Music Censorship
Linnette Carson

“Censorship is saying: “I’m the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine.” But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word- even if someone has a very weak quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.” said Ai Weiwei. There are different genres, or types of music one might listen to. Censorship is the suppression or alteration of ideas, words, images or other forms of communication that are deemed objectionable to a society’s core values or beliefs by governmental bodies, politicians, public interest organizations and corporations. Evidence of censorship dates back to many of the earliest forms of human communication. For instance, pharaohs regulated Egyptian art as early as 3400 BCE, and the Greek city-state of Sparta banned poetry and other literature that did not cover "useful" topics, such agriculture and trade. In England, Parliament passed the Licensing Order of 1643, which required that an official censor examine books for offensive content prior to publication. Music censorship is the attempt or action taken by any agency to limit or hold back anything in music that a community may find offensive to its belief or values. Within the First Amendment the phase “freedom of speech” goes in hand with music. The term used to describe the act of editing, altering, or preventing the listener from hearing the music as the artist created it in order to either deny certain information. People have been censoring music all throughout the twentieth century. Censors were used to block lyrics during the earlier time. The rules and regulations have changed, but the basis still remains. O The benefits of music censorship is that people working in the music industry will always have the same goal of selling their music to the public. The only way change can happen is through action, and to take a stand. For too long censorship has been ruining music for listeners and artists alike. We can begin to make a change by making an effort to fight censorship. This may sound difficult, but there are many ways this can be accomplished. Boycotting censorship by refusing to buy clean albums is a good start. If there are no sales through clean albums, they will not be kept in circulation. If we can eliminate clean albums, then perhaps that can make an effect on how they handle explicit albums, and force companies to carry them. The changing or downplay of certain words might be needed for this business to achieve the goal of earning more profit. Burns, K. (2004). Censorship. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press. Some children are too young for the exposure to certain types of music. Many people like many types of music, and the best thing is that there are many diverse types of music. Letting children choose which type of music they want to listen to helps them form their own individuality. Everything a child might hear in a song, does not necessarily mean they might want to do it. Even if you keep your child from hearing certain kinds of music, they might hear it at school or hear conversation of it. Even though they are not listening to it, they will still have some type of idea about it. Parents have a big influence over their children, therefore they can determine what they might want to listen to. People of all ages listen to music and some might be too young to hear the type of music produced today. Most children are exposed to things by listening to music; music censorship can prevent this. Parents are unaware of the music their child listens to. Most parents would not allow their children to listen to the music if they knew it contained of lyrical references to bad things. Some songs condone violence and music censorship protects one from hearing this. Another part of censorship today is parental advisory warning labels. They are everywhere, on so many albums. They are placed there on explicit albums to warn people of potentially dangerous lyrical content. These albums are sold separately, with one containing the original songs, while the clean version has either changed lyrics or bleeps throughout the album. The clean versions of albums are ruining the songs by doing this. To conclude, censorship of music is the practice of restricting free access to musical works. Today, censorship has come to a place where you hear it everywhere. Whether you hear bleeping from a radio blasting from a car, or see an image blurred out on a music video, it is in our everyday life, and we accept it as so.

Burns, K. (2004). Censorship. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press.

Drewett, M. (2006). Popular music censorship in Africa. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.

Peterson, J., & Beckelman, L. (1990). Censorship. New York: Crestwood House.