Lady Gaga, Backstreet Boys Banned for Being Vulgar? Not so much.

Banned for being vulgar? No, not really.

Earlier this week, we reported that China’s Ministry of Culture had released a list of 100 banned songs for music websites to delete. We were very careful to specify that these songs were not banned for content, but rather because their content hasn’t yet been inspected by the Ministry of Culture and thus the songs aren’t yet eligible for listening or download online.

It seems, however, that not everybody was reading carefully. E! Online wrote:

[Lady Gaga]’s songs lead a list of 100 tunes China’s Ministry of Culture is forcing music websites to ban because of their lyrics that will obviously infect their youth.

Lyrics deemed too vulgar and racy for the country’s ears are “The Edge of Glory,” “Marry the Night,” “Hair,” “Bloody Mary,” “Americano” and of course, “Judas.”

Exactly how the Ministry of Culture picks the titles is not clear, but the randomness of some other songs being chosen is just absurd. Take “I Want It That Way,” recorded 12 years ago by the Backstreet Boys. The song was banned for its “poor taste and vulgar content.” Poor taste? Not for us to decide. But vulgar? We think not.

The songs may well not be vulgar, but since no one ever suggested they were, we’re not quite sure what E! is on about. But sadly, they’re not alone. The New York Times reported the ban but implied it was for unacceptable content rather than content that hadn’t been screened for approval. The Wall Street Journal somehow missed the fact that the songs were banned because they hadn’t been legally submitted for approval. I could continue, but I won’t.

In any event, the Ministry of Culture seems to have gotten tired of it, and yesterday reiterated that there is not necessarily anything objectionable or illegal about the content of the banned songs they listed. Rather, the songs were banned because they were not submitted to the Ministry for approval prior to being posted online.

Now we had some fun with this story when we posted it, so I can’t begrudge other news organizations their Lady Gaga and Backstreet Boys jokes. But it’s pretty disingenuous to suggest these songs were banned because of “vulgar content” when that had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Next time, just check with us! We beat every English mainstream media outlet to the story, and we got it right the first time.