). If these organisations feel that a particular music video is inappropriate in some fashion for the audience they may: either remove the video completely, have the artist re-create a more appropriate video, or not show the video on television before the watershed at 9pm in the UK.
One example of this organisations in the UK is the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) they are held responsible to pilot voluntary age ratings for online music videos. Another company that is in charge of music video regulations being broadcasted on television for the UK is 'Ofcom'
Examples of banned music videos
Some music videos created by artists, producers etc may be so explicit that they can be banned completely from being shown on television or hosting sites such as YouTube. However this in most cases increases the popularity of the song and sales, which is the opposite of the organisations aim.
An example of a video that was banned off of YouTube for its explicit content and the sexualisation of women in the video is Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines". However after a certain period, YouTube re-uploaded the uncensored version which has resulted in millions of views.
Another example of a banned music video is the Prodigy's "Smack My B**** Up". The video and song title were considered so bad its name wasn't said in the charts when it was released in 1997. The video was obviously banned due to featuring: sex scenes, drug abuse and violence.
Changes in standards
Over the years and development in music videos and what genres have become mainstream, the audiences' taste has also changed and therefore our standards have become more open-minded. What may be seen as completely unacceptable and could have been banned, may not even seem a little unusual to the younger generation in today's society. For instance, the sexualisation of women in music videos, scenes depicting sexual imagery in music videos created years ago that were banned or censored, most likely would be shown on television now without those regulations put in place.
Difficulties of implementation of regulations
The obvious difficulties of regulations is that once a music video has become popular and banned for specific reasons, the demand for that song increases so much that organisations/sites may crumble under the demand and pressure from the audience, which will lose them profit if the product isn't provided for them at all. For example the video to Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" was banned and then uploaded due to the demand for that music video. This shows that its very difficult to balance censorship to protect the vulnerable audience members and to keep the audience happy in general by supplying them with products they demand and want to see.
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