Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 September 17

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September 17

Economic impact of Barça-Madrid match

Hi. Has anyone ever tried to quantify the economic impact of El Clásico? If so, how much money does it represent? Thanks. --90.169.77.119 (talk) 09:53, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Boom bang a bang.

To questions:

1.Why was Lulu's 1969 hit Boom Bang-a-Bang banned by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War?

2. What possibly could have happened if this song was not banned, and what effect would it have had on the British populace if Boom Bang A Bang was allowed on the airwaves?

--Pioneerspafeer (talk) 17:49, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

To Two answers.

1.Maybe because someone unfamiliar with the song thought it was about gunfire.

2.How could anyone possibly know?

←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:34, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

There is some background in this article, published at the time. "Boom Bang-a-Bang" was apparently one of the 67 songs banned as "unsuitable", presumably simply because of its title. If the song had not been banned... almost certainly, absolutely nothing would have happened. Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:26, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Same reason "Big Bang Baby", "Click Click Boom", regular "Boom" and The Bangles were a threat to American security a decade later: I don't know. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:46, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

If it weren't banned, you wouldn't have wondered about why it was, and none of us would be here. Not in this section, anyway. If you're British, that certainly makes your day different. And because you didn't do the other thing (whatever that'd be), someone else didn't do another thing, and so on. It certainly had a widespread effect, that way, but what that effect caused (and is still causing) is what nobody can deduce for sure.

If you go outside and say "InedibleHulk sent me, pass it on" to the first person you see, we could definitely link that to this. But just because you can do something doesn't mean you should or will. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:02, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Kind of a butterfly effect thing. Like multiple draftees walking into the Army shrink's office and singing, "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:15, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

That rambling may have come about in the power vacuum created by the Watergate tape's 18 minute nothing solo.

The machine that kills fascists went a way toward Rage Against the Machine, who (featuring Trent Reznor, as alternative music does) were silenced to protect America's sensitivities and on the next page, inflicted to defend America's freedom.

Whether you rage, rage against the dying of the light or wish, wish you hadn't killed that fish, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It's not a protestable law. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:36, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

According to List of songs banned by the BBC, there was something wrong with "The Old Dope Peddler", too. So they're clearly just being arbitrary. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:48, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Probably because, taken as-is, it appears to be endorsing the use of narcotics. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:15, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

I don't hear it. InedibleHulk (talk) 02:33, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

"Here's a cure for all your troubles / Here's an end to all distress / It's the old dope peddler / With his powdered happiness." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:22, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

200 grams of Natural n' Mild Hi Happy powder for only $32 here. The times, they are a changin'. InedibleHulk (talk) 16:50, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

Unless you're suggesting it's some sort of precursor to "The Pusher". But that's about raisins. Fun Fact: Clone High would not exist without seven or so huge historic events. Reverse butterfly effect? InedibleHulk (talk) 02:44, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Anyhow, since the BBC is funded by a tax called the Television Licence Fee, the corporation is very sensitive to criticisms raised by its viewers and listeners, since they are the ones who actually pay for the service. I imagine that BBC executives were attempting to avert a deluge of "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" letters complaining that playing such songs would be in bad taste. In my view though, it was a ridiculous error of judgement, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Alansplodge (talk) 13:43, 18 September 2015 (UTC)