If no edited version is available, radio stations -В or random YouTube users -В may simply make their own. Those albums may not get a clean version until days or weeks after their initial release, or never. Though once seen as a bold and risky stance - Green Day, for example, refused to edit its albums вЂњAmerican IdiotвЂќ (2004) and вЂњ21st Century BreakdownвЂќ (2009), and forfeited sales at Walmart - that rarely draws wide notice today.ДЄnother reason was structural: In the streaming age, music can be made and released so quickly that little time is left for edits. Some musicians, they said, object on principle to the censoring of their work. Record executives and artist managers offered various explanations for the inconsistency, although many were not willing to speak on the record.

Now business is the driving force, as labels chase down every click and playlist placement to maximize songsвЂ™ streaming income. Decades ago, that may have been done in part to avoid political controversy. Today, most major releases that have some naughty words - including the latest from Taylor Swift and even Stevie Wonder - also come out in censored versions. The success of вЂњWAPвЂќ highlighted one of the music industryвЂ™s dirty little secrets: that even in an age of rampant vulgarity - and 35 long years since a crackdown on lyrics by the Washington elite - the bowdlerizing of pop songs remains deeply ingrained in the work of artists and their marketers. If fans listened only to that version, they wouldnвЂ™t have learned what its title acronym stood for - instead, just that something was вЂњwet and gushy.вЂќ Wynter recalled that the ostensibly sanitized copy first offered by Cardi BвЂ™s label, Atlantic - the вЂњcleanвЂќ version of the song, in industry jargon - was still too racy for broadcast, leading Wynter to ask for nine additional, last-minute edits.ДЄnd the music video for вЂњWAPвЂќ that caught fire on YouTube was elaborately censored. Before вЂњWAPвЂќ could be played on the radio, its most explicit verbiage was pruned by Cardi BвЂ™s engineers. Yet despite the songвЂ™s uninhibited raunch, its popularity was partly earned from one of the music industryвЂ™s oldest bugaboos: self-censorship.

An instant social media phenomenon, the song spawned remixes and memes galore, including a subgenre of outraged-slash-titillated parental reaction videos. 1 on BillboardвЂ™s Hot 100 chart for four weeks and drew 1.1 billion clicks on streaming platforms. One of the yearвЂ™s most inescapable hits, it held No. Of course, вЂњWAPвЂќ did hit the airwaves, and the streaming services, in a big way. вЂњThank God we have systems in place,вЂќ he recalled thinking, вЂњthat prevented that record from hitting the airwaves.вЂќ вЂњIt hits you at the very beginning - like, whoa! - and then it just keeps on going and going and going,вЂќ Wynter said, still marveling at the songвЂ™s barrage of suggestive imagery. But even Wynter, the head of hip-hop and R&B programming for the broadcasting giant iHeartMedia, was taken aback by вЂњWAP,вЂќ Cardi B and Megan Thee StallionвЂ™s brazenly graphic anthem of lubrication, when he was given a preview before the songвЂ™s release in August.

Doc Wynter still remembers the first time he heard вЂњWAP.вЂќДЄ top radio programmer for decades, Wynter has come across countless explicit rap tracks and вЂњblueвЂќ R&B songs that required nips and tucks before they could be played on-air.

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