Music Censorship Essay

Others believe that music should not be censored because it would infringe on the artist’s right to freedom of speech, but music containing explicit lyrics should be criticized for their negative content. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas delivered a speech to the City Club of Cleveland. In his speech he discusses how music has a major affect on youth, and how crimes among teenagers have increased greatly, since music with explicit lyrics have been out on the market. He also expresses that music should not be censored, because the artist have the right to say what they want in their lyrics, but society also had the right to criticize the explicit lyrics in their music. (1-9) The right to freedom of speech is given to all people under the bill of rights. If people weren’t allowed to speak what they felt this country would not be where it is today.

     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).

Specifically desensitizing intimate practices like intercourse and exploiting the image of women; minimizing them into nothing more than sex objects that can be taken advantage of. For example, "Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain't even know it/I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain't even know it" - Rick Ross U.O.E.N.O. This lyric fails to express any real emotion, it fails to elicit thought, it functions only to glorify rape culture and it is a grammatical tragedy. “New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, chinese food makes me sick”-L.F.O Summer girls. There is no coherent well-thought-out expression of emotion in this line. It vaguely jumps from one subject to another leaving the listener confused as to what the lyricist's message

The First Amendment to the Bill of Rights exists because the Founders of our country understood the importance of free expression. The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . ." (Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution 17). One of the ways the American people use this freedom of speech and expression is through the creation of the art form known as music. Music's verbal expression bonds our society through our emotions and experiences. This fundamental right of freedom of expression is being threatened by public and governmental groups who believe they have authority to monitor and decide what others should experience. The censorship of music

     Today, in the 1990's, citizens in our society are being bombarded with obscene material from every direction. From the hate lyrics of Gun's 'N Roses to the satanic lyrics of Montley Crue and Marilyn Manson to the sexually explicit graphical content of today's movies, the issue is how much society is going to permit and where we, as a society, should we draw the line. The freedom of speech has always been considered a right, but that doesn't mean that you can shout, "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater. The real question is whether such material is harmful or dangerous to our society.

When listening to the radio, most people come across a song that has been changed from its original version, whether certain words are beeped out, or a string of lyrics are replaced altogether. This is censorship, and it is very common on the radio. It is also very controversial. People don’t agree what should be censored or if anything should be censored at all. However, we believe that censorship is a good thing. Censorship allows offensive music to be altered so that it is not offensive anymore. It also prevents younger children from being exposed to harsh and inappropriate content in a society where access to music is growing. The positives of censorship outweigh the negatives by far.

Music censorship is the editing and cutting of specific words or phrases for a purpose in order to bound distinct subject matter from young minds and to prevent more wrongdoings in the inferior generations. The problem with censorship isn't just the reigns on the free mind, but on what the mind can bestow as a gift to others. Music serves more than just as a means of entertainment. Music conveys messages to the world, and professes problems that are puzzling to deliberate with parents. The bad thing about censoring music is the fact that our right to expression is denounced by other people uncomfortable with certain musical topics (Lombardo, 2017). Censorship is meant to mask certain words and phrases from younger audiences as to not warp young minds into thinking that doing drugs, drinking and suicide are acceptable (Lombardo, 2017).

So overall, Music has it’s own particular area of censorship which is unique and flawed in it’s own way. Although there have been some more recent changes in music to support the freedom of artists, the past has been condemning and rough for artists to easily “express,” themselves through their

Musicians may feel that the only way to increase sales is to make their lyrics as graphic as possible. It seems as though the lyrics to songs are giving permission to listeners to do wrong and immoral things (Tanner). As stated in the article “How Much Are Violent Lyrics to Blame?” by Emily Tanner, “Music is important in today’s society and when music becomes corrupt in its meaning then society may in turn become corrupt and immoral.”

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.

“Censorship, like charity should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there,” is a quote by Clare Boothe Luce (Fitzhenry, 84). Some parents are against the censorship of music. They believe that they should raise their kids, not some politicians who believe one nasty word will change a whole child’s future.

Magazines can do the same things and on the Internet, you are allowed to post almost anything you want. Yet you rarely find any restrictions on these forms of expressions. Books can depict things like drugs, sex, violence, hate, and have swear words, yet books are not banned in stores or censored. To me, music is the same thing as a book. Artists have the same right as an author to sing what they want and not have to suffer by having their material disallowed. The Rolling Stones released a song, ?Can?t Get No Satisfaction,? which was never played on many stations in the early 1970?s because it depicted sexual actions, yet at the same time there were magazines like Playboy and books that could have been about sex that did not receive the same attention. Music is like any book because it can talk about any subject in any way they want, which follows the right of freedom of speech. I also raise the question concerning the right to organize and have parades. Artists are being banned and led into oblivion because of swear words yet we see Neo Nazi and KKK parades. They go around holding posters with slurs and insults and screaming offensive things. Yet, these things happen often and nothing is done to try to stop them or ban them. The reason is because they have the right to do this which is stated in the Constitution have the right to express what they want without being persecuted or punished. If these events are allowed to happen then why

Most popular music today is driven by violence and sex. These musicians put out albums that glorify violence and promote causal sex. When the albums are being produced, the artist does not think of how it will affect the perspective merchant. When

Throughout the years, music has evolved and transformed in many ways. However, there are restrictions in today’s music, otherwise known as, censorships. A crisis has emerged concerning the issue of censorship. This argument consists of two possible stances: one, supporting the continuation of censorship, and two, eliminating the status quo of censorships in the music industry. There have been countless debates and arguments regarding the issues of censorship ever since the U.S. Congress passed the Radio Act in 1927 (The History). The time has arrived for censorship to be brought to an end. The government should release their grip on the censorship of music for the following reasons: it obstructs the public’s freedom of choice, it

All through the current years, the kind of the dialect utilized as a part of music have been enormously moved and it is still ceaselessly evolving. As of this day, the utilization of revolting dialect in popular music is more mainstream than any other time in recent memory. Practically every craftsman who created popular music utilizes profane dialect in their music. The utilization of some revolting expressions, for example, "fuck" have turned out to be famous in popular music and accordingly, the crowd have turned out to be uncaring to the utilization of those sort of expressions utilized as a part of their most loved craftsman music. This have contrarily influenced the way that a great deal of people including kids,teens, and grown-ups convey