Indonesia banned Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You' and 84 other pop songs for being 'pornographic'

[MzKittyKath]

Songs including "Versace On The Floor" by Bruno Mars and "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran were banned by the West Java provincial broadcast commission.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images and Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images

• The West Java provincial broadcast commission in Indonesia has banned 85 songs for containing "adult" and "offensive" content, according to The Guardian.
• Some of the songs include "Love Me Harder" by Ariana Grande, "Versace On The Floor" by Bruno Mars — and even "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran.
• Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars took to Twitter to poke fun at the ban, jokingly calling Ed Sheeran out for his "sick, perverted lyrics".

It seems some of the world's favourite pop songs aren't to everybody's tastes.

A notoriously conservative province in Indonesia reckoned "Love Me Harder" by Ariana Grande and "Dusk Till Dawn" by Zayn Malik were too steamy for broadcast during the day — and even decided to ban "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran too.

These are just three of the 85 songs that the West Java provincial broadcast commission banned from being played on television and radio during the day for containing "adult" and "offensive" content, according to The Guardian.

The report also stated that the banned songs may only be aired between 10pm and 3am.

Rahmat Arifin, Central KPI Deputy Chairman told Tempo.co: "In this case, what is banned is not the songs, but the lyrics of the songs that contain pornography, pornographic association, and obscenity."

Commission head Dedeh Fardiah also told The Guardian that some of the lyrics could possibly be perceived as "objectifying women as sexual objects".

Read more: A Harvard statistician has developed an algorithm that finally settles whether Lennon or McCartney wrote The Beatles' biggest hits

In total, 17 Western pop songs have been banned, including "That's What I Like" and "Versace On The Floor" by Bruno Mars; "Wild Thoughts" by Rihanna; "Mr Brightside" by The Killers; and "Bad Things" and "Sangria Wine" by Camilla Cabello, according to The Metro.

While most singers made no comment on the ban, singer-songwriter Bruno Mars took to Twitter to poke fun at the ban, jokingly calling Ed Sheeran out for his "sick, perverted lyrics" — and blaming him for stirring up trouble.

Using the lyrics of Ed Sheeran's song "Shape of You" in a tongue-in-cheek tweet, the star called Ed Sheeran a "monster".

He tweeted to his 42.5 million followers, describing his hits as "wholesome" — in contrast with Ed Sheeran, whom he dubbed a "sexual deviant".

According to Reuters, Neneng Athiatul Faiziyah, a member of the commission, said the ban came after complaints by citizens who opposed thousands of songs.

West Java is known to be of the Indonesia's most conservative provinces, and its population of 48 million makes it the country's most populous province.

Read the original article on Business Insider Singapore. Copyright 2019. Follow Business Insider Singapore on Twitter.

 

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[coval]

Not Mr Brightside

Now what song are creepy old men in nightclubs gonna use try and grope you

[protoplasm]

 

[Hormones.]

That Sharia Law is really kicking in.

[WINE]

“West Javaâ€

 

are we even surprised here lel

[Leeyhamour]

SIS..

[dragostaedintei]

I'm sure people are so going to stop listening to these songs /s 

 

Now... is english widely spoken in Indonesia? I know you guys have plenty of languages besides bahasa, but dunno how's english status over there. If it's not widely spoken I'll laugh harder bc... why even bother?

 

Conservatives everywhere really go for the weirdest things lol 

[WINE]

 

I'm sure people are so going to stop listening to these songs /s

 

Now... is english widely spoken in Indonesia? I know you guys have plenty of languages besides bahasa, but dunno how's english status over there. If it's not widely spoken I'll laugh harder bc... why even bother?

 

Conservatives everywhere really go for the weirdest things lol

Please do laugh, I don’t even think 85% of our country even know how to speak English.

[CunningStunt]

wow, im-

[Polaris_Tae]

lol wat

[justtree]

West Java is only a state in Indonesia right? So not the whole Indonesia? And kinda understandable in a way because many popular songs do not come with an instruction guidance of 'even if you can appreciate women or men sexually through songs or arts, you can't touch them or bother them without their consent', though I am not sure whether banning the lyrics is an effective way to achieve what they want but I can kinda understand where the concerns come from.

 

Edit: I think if this ban is used to start a conversation with the songs consumers and people especially youth, it may be a good way to reduce & address sexual violence. However, it is highly important to start and continue the dialogue & the collective learning, and not simply stop at the ban.

[Mr.Skinny-penis]

bruh thats like 98% of american music 

[kimchi-nyoen]

lol poor indonesians

[kish]

lmao, yes, those were banned in radios and TVs, but we have spotify, joox, youtube,and other straming services, yknow?  

 

welcome to the land where this kind of petty things are banned, but we legit have pedophile running for the government!! WOOOOOOOO!!! 

I'm sure people are so going to stop listening to these songs /s 

 

Now... is english widely spoken in Indonesia? I know you guys have plenty of languages besides bahasa, but dunno how's english status over there. If it's not widely spoken I'll laugh harder bc... why even bother?

 

Conservatives everywhere really go for the weirdest things lol 

 

afaik, only people in Jakarta speaks English often, the rest of them are just... you know saying words like schedule, btw, etc etc mixed with mostly Indonesian words

[tiarabot]

In total, 17 Western pop songs have been banned, including "That's What I Like" and "Versace On The Floor" by Bruno Mars; "Wild Thoughts" by Rihanna; "Mr Brightside" by The Killers; and "Bad Things" and "Sangria Wine" by Camilla Cabello, according to The Metro.

 

only rihanna can hijack a whole song to the point where people don't remember she was actually a feat.

[YuMing]

I-    

[loonatrash]

Um ok

[dragostaedintei]

Please do laugh, I don’t even think 85% of our country even know how to speak English.

 

Oh boy asf~kahgdgd talk about a dumb move

 

People who weren't aware of the songs sexual lyrics now will be, all thanks to something that should serve the contrary purpose.... I- yeah, ok I guess

 

 

lmao, yes, those were banned in radios and TVs, but we have spotify, joox, youtube,and other straming services, yknow? 

 

welcome to the land where this kind of petty things are banned, but we legit have pedophile running for the government!! WOOOOOOOO!!! 

 

afaik, only people in Jakarta speaks English often, the rest of them are just... you know saying words like schedule, btw, etc etc mixed with mostly Indonesian words

 

Let me guess... pedo candidate is going untouched? Why is this crap the same everywhere...... 

 

Same here, we borrow some words but that's it. Damn, for such effort I thought it was more widespread

[kish]

 

Oh boy asf~kahgdgd talk about a dumb move

 

People who weren't aware of the songs sexual lyrics now will be, all thanks to something that should serve the contrary purpose.... I- yeah, ok I guess

 

 

 

Let me guess... pedo candidate is going untouched? Why is this crap the same everywhere...... 

 

Same here, we borrow some words but that's it. Damn, for such effort I thought it was more widespread

 

still untouched, but there's a big buzz around the social media to take down this trash from the candidate list, idk what's next tho :/.

[JihyoStoleMyHeartAYAYAY]

lol what a troll

 

[jjangyi]

  

[Lolly21]

ok  

[Trixbox]

Sharia...

[SeriousRonin]

n o   o n e   c a r e s

[Anc]

Yikes