No Rock And Roll Fun

A BATTLE BETWEEN EVIL AND EVIL: Nobody likes to see mad, starey-eyed people bringing legal actions over the use of rude words in songs. It's censorship; it's anti-artistry; it's an assault on creativity by the forces of good taste. On the other hand, there are some cheap laughs in the concept of Walmart being sued for selling Evanescence CDs, especially because they're being legally targetted because of WalMart's own policy of censoring the life out of music and refusing to stock foul-mouthed songs.

It was Wal-Mart's obsessive purging of swearing that made Maryland couple Trevin and Melanie Skeens allow their daughter buy the Evanescence album from the store - for there could be nothing on it which would harm their thirteen year old daughter, could there? So imagine their shock when, playing her new album on the way home, the word "FUCK" blared out the in-car stereo. Wal-Mart sold them a fuck. The shop they trusted to protect them from the real world filled their car up with sweary old fuck words. Being America, they decided the only thing they could do would be to sue.

The lawsuit Wal-Mart are now facing is demanding not just that the album be flung from the racks of Maryland Wal-Marts, but that Wal-Mart compensate anyone who brought the album at a Maryland Wal-Mart to the tune of USD75,000. The couple believe that their case is strenghtened because the online Walmart.com store censors the fuck in the sample offered of the album: in other word, corporately, WalMart were aware of the swear.