Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases a video of Damian Marley's hit Reggae song "Welcome To Jamrock" and focuses on two aspects of bloggers' comments from this video's discussion thread: selected comments about how VEVO heavily censored this song's lyrics, and documentation of selected examples of bloggers' user screen names that are found in that video's discussion thread.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, folkloric, historical, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
Thanks to Damian Marley for his musical legacy and thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the producers of this video and the publisher of this video.
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EDITOR'S COMMENT
This post continues my interest on examples of user names that are found in the viewer comment threads of YouTube.* I'm particularly interested in documenting types of "made up" user names because I believe that a review of those types of names can be of folkloric & sociological value. That documentation is of particular urgency because, since June 2012, YouTube has tried to convince its commenters and its video uploaders to switch to the use of their "real names" (first and last names).** And it appears that many people have done so, including me.
This post focuses on selected names used by bloggers that posted comments critizing Vevo, the publisher of this Damian Marley video, for its heavy handed censorship of that song. Although profanity is usually the target of censorship, a number of commenters noted that there are no curse words in "Welcome To Jamrock". Those bloggers' comments are also included in this post. While a sub-theme of this post is censorship, I purposely didn't include any commenter's name that includes profanity. Furthermore, with the exception of the mild curse word "hell", I purposely didn't quote any comments that include profanity, although this discussion thread includes A LOT of such comments.
This isn't meant to be a complete listing of the made up user names on this videos' viewer comment threads. However, I believe that these featured user names are representative of the types of user names that are found on that particular comment thread. I also believe that these types of YouTube user names are representative of many of the types of user names that are currently found throughout the internet.
*Click the "YouTube user names" tag below to find other pancocojams posts in this ongoing series.
**My made up screen name on YouTube was "Azizip17" (my firstg name, my last name initial, and my favorite number). I documented that within the month of June 2012 when I attempted to post a comment on that YouTube, a message would pop up encouraging me or reminding me to change my screen name to my full name. Unfortunately, I didn't keep one of those messages and I don't remember the messages exact wording. I finally got tired of ignoring that prompting, and changed my user name to my first and last name. If I recall correctly, making that change meant that the made up name that had been shown with all of my previous comments converted to my first and last name.
While this change to full names was and still is optional on YouTube, it appears that many more YouTube bloggers post 2012 are using their full names. My guess is that the theory behind that push to have commenters use their full names was that if a YouTube blogger used his or her real name, he or she would post less offensive content on those discussion threads. If the YouTube administration hoped for that result, I definitely don't think it worked.
I was concerned the move to real names would mean that there would be less creativity in the types of screen names bloggers select. But, thankfully, there are still many creative user names on YouTube. While I won't attempt to classify these selected user names, notice the considerable percentage of user names that end with a number. I'm not sure why that custom is so popular. Also, unlike some other YouTube comment threads, I found very few user names on Damian Marley's video thread that referenced race, ethnicity, nationality. And I found no comments with the exception of names such as "Rastafarian" that referenced religion.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO" Damian Marley - Welcome To Jamrock
DamianMarleyVEVO, Uploaded on Jun 16, 2009
Music video by Damian Marley performing Welcome To Jamrock. (C) 2005 Universal Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
-snip-
[as of 9:32 AM EST]
Total number of viewer hits Total number of viewer comments:
All Comments (11,699)
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlCmQcRPtRg for an uncensored sound file of this song (with a photo collage).
Click http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/damianmarley/welcometojamrock.html for the uncensored lyrics to this song.
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SELECTED VIEWER NAMES AND THEIR COMMENTS
I've selected these comments as examples of YouTube users' names and for the writing style, opinions, and/or historical information that are found in the comments themselves.
The examples that are part of an exchange of comments are distinguised from single comments by the word "reply". However, all of the comments in that exchange may not be quoted here. These multiple comments and single comments are given in relative chronological order, but they may not be in consecutive order.
