May 23, 2009
Green Day has the biggest selling album of the week, but you won’t find it in American Wal-Marts.
“Wal-Mart’s become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won’t carry our record because they want us to censor it. There’s nothing dirty about our record,” front-man Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.
“They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We’ve never done it before. You feel like you’re in 1953 or something.”
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said, “As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA [Parental Advisory] rating. The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not [sic] offer the CD.”
However, Wal-Mart Canada and the store’s website carry 21st Century Breakdown.
Andrew Pelletier, vice-president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Canada said, "Wal-Mart operates in many countries around the world. All buying decisions are made locally, in each country.”
Pelletier said it is not uncommon to find "a wide range" of differences between the products offered at Canadian stores and their American counterparts.
"We don't have that particular [blanket] policy in Canada," Pelletier said, "but we look at it on a case by case basis. To date, I'm not aware of any complaints with this product."
ABC seemed a bit lax as well when “Good Morning America” let two expletives air Friday during Green Day’s performance of their hit song “Longview.”
Since some people complain that women are able to say more than men about their attractions with news media covering it in a positive-light, here’s something from Billie Joe Armstrong:
Armstrong spoke of his bisexuality in an interview with The Advocate, 24 January 1995: "I think I've always been bisexual. I mean, it's something that I've always been interested in. I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of Oh, I can't. They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing."
Even without U.S. Wal-Mart not stocking 21st Century Breakdown, the album is the number one seller this week with over 250,000 copies sold in the United States.
Back to People Magazine Daily - Click Here
No comments:
Post a Comment