Wow I knew American broadcasting was stricter than Australia but didn't realise how much different MTV was given that our MTV was a rip off of American MTV and copied just about everything they did.
Was just reading an article about what MTV America banned from the airwaves.
Queen's Body Language in 82, which was more about gays dressed up and Freddie doing what Freddie did than anything else. It wasn't banned here, although I don't remember if MTV played it or only the non commercial channel.
Motorhead's Killed By Death in 84 was played here nearly every weekend, apparently the violence wasn't an issue for us.
Twisted Sister (with Alice Cooper) Be Crool To Your School in 85, because, and this one really makes me laugh, MTV America didn't appreciate zombies and their lurid dancing.
I knew about Megadeth's In My Darkest Hour, but MTV here really didn't play anything other than Peace Sells until Holy Wars came out. I also didn't know that later on A Toute Le Monde would be banned by American MTV, it wasn't banned here. Apparently Reckoning Day was banned too, but it's claimed that was for a dispute between Captiol Records and MTV, not because Mustaine was swimming in the Jordan River where Jesus was supposedly baptised.
Motley Crue's All That I Need was also not banned from our airwaves here, although it probably should have been purely because of the topic. I have a thought that MTV had stopped airing here before then and metal/hard rock was only on a few TV shows anyway.
As for Sepultura's Arise being banned because it showed people/Jesus mounted to crosses in the back ground of shots. Fuck how was that banned? Madonna was doing way worse with Jesus statues in the 80 or 90s.
Even as late as 2002 MTV banned Foo Fighters Low because Dave and Jack Black wear women's clothes. Fark by 2002 half the pop music featured girls in almost no clothes, but Jack Black in a bra was apparently a no no for MTV.