Artists and musicians in pop culture create music as a way to express themselves and their experiences. Now more than ever, their ideas are censored with either lyric changes or bleeps which have caused rage from listeners everywhere.

Musicians thrive on getting their message and ideas across as a way to influence their audience. There shouldn’t be a person who gets to decide what is or isn’t appropriate enough to broadcast.

People seem to have taken a negative interpretation of the intended positive message. Prior to the Grammys, Kendrick Lamar’s performance of “Alright” at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards was negatively interpreted by Fox reporter Geraldo Rivera, who had a negative understanding of the song.

The audience noticed alterations in Lamar’s performance at the Grammys on Feb. 15. When singing the same song about how African Americans are treated in this country, lyrics in his song were changed and some were eliminated during his live television performance.

The lines changed in the song “Alright” had to do with the recent police’s interactions with African Americans. The lyrics read, “I’m at the preacher’s door/Wanna kill us dead at the preacher’s door/We said give em so mo’, this one time/ Do it for the show/But we gon’ be alright.” Rather than the term “po-po,” he said “preacher,” in efforts to censor his song to the liking of his audience.

Although, when it comes to television, stations take precautions and advantage of their censorship abilities in order to avoid controversy as well as comply with their audience’s age in order to have either family-friendly. However in some cases, Their good intentions could drown the meaning behind the intended material.

The Golden Globes this year was bashed all over social media due to the foul and obscene language said throughout the show by Amy Schumer and Jonah Hill. Curse words shouldn’t be said constantly at award shows that a younger audience could potentially be watching. Times where adults speak with so much profanity on a live show, censorship in the media should be available, however censoring artists voice and lyrics isn’t acceptable.

Controversy cannot be avoided no matter how many bleeps are added and lines are changed. Rather than altering artists’ music or performances for the sake of avoiding controversy, the art could be appreciated for the purpose it has, no matter the positive or negative opinions it brings. Whether there are simple curse words or controversial phrases, media seems to take it upon themselves to censor whatever threatens their reputation..