Radio edit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A radio edit is a remix of a musical performance to make it more suitable for broadcast to the general public via radio. It is synonymous with terms such as radio version, radio mix, single version, single mix, 7" mix, 7" edit, clean edit, and so on.
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[edit] Editing for time
A radio edit is often just a shortened arrangement that makes a song conform to a more traditional (3-4 minute) pop structure. Some radio edits are just "early fades", the song not being played to completion. A professional radio edit may shorten the track by removing many short sections of the track, such as long guitar solos or instrumental sections rather than simply fading-out at the end. Since it is usually shorter than the original version, a radio edit is more cost-effective for commercial radio stations, allowing more time for commercials and other content to be programmed.
On rare occasions, however, very long songs do not have a radio edit, despite sometimes being six or seven minutes in length. Famous examples of these would included "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, which is just under six minutes in length and Elton John's Tiny Dancer at 6:13, which were never radio edited (despite still receiving considerable radio airplay today). Longer tracks, especially remixes and live versions, are often played by radio DJs when they need a bathroom break.
[edit] Editing for content
Radio edits are also created to conform to decency standards imposed by government agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission in the United States. As some songs would violate these standards in their original form, record labels often provide censored versions intended for radio broadcast or purchase by individuals who do not wish to listen to the unedited versions (as seen by the many "clean" versions of songs on iTunes).
In such edits, swearing or explicit lyrics are "bleeped-out", silenced or replaced with sound effects. Since the editing is often performed by studio mixing engineers using the original multi-track session recordings, usually only the vocal track is affected. In this case, the less-distracting option is to lower the volume quickly. When radio station staff edit the song themselves, they don't have as many options as the studio does, and most often play the explicit words in reverse. In cases where the song's subject matter may also be deemed inappropriate, an entirely new version of the song may be recorded for radio. An example of this is D12 and Eminem's "Purple Pills", which was recorded as "Purple Hills" featuring greatly altered lyrics which removed many references to drugs and sex.
Some songs also are also released to radio stations with more than one radio edit. Examples of this include Eminem's "Ass Like That", which had a radio edit censoring "Ass" and a more lenient one leaving it intact, and Vanilla Ninja's "Cool Vibes", which had a 04:38 radio edit and a shorter, three-minute version for use in the build-up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2005.
Radio edits which shorten the song but do not censor language are sometimes referred to as "dirty edits." This is due to some radio programmers' annoyance at songs labelled "radio edit" which still contain profanities, This is because some "radio edits" are short or remixed version of a song and which still contain the original, uncensored vocal performance. Many record labels now distribute songs to stations and note whether it is a "clean edit" or not, however, resulting in the term "dirty edit" falling into use.
While convenient and legally necessary for radio stations, radio edits are disliked by music purists, and can be unpopular among hip hop fans if they many edits they are almost unlistenable. Radio edits can also cause problems for programmers searching for uncensored versions of new single releases (if their rules permit them to play uncut versions, e.g. American satellite radio stations).
[edit] Single version
A single edit is a different form of a song that a band has already released on an album. These are sometimes newly-performed or newly-remixed to get a "hotter" or more radio-friendly song. An example of an album track which was carefully edited, resulting in a shorter, but otherwise identical arrangement, is the radio edit of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence".
[edit] Clean version of an album
Some albums (mainly in the United States) have been released for sale in a clean version - that is, the entire album, but with all the swearing censored. Famous examples include Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin', and NWA's Straight Outta Compton. "Fuck Tha Police" (track #2 on Straight Outta Compton) was not included at all on the clean version, because it contained so much swearing that making a clean version would have been almost pointless. Though many fans object to releases of "clean" versions in general, some specific examples of clean versions seem especially pointless; for example, Theory Of A Deadman's self-titled debut featured one profanity in the entire album, and a clean version was released.
