Business may be the driving force behind releasing new songs with both clean and explicit lyrics at the same time, The New York Times reports.
What’s going on?
The music industry has found that clean versions of songs that are often filled with dirty lyrics, cuss words and crass innuendos actual sell well, showing there’s a market for censorship, experts told The New York Times.
- “There is definitely a market for edited content,” said Jim Roppo, the general manager of Republic Records, the label of Drake, Ariana Grande and Swift. “If you are eliminating yourself from that market, then you are leaving money on the table.”
Most recently, the song “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion — I won’t get into the lyrics or the song’s meaning — has seen success for having a clean version, too. The industry was unsure of what to do because the song was popular but had really explicit lyrics. But due to the clean lyrics, the song has found another life.
Artists with clean lyrics
There are plenty of artists out there in 2020 who release new music without swears, too. Those artists include Lecrae, Will Smith, Flo Rida and Twenty One Pilots, among others.