Louder: Music’s Dirty Secret (Clean Songs Are Good Business)

October 30, 2020

By Caryn Ganz

Pop Music Editor

Until I started working at The New York Times, known for redacting profanity with addendums like “using stronger language” (we don’t do that much anymore, but lol), I didn’t give a ton of thought to profanity in song lyrics. But now that I’ve been looking for non-dirty tracks for five years — and there’s “WAP” — I’ve become far more interested in the state of the clean version. Luckily, I have Ben Sisario, who looked back at the history of cleansing explicit lyrics and examined why it persists today: It’s good business, of course.

The noted Joni Mitchell expert Lindsay Zoladz threw herself into a five-disc archival set tracing the evolution of the singer and songwriter’s earliest songs; Meaghan Garvey spoke to Salem, a band that made blogs go wild with its dark lo-fi electro in the late 2000s, then vanished for a full decade; Giovanni Russonello explored the ongoing influence of the Sun Ra Arkestra as it released its first new recording in 20 years; and Ben Sisario interviewed the longtime music power player Marc Geiger about his new venture — a plan to rescue struggling clubs that doesn’t have everyone’s buy-in.

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Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ Proves Music’s Dirty Secret: Censorship Is Good Business

Scandalized parents and politicians ushered in warning labels in the 1980s. Now making clean versions of explicit songs means taking advantage of every possible revenue stream.

By Ben Sisario

Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images

Critic’s Notebook

Remarkable Records of Joni Mitchell’s Changes

A five-disc archival collection traces the beginnings of one of the most daring trajectories in popular music.

By Lindsay Zoladz

PROFILES & INTERVIEWS

Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times

A Decade Later, Salem Returns to an Even Darker World

The band’s 2010 debut alienated as many listeners as it inspired before Salem dropped out of sight. Its new “Fires in Heaven” arrives in a different landscape.

By Meaghan Garvey

Mark Elzey for The New York Times

Critic’s Notebook

Earth Couldn’t Contain Sun Ra’s Ideas. His Arkestra Is Still Exploring Them.

“Swirling,” the group’s first album of new recordings in 20 years, is an affirmation of how vital the band remains under the direction of the saxophonist Marshall Allen, 96.

By Giovanni Russonello

Rozette Rago for The New York Times

Chill Vibes, Minus the Wind Chimes: It’s a New Day for New Age Music

A genre known for cheesiness is thriving once again in Los Angeles, taking root on the label Leaving Records.

By Eric Ducker

Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times

He Helped Create Lollapalooza. Now He Wants to Save Live Music.

Many small venues where artists get their start are in peril. Marc Geiger, a longtime music executive, is starting a venture he hopes lives up to its name: SaveLive.

By Ben Sisario

Tom Jamieson for The New York Times

A Rap Star Agonizes About His Role in Poland’s Culture Wars

Taco Hemingway became one of his country’s biggest rappers with tracks about partying. This summer, his focus changed and so did the kind of attention he got.

By Alex Marshall

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Kendrick Lamar’s Welcome Return, and 11 More New Songs

Hear tracks by Tierra Whack, Gillian Welch, Xenia Rubinos and others.

By Jon Pareles, Giovanni Russonello and Lindsay Zoladz

critic’s pick

Bile and the Beat Fight Heartbreak on Sam Smith’s ‘Love Goes’

The sound of the singer and songwriter’s third album is sweeping and luxurious: intimacy blown up to cinematic scale.

By Jon Pareles

critic’s notebook

17 Players in Five States, Composing Over the Internet

Alarm Will Sound used multiple videoconferencing tools to master the ambiguities of Tyshawn Sorey’s “Autoschediasms.”

By Seth Colter Walls

critic’s notebook

‘Song Exploder’ Reveals the Eureka Moments Behind the Hits

The new Netflix show deftly explores the making of songs from R.E.M., Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ty Dolla Sign. It’s exhilarating TV.

By Wesley Morris

The Music Biographer Peter Guralnick’s New Book Covers Many Subjects — Including Himself

“Looking to Get Lost” features writing by the acclaimed biographer about Ray Charles, Merle Haggard and others, as well as about his own life and career.

By Dwight Garner

A Writing Career Among Trailblazing Music Stars

Peter Guralnick talks about “Looking to Get Lost,” and Alex Ross discusses “Wagnerism.”

OBITUARIES

Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ Dies at 78

He never had a Top 40 pop hit. But his best-known composition became a standard, and he became a mainstay of the outlaw country movement.

By Bill Friskics-Warren

Billy Joe Shaver, Outlaw Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 81

Waylon Jennings put him on the musical map. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash recorded his material. Bob Dylan sang admiringly of listening to his music.

By Bill Friskics-Warren

Bob Biggs, Los Angeles Punk-Rock Entrepreneur, Dies at 74

Slash Records, which Mr. Biggs founded in 1979, became one of the most successful independent record labels of its era.

By Alex Vadukul

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Lil Wayne, Latest Rapper in Trump’s Orbit, Sees Backlash Over Photo

Following Kanye West, 50 Cent and Ice Cube before him, the rapper faced criticism on social media after posting a seeming endorsement of the president.

By Joe Coscarelli

the charts

Taylor Swift Returns to No. 1 as ‘Folklore’ Sales Pass 1 Million

The singer and songwriter’s surprise July release is the only album to cross the million-sales mark so far this year.

By Ben Sisario

Fyre Festival Promoter Has a Podcast, and a Spot in Solitary Confinement

A lawyer for Billy McFarland, who ended up in prison on fraud charges after his musical festival flopped, says his client was punished for his new project.

By Joe Coscarelli

Arts Bailout in U.K. Buys Time, but No Peace of Mind

In Liverpool, England, whose tourist trade is built on culture, more than 40 venues received money from a $2 billion fund. That life support lasts until April.

By Alex Marshall

FROM MOVIES & STYLES

Tobin Yellan/Hulu

Making the Songs Pop in ‘Bad Hair’

Justin Simien, the writer and director of the 1989-set horror-comedy, also wrote some of the retro-sounding songs. Though he’s known for “Dear White People,” music has long been a hobby.

By Mekado Murphy