It is no secret that different cultures have different standards for what they consider to be acceptable. Here, you can see a perfect example as these album art covers had to be drastically changed so that they could be released in the middle east, and the art is vastly different from the art that was released in the U.S. and other parts of the western world. Some of these differences are insane!
Lotus is the 7th album by Christina Aguilera and was released on November 9th in 2012. It combines pop and dance-pop and the album's theme is 'rebirth" and is said to draw inspirations from her life. The cover, however, was too risque and had to be censored in the middle east.
Number 1's (or #1's) is an album by Mariah Carey that sold a lot of copies when it came out in 1998. The cover was a little bit too ahead of its time, so when it was released for middle eastern audiences it had to be censored.
If the title of Shakira album, Oral Fixation, isn't already risque enough--wait until you see this tempting album cover. Unfortunately the cover was considered to promote nudity to a high degree, and that's why there are two different versions of this cover.
For what purpose was Justin Bieber's album censored so heavily. Well, the short answer is that the religious allusion on this image was considered too much, so the image had to be remade completely for audiences in the middle east.
We all remember this album from our childhood, but did you know that Britney Spears album cover is different depending on where you live. If you live in the Western world, you might remember a more cheeky version, but in the arab world it was censored.
It is insanely ironic that Christina Aguilera's album, which is called stripped, involved clothing being added to her artificially. The original cover featured her stripped down, but editors had to add clothing in order to make the album available for everyone.
Lady Gaga's album might be called Do What U Want, but it seems very clear that the record label was not allowed to do what they wanted. They had to cover her up before selling the album in certain parts of the world, creating two different versions of the album art.
Nirvana's Nevermind is one of the most popular, influential albums of all time. The lead singer, Kurt Cobain was hell bent on challenging the status quo, hence the album art. He definitely wouldn't have been happy that it was censored in some parts of the world.
This is maybe the most ridiculous example on this list. For us in the western world, Miley is actually dressed pretty darn normally here. For other customs though, it was considered too severe, so they had to extend the length of her dress in post production.
Mariah Carey seemed to have shown too much clavicle in this album art, as while it was loved in the U.S. and other western countries, the middle east had to censor it by giving her a different shirt to cover up the ladies.
Yes, the singer of Hit Me Baby One More Time was hit yet again by censorship. Even her Greatest Hits album involved her having to have more clothes added to her body so that the album could be sold in the middle east.
ARTPOP is one of Lady Gaga's most successful albums, and released in 2013 to huge critical success. One way that the album wasn't successful was in its ability to keep the original intent of its album art. Meaning--it had to be censored in some parts of the world.
Unfortunately when Ariana Grande released My Everything, she wasn't able to show everything she wanted. Even her legs had to be covered so that the album could be released in the middle east, and there are now two versions of the album art.
When Jennifer Paige released an album of the same name, called Jennifer Paige, it turned out that the western culture and the middle east weren't on the same page about what was acceptable for the art. Here are the two different versions.
Okay, even we have to admit that Lady Gaga's The Remix was a little bit out there. After all, there is hardly any tape covering her on this cover. In the middle east, they decided to add a lot more tape so that they could sell this in stores.
