Censorship

"As the concept and medium of a music video is a form of artistic expression, artists have been on many occasions censored if their content is deemed offensive. What may be considered offensive will differ in countries due to censorship laws and local customs and ethics. In most cases, the record label will provide and distribute videos edited or provide both censored and uncensored videos for an artist. In some cases, it has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety as they have been deemed far too offensive to be broadcast."

-Wikipedia

1980s

The first ever video to be banned by MTV was Queen’s !982 hit “Body Language” due to the homoerotic undertones, lack of clothing and the amount of sweat. This was belived to be unsitable for the television audience at the time.
Duran Duran’s hit “Girls on Film” was banned by the BBC as it was to sexual as there were several sexual fetishes shown in the video including .topless women wrestling in mud.

1990s

In 1991 the dance sequence of Michael Jacksons “Black or White” video was cut as it showed Jackson touching himself inappropriately. Michael Jacksons most controversial video was “They Don’t Care About Us” as it was banned from MTV, Vh1 and BBC because of the alleged anti-semitic message in the song.

Also in 1991 the country music artist Garth Brooks had his video “The Thunder Roll” was banned from The Nashville Network and Country Music Television for his portrayal of an abusive husband.

Madonna is the artist most associated with music censorship for her highly sexual videos such as “Lucky Star” and “Like a Virgin” as well as homosexuality and references to cross dressing and group sex in “Justify My Love”. The debate over the banning of her “Justify My Love” video resulted in the Canadian music video network MuchMusic launching a program called “Too Much 4 Much”. This program would show banned music videos late at night with a discussion show after where the members would talk about why they though the video was banned.

The Prodigy had their hit “Smack My Bitch Up” banned in several countries due to the depiction of drugs, sexual content and nudity. They also had their single “Firestarter” banned by the BBC because of its obvious references to arson.

2000s

In 2000 Robbie Williams’s video for his hit “Rock DJ” caused controversy as it showed Williams naked and peeling off his own skin revealing flesh. This was banned in the Dominican Republic and censored in the UK.

In 2002 Russian duo t.A.T.u caused controversy with their single “All The Things She Said” as it showed the 2 girls embracing and eventually kissing. Richard and Judy the television presenters began a campaign to have the video banned as they thought it would be highly appealing to pedophiles with the use of school uniforms and young girls kissing. The kiss was also choreographed into the girls live performance and when t.A.T.u appeared on Top of the Pops the kiss was replaced by audience footage so that it was not shown on television.