Something rather peculiar puzzled me today… I went on to purchase the latest Nine Inch Nails album, eager for a fresh batch of their trademark sound. If you haven’t heard about Year Zero yet, they had a killer marketing campaign associated with it that anyone interested in the viral trend should check out.

When the download was complete, I promptly went the the Recently Added smart playlist in iTunes, and there were the two last album I purchased from the iTMS: Year Zero, by NiN and The Best Damn Thing, by Avril Lavigne. Before you scold me for the latter, I bought it last month on my wife and kids’ request… Everybody should know the artwork is all I wanted. ;)

What I found peculiar about this view was the rating on the tunes. Every single Avril Lavigne track was labeled as explicit, while none of the NiN ones were flanked by the telling red icon.

Had I purchased the radio-edit version?!? Argh… But no. After listening to the whole album, it just does not contain anything deemed offensive by the music rating authorities.

Really, what has the world come to when the music marketed to my kids gets such a rating and an album many puritan bodies would surely like rated 18+ is squeaky clean?!?

Personally, I think it’s a giant yet brilliantly subtle [explicit] to the rating bodies. Kudos Trent and co. You did it again.