I've assigned numbers to these comments, including each comment in exchanges, for referencing purposes. My explanations about a few of these comments are given after the word "snip" (meaning "quote ends").
The year given for these comments may be wrong. For instance, I classified all of the comments posted with the date "1 year ago" to be in 2014, although some of those comments could have been posted in 2013.
2013
1. diego760
"Censor ruins the song"
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2. misterhijack
"wow! they censor the word guns and murder..."
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3. anandbnana
"Music and all forms of art should never be censored. What happened to the 1st amendment?"
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4.Kvantasan
"gun is censored as well?why, then why are they selling them ...maaan ..im getting angry...they should censor VEVO....very evil video organization"
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5. yogini34
"What the hell is this? Why even put it up if it's edited beyond recognition. Between the editing of every other song, deletion of the rest and more commercials than on Channel 4, what's the point?"
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2014
6. Richard Aka Silver
"This censorship does not even make any sense Oo"
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7. Rose Mustang (Drakus Hoovley)
"in GTA VI they don't censor the whole song. and they feature a few Bob Marley and the Wailers songs.
-snip-
"GTV"= the video game "Grand Theft Auto"
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8. Ashley Hogan
"The shame is this song doesnt have one curse word in it. Stop censoring random words to make it sound like hes saying bad stuff."
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9. Matteo T
"how could you censor the word ''contact''? lol"
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10. Collin Curtin
"i cant figure out if i want to thumbs down it because it got messed up by VEVO's unreal censorship or thumbs up because the song originally is good."
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11. tony tookie
The beginning of the song he sings, "Out in the streets they call it MURDER!!". Why did they censor the word "murder"? Was it racist, homophobic, sexist? Was he advocating murder? No. These censors are complete fools.
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12. OhMyLawdProductions
"why do they censor guns,shot,weed and murder"
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13. descendantFromHopi
"What is with all the blurred out words? It just kills the flow, I want to hear the full version."
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14. Inferno “money” Goode
Don't censor the song when they can't censor out the violence Jamaica"
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15. Joe Davis
"Insultingly censored"
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16. bobik marley
"it's better without censorship"
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17. Nabil Nahdi
"I am really disappointed with the censored version"
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18. Mizzuz C
"uncensored version please..."
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19. Juan Vega
"wait those were "bad words"?"
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20. Whiskel
"Some idiot was given the task of deciding the censoring of this great track. He/she should be at least sacked."
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21. "Roco Lagrange
"they call it MUUUUUUURDER !
thank you VEVO for screwing up a good song"
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22. Korey Sylver
"They kill me with the radio edit! I understand that Damian Marley had to do it for radio and video play but some songs are just ruined by editing and this is one of them"
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23. n0cr4p
"haha it's really OVERcensored. I lot of songs are, sadly.. I've heard some censored versions even take out words like "knife" and "blood," because you know, a lot of three year olds would be scarred for life if they heard that. And usually when I hear unnecessary censoring, I just assume there's a worse word there than there really is, and the song actually becomes more vulgar and offensive to me. Not that I'm personally offended by cursing in the first place... but you get the point."
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24. Artur Kot
"This censure is ugly"
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25. Z4GY_Official
"90% song is censured"
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26. Raven Crimson
"Sooo... When did murder become a curse Word?"
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27. 14kaduh
"This censorship is ridiculous"
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28. eviltwincousin
"With all references to violence censored out, this song makes no sense..."
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29. peterheikoh
"the uncensored version is better"
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30. fahq8484
"I wish adblock could block them from censoring this great song"
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31. poio21
"The censorship is too irritating."
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32. Moogin
"So they censored pound but not weed?
Now I don't like censoring things but I'm pretty sure that's not how it's done."
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33. mano a mano
"PLEASE, change the title of this joint to : "Jamrock, Barney the friendly dinosaur version" or something. With every other word bleeped out, it's almost unlistenable."
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34. theohaigy
"Its such a shame that this song is ripped to shreds by editing and censuring. There's nothing offensive whatsoever and its a great track and depiction of life on the ground beyond the stereotypes."
