Freedom of Expression and Rap Music Essay

Though rap started out as a force for positive social change, popular subgenres of hip-hop such as "gangsta rap" have since eroded much of the art form's value to society. Impressionable young people are negatively affected by rappers' obsession with guns, drugs, sex, and material possessions. Since record companies do not seem to care about negative content as long as it sells albums, parents should assume a greater role in regulating their children's listening habits. Hip-Hop is the proclamation that young people are independent and intolerant of what they consider to be adult society, which they frequently view as hypocritical.

Second of all, music should not be censored because it reduces an artist’s capability to be creative. A musician uses certain lyrics for a reason. Every lyric has some sort of meaning. Whether it be to rhyme with a subsequent phrase, or going with the flow. Regardless of its purpose, it still has value. However, creativity is not only limited to the lyrics in a song. Creativity can also be express through rhythm and tone. The downside, one can only have so much creativity than resides in the tone of a song. In the song, “Never Take Away My Freedom” it says, “Can take everything I own. You can have and sing my song. You can never take away my freedom” (David Guetta). This means that he could be stripped of everything that he owns. But his freedom can never be taken away by anyone. This holds true about music as well. Artists have the ability to create any kind of music they wish. Lyrics help surpass that limitation of creativity. An artist’s lyrics cannot and should not be contained by the power of the government. It takes time and dedication to create music. Musicians carefully

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 United States of America seems to be protected by a very important historical document called the Constitution. Despite the fact that it was written and signed many years ago, the American people and their leaders still have faith in the Constitution. One of the major statements of the Constitution is the First Amendment, freedom of speech. Although it is difficult to decide what is offensive and what is not, it is clear to see that songs of rape, violence, bigotry, and songs containing four letter words are completely unnecessary for susceptible minds to acknowledge. It is reasonable to say that more people listen to music everyday and for that reason, music tends to be more influential. The American

“Obscene: so excessive as to be offensive” (http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary). This is the way the Webster dictionary defines obscene. How do you? Some say obscene is vulgar; others say the best way to describe obscene is through disgust. No matter how it is thought of, obscene material is everywhere in society. Television is becoming more liberal, magazines are less edited, and music is more abrasive. At some point, the public must put its foot down and demand censorship in order to keep decency in the world.

Over the next few years, more than a million military service members are expected to transition to the general population and some challenges are expected such as finding a good job to sustain their way of living (GAO, 2014). To assist service men and women during the process of transition, the Soldier for Life-Transition Assistance Program (SFL-TAP) previously known as the Army Career and Alumni Program (ACAP) was put in place. This is a program that has been in existence since 1990 after the congress passed a law targeting its establishment. This mandatory program was designed by the Department of the Army to help ease the burden of Military and Department of the Army employees experiencing career transition. The program was established to assist not only military personnel but also their family members with transitioning. It was founded as an answer to the problems associated mostly with job acquisition, school admission and rehabilitation of military personnel into

Not just children, but adults need to be educated, so they can monitor the environment their children will be exposed too. Parents must be a positive role model to their children, so they won’t look at forms of entertainment as a source of guidance. The responsibility falls on the parents to simply be caring and loving to their child and educate them; parents must emphasize that music is simply music and it’s a form of entertainment not meant to be taken seriously.

Censorship in music has been a major problem plaguing America since the early nineteen forties. It came to a head during the nineteen sixties with the Vietnam War and the hippie movement. During the nineteen seventies and eighties heavy metal and hard rock were getting the brunt of the censorship heat. Now in the nineteen nineties the major focus of censorship is rap; primarily gangster rap. Some of the main factors of music in general that cause legal ramifications are sexual content, suggestive violence and obscene language. Censorship is an attack against our first amendment right guaranteeing the freedom of speech. However if a song or album is deemed obscene the first amendment does not protect this.

This is what theologian Horbury surmised about early Christian persecutions, and I largely agree with this view. The Jews sometimes persecuted the early Christians because their beliefs clashed and this caused friction between the two religions. As well as this ‘incompatibility’ between the two faiths, Donatism also developed as a separate sect of Christianity within the orthodox church and a lot of persecution and hate was directed towards the early Christians. However, without this I do not believe that Christianity would have developed and formed the monotheistic, dogmatic religion that we associate ourselves with today.

Throughout the past years Hip Hop and Rap artist use their music to express their views, opinions, and how they are feelings in their songs. From the artist lyrics some will have an understanding of what the artist is talking about because either they have done the same things or is having the same problem. The first amendment of the constitution is freedom of speech and that is all the artist is doing. Although there are many people saying rap music should be concealed because it spread a negative influence on the youth.

Since the being of time people have been making and listening to music. Music has been considered the best way to express ourselves. The Bible even talks about how music was used to praise God. Music has been used for all type of things ranging from to getting a girl to notice guy, trying to get over a broken heart, or maybe losing a love one. Now society says that music has become too violent and sexually oriented. Many people have different point of view on this topic some people feel that there should be some type of censorship, while other feel censorship is against the first amendment, and others feel that parents should be responsible for what their children listen to. The question that comes to mind is should

     Many people believe that music should be filtered because it provokes violence or sex within society. There may be some truth in this but for the most part it is merely myth. People who have any common sense or are not legally insane can understand fact from fiction and what not to imitate. Anyone who listens to Eminem and decides to go and kill their wife should have been locked up long before the actual crime. When people do things that resemble what an artist says in a song, it is usually by pure coincidence and all are negative incidents. Frank Zappa was quoted to have said “I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone’s teeth get cleaner?”(Jackson 1).

Music is one of the most popular ways of expression and has been for generations. It makes us want to dance, inspires, soothes, relaxes, and sometimes tells us a story. Music is something the whole world shares and has brought together different kinds of people. However, there has been a question on whether some music has affected society negatively and crossed the line with some of its lyrics, content, and the persona of the artists. Certain music has been boycotted and even banned in the U.S. Pro-censorship supporters say that music is something that can deeply affect our society especially children who should not have to be subjected to things like violence, sex, drugs, or hate. However, being that music is a form of expression,

Music with explicit lyrics or content started having black and white parental advisories on them in 1994 (http://www.riaa.org/Parents-Advisory-4.cfm). Are these labels necessary? Is controversial music molding our society and causing teenagers to turn to drugs? Is censorship necessary to protect the youth of our nation. Generally, younger people are against censorship on this issue. Music is an outlet and even an anti-drug for many teens; however, parents and society feel differently. Should parents censor their children or society, many parents would like to raise their own

What could our culture be without music today? Music has been around for thousands of years, but it wasn't the same as what we have today. Music would be classified differently back in the “Stone Age”. It would composed of various sounds and crafted into a single music piece. As centuries went by, music evolved without holding back. Day after day, music is still growing at a tremendous rate. So should music that glorifies a criminal lifestyle be banned? A very controversial topic among social media freaks and conservative people, who could be the one that gets their way.