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Censorship of Music: Limiting One’s Rights Essay

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Music has been under scrutiny on behalf of censorship for decades. Censorship is defined as an authorization to examine material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable. Lyrics are essential to nearly everything in music; its poems, ballads, monologues, etc. They may take the form of actual spoken or sung sounds or of written words, as literature does. Without the musical component, you’re left with literature and words; this leaves the heated debate as to whether music should be censored or not. Music should be used as an expression of freedom and should not be overtly scrutinized as to what is appropriate because it is simply futile and a violation of freedom of speech…show more content…
This is an example of the government being overbearing and limiting musical freedoms. The question of what constitutes as "suitable" language and obscenity has been greatly forced upon the music industry. The current labeling of parental advisory warnings consists of a black and white logo fixed on the cover of an album on the bottom right hand corner. For all the controversy these stickers stir up, do they really serve a practical purpose for protecting the young people of this nation? And, is this another example of the government mandating our lives rather than “protecting” us from indecency?
The censorship of music can have much more negative effects than positive ones for songs can be extremely taken out of context. Music is almost always construed and misinterpreted with the true gist of a song to fit a person’s accusations. The problem with this is that the individuals (usually parents and politicians) who have an outcry over lyrics are frequently the same group tries to use music to fault the problems of society’s actions upon.
Most of us have all heard the stories about the anguished parents of a child who unfortunately has taken their own life, and then in the after effects the parents or their lawyers would attack a band or musician who wrote a song about suicide or killing someone else. This is also the case for people using music as the template for society becoming more violent. For example, in the
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