Censorship In The 1950's

Music has continued to change throughout each decade, but the 1960s was the most influential decade in the history of music. Starting in the early 1950s, rock music was first introduced. Major record labels were releasing new “cover songs” which were originally made by black artist, but now by white artist (Rock and Roll). These cover songs changed a few lyrics from the original songs to avoid copyright issues and to also make the song more appropriate for the white listeners. The biggest star of the 1950s was Elvis Presley, who was known as the “King of rock n’ roll”.

While there are some similarities between Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton and Elvis Presley’s versions of the song Hound Dog, I am of the opinion that there were more differences. The obvious similarities would be the lyrics retained in Elvis’ version of the song, though the interpretation of those lyrics were very different. Perhaps what I feel is colored by growing up in a household where my mother was an Elvis fan who played his version, and my father, who was a coal miner’s son born in the 1920s in the “hills” of Virginia, sang and played a much loved copy he had of Big Mama Thornton’s version. While my father masculinized the song when he sang it, he did so retaining much of the spirit Thornton’s recording had. Early on I was too young to understand any of the risqué meanings behind the lyrics, but I knew it had a deeper meaning than the fun version my mother and her sisters would bounce to while it played.

     Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the

I watched a video from the 50th anniversary presentations. The video I watched was about Rock and Roll, Segregation, and The British Invasion of 1964. It was lectured by Dr. Christy Talbott, and she first talked about the pre rock and roll period. The term Rock and Roll came from a song from the year 1938, that stated “My baby rock and rolls me all night.” Rock and Roll or also known as American Rock, was changed completely after the British Invasion came in 1964. The invasion turned Rock and Roll into what is known today as Rock, it made a change for the good. Musicians in the pre Rock and Roll era, sang about current events similar as we do today. The events they sang about was Segregation, North Vs. South inferiority and the wars that were happening at the time World War 2, Korean War and Vietnam War. THe artists of this time consisted of The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ritchie Valens and the most famous of them all Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley’s music was called “White man with an African American feel.” In 1959 Motown records in Detroit, Michigan hired an all black group called “The Temptations.” Their song “My Girl” hit number one on the billboards in 1964. The man that hired them was Berry Gordy Jr. Berry Gordy Jr also hired all black women groups as well, but unlike the all black male groups he dressed the women groups as white folk.

Censorship has evolved over time in America, from TV, books, and even the internet. America has prohibited specific things from citizen’s beliefs. The role that censorship plays in America is taken from personal beliefs, such as voting for certain things to be banned from books, TV, internet, and articles. This allows and denies things that are used for public use, due to personal preferences on things that are appropriate and inappropriate for public users.

Censorship on television in the United States has been an issue ever since the television was invented. The public holds a variety of stances on the topic, and no matter what law is ever passed regarding censorship, it will never suit the needs of everyone. Some believe that censorship violates individual rights in the law, and others believe that censorship should be available through members in the family, not the government. On the other hand, some people strive to maintain government regulation of censorship. Television censorship is significant because it holds the future of our country. If channels continue to be censored, our rights will be violated. If not, then the future generations may change

The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and The Jungle. What do these three books have in common? Aside from being extremely influential pieces of literature, would you believe that these books have been censored, or even outright banned for their supposed questionable content and backwards morals? Some argue that the censorship of certain books helps keep dangerous knowledge, questionable morals, and inappropriate content away from the general public. However, the restriction of information is not only unfair, but unconstitutional. By denying a reader the right to a certain piece of literature, we are creating a very biased selection that only displays what the censorer wants the public to see. Literature should never be censored, as it has the potential to unfairly skew views, common knowledge, and

The 1950s was largely dominated by Rock and Roll as the Rock and Roll era had emerged. This Genre of music developed from other styles of music such as country, Jazz, and gospel.

There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the

Welcome to an era filled with sock-hops, diners, and poodle skirts. But that's not all! Arguably the most important aspect of the 1950's was that it was also a time filled with the newly evolved genre of "rock 'n' roll", a type of music that resulted from a combination of rhythm and blues, gospel music, country, and jazz. Rock and roll completely revolutionized musical tastes and essentially changed the world, especially among the youth. Suddenly all across the nation, teenagers were able to listen to this new music and rebel from their parents in ways that they never could before.

As, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton song was written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller and recorded in 1953. This version was accompanied drum, guitar and brass instrument. Big Mama is the only vocal sound on the song; she has big with a hoarse rasp of her voice takes precedence over the instruments. The storytelling soulful singer tells a story about an intimate relationship and its challenge. According to Altschuler (2003) states that “Elvis made substantial changes to the tempo and lyrics of “Hound Dog” and his version made it to Number 1 on both country and R&B charts Altschuler, 2003, p.52).”However, Elvis Presley’s version of the song “Hound Dog” was recorded in 1956. While, Elvis slow down his final verse and spiral his hips to the sound of the beat that he is most famous with his fans. Elvis also, did a solo guitar solo with harmonize of the background singers melody. He acknowledged the fact that he was singing African American music and that he got his style from “colored folks.” Both versions don’t sound like the same song; they have a certain elements that are similar. Elvis put his own twist into his version instead of just copying Big

The threat of not being able to listen to your own music in the privacy of your own home is expanding further as the years progress and our society grows. Music is a large contribution to many Americans everyday life. Whether its calming and relaxing or energetic and loud, it can help people get a job done. Censorship is the suppression of any information which may be considered sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient , this is determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions. Music has played a large role in the idea of censorship for centuries because it voices opinions about others beliefs or it contain explicit language.

The two versions sound completely different. First of all Big Mama Thornton has a much raspier voice than Elvis. So the sound of the singers is very different. Big Mama Thornton plays the song a very different way. She plays it much slower and it does not seem like a song to dance to, but Elvis’s version is very fast. It is a type of song that seems like a classic dance song. It is fast paced, catchy electric guitar and a nice voice. Big Mama Thornton’s song has some banjo in it so it has a little bit of the country sound while Elvis is the early days of “rock N roll”. Also the songs came out in a very short period of time. Big Mama Thornton came out with the song in 1953 while Elvis came out with it in 1956. Their lyrics are very different even though they are about similar thigs. Virtually the only time that they say the same things is when they say “Hound Dog”. Other than that the songs lyrics are very different. The songs both talk about a person that they were told were classy, but they find out they were not. Each artist goes a different route on how to say the same

I chose to write about the setting, circumstances, and background of the Censors. This story is written by Luisa Valenzuela. In this story, she depicts a young man writing to his love. Knowing that the mail would be checked several times, and very thoroughly before it was sent, if it was to be sent at all, he wrote his words very cautiously. The man wanted his letter to be sent very badly, so he signed up to become one of the censors. He moved up ranks until he finally saw his letter. Newly loyal to his job, he turned himself in for what he wrote. His actions against his original wishes lead to his death. This story takes place in Argentina during the mid-20th century. (Valenzuela) The situation of the Argentine citizens in the Censors was

For our group project we, group 6, decided to focus our attention on censorship in television and on the radio. We showed most of the attention to the Janet Jackson incident in Super Bowl 38 when looking at television, and for radio, focused on the FCC and disc jockeys like Howard Stern. Here are the television articles as done by three of our group members.