Society & Suicide

On Kiss 108 FM, the Sean Kingston song "Beautiful Girls", popularly known as "Suicidal," is played just about every hour or two. I may be exaggerating a bit, but regardless, it is a lot!

What I find most interesting is that MTV, which one might guess has less regulations than a public radio station, also chooses to play Kingston's song, but MTV has chosen to mute the sections where the word "suicidal" is sung. Amusingly, this word comprises the main chorus and so by deleting it MTV deletes about half the song.

MTV's reaction reminds me of the strung out debate concerning the question as to whether music videos, popular songs and movies can increase the tendency of our youth to become more homicidal and suicidal. It seems that by deleting the word "suicidal" from Kingston's song, MTV is taking no chances. Yet, what affect does this have if the song is played ad-nauseam on the popular youth radio stations?

I find the contrast between the reactions of MTV and Kiss 108 FM interesting. It seems to me, that suicide is a still a taboo topic within our society and, relatively, the media sources responsible for playing Kingston's song reflect the lack of consensus on the way in which this topic should be addressed.