This article lists songs and whole discographies which have been banned by the BBC British Broadcasting Corporation over the years.
On occasion the BBC has seen fit to prevent certain pieces of music from being broadcast if it was felt that these recordings were unsuitable for the British public. We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country in the fourth year of war.
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Other songs based on Classical music themes that were later banned by the committee due to "distortion of melody, harmony and rhythm" were the Cougars ' single "Saturday Nite at the Duck-Pond", which used music from Swan Lake , and " Baubles, Bangles and Beads ", from the musical Kismet , which was based on the second movement of Alexander Borodin 's String Quartet in D.
Other justifications for such bans have included the use of foul language in lyrics, explicit sexual content , alleged drug references, and controversial political subject matter. In certain cases, appeals to the BBC in favour of banning a song have failed or have only been partial. In , " Smack My Bitch Up " by the Prodigy was banned due to controversy regarding its lyrics, "change my pitch up, smack my bitch up", which prompted criticism from feminist groups.
The Broadcasting Standards Council has also made rulings about whether songs played by the BBC were offensive or indecent. In , they ruled that the song " Ebeneezer Goode " by the Shamen should not have been broadcast by the programme Top of the Pops because it encouraged drug use.
