Censorship on MTV

In attempt to address criticism over risqué content, MTV has sometimes moved certain videos to late-night rotation in censored format.

• "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher was pushed to hours after 9 p.m. due to the singer's revealing clothing.[17]
• "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot was aired only after 9 p.m., due to its depictions of women's bodies. (The station had recently instated a policy against showing female body parts with no reference to a face.)[17][18]
• "Closer" by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails was heavily censored when aired on MTV due to sexually explicit imagery that contained a nude bald woman wearing a crucifix mask, NIN frontman Trent Reznor in bondage, and an image of a vulva, along with the song's notorious lyric "I wanna fuck you like an animal." The objectionable content was replaced with a picture that said "scene missing".
• The song "Étienne" by Guesch Patti was moved to late-night rotation in MTV Europe in 1987 due to a striptease scene.[19]
• In February 2004, following the controversial Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in which performer Justin Timberlake exposed the breast of co-performer Janet Jackson, MTV made several efforts to limit daytime rotation of music videos that could be perceived to have too much sexual content. Such videos included:
  • "Hotel" by Cassidy
  • "I Miss You" by Blink-182
  • "Salt Shaker" by Ying Yang Twins
  • "Splash Waterfalls" by Ludacris
  • "The Jump Off" by Lil' Kim
  • "This Love" by Maroon 5
  • "Dirrty" by Christina Aguilera
  • "Toxic" by Britney Spears

• "Smack My Bitch Up" by The Prodigy was initially given late-night rotation on MTV's 120 Minutes on December 7, 1997 due to a fistfight, sexual scenes and allegedly misogynistic language in the lyrics[20] but was removed from rotation altogether after around two weeks, a decision supported by the feminist group National Organization for Women.[21][22] In 2002, MTV2 showed this video in its special Most Controversial Videos.[23]

• In 2002, only MTV2 would play the Public Enemy video "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need", because it contained "free Mumia" in the lyrics.[24][25]
• In 2004, the video for "Megalomaniac" by Incubus was moved to late-night because of depictions of German leader Adolf Hitler and people drinking oil.[26]
• Also in 2004, alleged glorification of gun violence led MTV to play an edited version of the video "99 Problems" by Jay-Z between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. only.[27]

• "Turn Me On" by Riton and Oliver Heldens featuring Vula - all shots where some doctors try to cut out a man's heart, along with the close-up of the man were replaced by completely different scenes due to violence.
  • This edit was made on MTV's sister channel MTV Hits.

Several videos have been perceived as too controversial to play on MTV even in censored form, for varying reasons. In the 1980s, parent-media watchdog groups such as the PMRC criticized MTV over certain music videos that were claimed to have explicit imagery of Satanism. MTV has developed a strict policy refusing to air videos that may depict devil worship or anti-religious bigotry.[17]

• "American Life" (Madonna) – pulled by the artist and replaced with a second version[28]
• "Arise" (Sepultura) – banned for apocalyptic religious imagery, including crucified figures wearing gas masks[29]
• "A Tout Le Monde" (Megadeth) - banned for alleged suicide lyrics
• "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" (Twisted Sister) – banned for showing zombies in a school engaging in suggestive acts[30]
• "Body Language" (Queen) – banned due to erotic and homoerotic content[31]
• "Bombs" (Faithless) — banned over use of violent imagery to convey an anti-war message[32]
• "Closer" (Nine Inch Nails) - banned for depiction of nudity, S&M bondage, a live monkey being strapped to a crucifix, and sexually charged lyrics. An edited version was also made to censor some of the explicit content.
• "Erotica" (Madonna) – banned from the MTV music channel but later seen in the Beavis and Butt-head episode "Door to Door"[33]
• "Ghost Ride It" (Mistah F.A.B.) — banned due to allegations of encouraging dangerous driving behavior; as well as copyright complaints about the car used in the video[34]
• "Happiness in Slavery" (Nine Inch Nails) - banned for featuring a naked man being fondled and gruesomely tortured by a machine.
• "Hurricane" (Thirty Seconds to Mars) – banned for containing sexually explicit scenes and violent imagery[35]
• "In My Darkest Hour" (Megadeth) – banned for alleged suicide references[36]
• "I Want to Break Free" (Queen) – banned for depicting men wearing women clothes.
• "Jesus Christ Pose" (Soundgarden) – banned for depicting a blindfolded girl and a mechanical skeleton on a cross, followed by several crosses that flashed repeatedly from upright to inverted positions[37]
• "Justify My Love" (Madonna) – banned for containing explicit imagery of sadomasochism, voyeurism, and bisexuality[38]
• "Lacquer Head" (Primus) – banned for lyrics describing minors using drugs; the music video also featured a child watching TV while a devilish creature administers gasoline to the child, who then explodes into a frenzy (with the creature riding on him) and ultimately crashing into a wall, burning to ashes[39]
• "Quote Unquote" (Mr. Bungle) - banned due to creepy imagery and several characters being hung.
• "Reckoning Day" (Megadeth) — allegedly banned due to management conflicts[40]
• "s(AINT)" (Marilyn Manson) - banned for explicit depictions of sex, drug use, and self-inflicted violence.
• "Six, Six, Six" (DeGarmo and Key) — pulled due to images of an Anti-Christ engulfed in flames; later re-added to rotation in an edited form[41][42]
• "Sunshowers" (M.I.A.) — banned for objectionable lyrics[43]
• "The Price of Beauty" (Suicide Silence) — banned for gore[44]
• "Tormented Mind" (Burning Human) — banned for violence[45]
• "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Madonna) — banned for violent content throughout[38]

• "My Favourite Game" by The Cardigans — filmed with five different endings; most of which were banned on MTV UK due to fears that the video could encourage joyriding and cause car accidents.[46] The two least-violent endings were eventually selected for MTV UK rotation.