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35. Jody E.
"why have they censored so many of the words??!!! when since "murder" and "gun" a curses?? kmmttt <3 the song still but this grieve me"
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36. j4k3h17m4n
"They censored pound? Pound??!!!!"
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37. Corey Hall
"It's merther not murder you fools"
Reply
38. TRILL DRILL
"Means the same. English = Murder Patois = Murther
Now move along ithiot, Yuh dohn speak di language suh yuh Cyaan correct people"
Reply
39. Cory Hall
"+Thomas Howard Merther is a word used to describe the sensation felt when listening to dubby/reggae tunes while being high. Look it up mate."
Reply
40. Corey Hall
+Thomas Howard http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=merther cheers
Reply
41. G-Unit Gang
"who cares what urban dictionary says that's not fact. didn't you notice all the dislikes? this song is clearly talking about murder. go read the lyrics hes not talking about killing people hes just talking about how dangerous it is to live in jamaica with all the murders going on in the streets. the song has nothing to do with smoking and listenin to reggie."
....
Reply
42. Corey Hall
"Look up the lyrics, educate yourselves."
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43. Sir Mutton Chops
"They censored "Murder"? Really?"
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Mauricio Coombs
44. "Lol it says out in the streets they call it murder."
Reply
46. Dante Acosta
"Merther"
Reply
46. Corey Hall
"+Mauricio Coombs you sir, see wrong. Look up the word merther or murther"
Reply
47. Mauricio Coombs
"1st im jamaican so i understand what he says. 2nd why would he say murther if he is talking about crime and violence? do you even understand the words to the song?"
Reply
49. acidbubblebath77
"+Mauricio Coombs I understand what you are saying, but if he is sampling Ini Kamoze's world a music, which I assume uses murther, wouldn't that make the lyric murther in Damian ' s track?"
Reply
49. acidbubblebath77
"Let me ask you this instead. What is the consensus with Jamicans? I'm not worried either way, I'm more or less curious. Thanx man."
Reply
50. Mauricio Coombs
"Im afraid i dont understand what you mean."
Reply
51. acidbubblebath77
"+Mauricio Coombs Sorry, I know that was confusing. Let me ask it this way. Is it generally accepted among Jamaicans that he is saying "murder" and not "murthur?"
It is interesting that there seems to be a lot of confusion with what people believe he is saying. Again, it's probably being blown out of proportion here but I just want to know what yours and your fellow countrymen's perspective is and I'll leave it at that."
Reply
52. Corey Hall
"+acidbubblebath77 thank you"
Reply
53. Mauricio Coombs
"All jamaicans know its muder. Murther is more of a good Vibes. and because it is sampled from ini kamoze song sly and robbie (the creators of the riddim) could just refix it."
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54. Davin Marec “Black Hawk” PC 4101 Ace
"Murder I think"
Reply
55. acidbubblebath77
"+Mauricio Coombs Wow, I didn't know that was sly and robbie riddim! Shit, I wouldn't have known that. Thanks bro!"
Reply
56. Mauricio Coombs
"haha np."
-snip-
“np” probably means “no problem”.
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2015
57. barzy qasim
"VEVO is run by soccer moms dude."
Reply
58. Travis Hunt
"+barzy qasim haha!"
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59. Richard Endler
"Why censored hip hop and reggae lyrics?? this just destroys good songs...."
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60. Rob Tarry
"What a waste of productive time censoring this song. What's so bad about saying ganja?"
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61. Hari Iyer
"Vevo can you please upload a non bs version?"
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62. Riaan van der Merwe
"well done you freakon ruined this track...thank youtube...pffft......#useless"
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63. TomThe Üpsilonn
"Babylon has essentially hidden the message, with these bloody censors! But anyway this is a fantastic song!"
-snip-
"Babylon" is a Rastafarian term that means "the evil government".
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64. Aaron Cannon (cp3o)
"they only censor music to control and take away from peoples creativity not cool though"
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