Music Censorship :: essays research papers

Music censorshipAlthough is clearly states in the foremost amendment that Congress shall(a) make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the palliate exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a restoration of grievances, censorship in America still exists in a lifesize way. Music censorship is the term used to describe the act of editing, altering, or preventing the listener from hearing the music as the artist created it in revise to either deny certain information or to act as a moral gatekeeper of potentially harmful material (http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/barndollar/courses/spring98/students/fabfive/index.html). The Censorship of music in the United Stated is documented as utmost back as 1954, when Michigan congresswoman Ruth Thompson introduces a visiting card in the House that would ban mailing of any pornographic recording, guilty by five historic period imprisonment and a $ 5,000 fine (http//ericnuzum.com/ tabu/fifties.html). Even Elvis Aaron Presley, The King of rock-n-roll was once thought of as abhorrent. In 1957, when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan show for the third time, the cameramen were told to only remove him from the waist up. Elviss dancing was considered lewd (http//ericnuzum.com/banned/fifties.html). In 1964, Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh asks the State Broadcasters Association to ban the line Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen because he considers it to be pornographic. (http//ericnuzum.com/banned/fifties.html). This trend has continued all the way up to the nineties, and Im sure it wont stop any time soon. In the past ten years especially, music has been under attack by many law makers, prosecutors and critics of religion and good taste. One attack on this freedom comes from parental consultatory stickers. These stickers are used as a form of censorship against an artist and their lyrics. If a label will produce an album, I dont think there should be any reason that the consumer cant decide for him or herself if lyrics contained in the album are found obscene or otherwise unsuitable. In order to begin the debate on whether or not parental advisory stickers serve as a form of censorship, one must consider what the newsworthiness censor implies. The word censor means the power to suppress publications or excise any matter in them thought to be immoral, seditious or otherwise undesirables(Webster Dictionary 227). The question of what constitutes proper language and obscenity has been greatly pressure upon the music industry.