It's Time to Stop the Censorship Music with Explicit Lyrics

It's Time to Stop the Censorship Music with Explicit Lyrics

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

children. “Censorship, like charity should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there,” is a quote by Clare Boothe Luce (Fitzhenry, 84). Many believe that the “explicit” lyrics and content in this controversial music like Eminem will turn their children to crime and drugs. Music censorship started in the United States in the late fifties and continues till today. Will it ever go too far or stop?

Society causes a lot of music censorship. Starting in the late fifties and early sixties members of society made efforts to censor R&B music(http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm). They were concerned that the music endorsed wild living, promiscuous sex, and lewd dancing (http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm). “During the late sixties and seventies, Jim Morrison’s dark and suggestive lyrics stirred up communities, and parents were appalled to see Elvis Presley’s hip-thrusting” (http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm). Society censors music like this because they are afraid of it. They think it will alter the minds of their children and cause them to do things they would have never done if it were never suggested in a song’s lyrics. “Music mirrors the society that creates it” (http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm). Some people believe this, while others believe that music causes problems in our society such as crime and drugs. “For every person who believes certain lyrics portray a frightening world, there is another person who finds them deep and powerful because that world is all too real” (http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm).

A number of people believe there is a correlation between album sales and the parental adviso...

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...ost, I believe that music censorship infringes our first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of speech. Saying that music artists may not use certain words is the same as saying a newspaper cannot print a certain article in my opinion. Yet it seems that music is an easier target because pro-censorship groups claim that they are helping the youth of America.

Sources

1. “About R.O.C.” 11 February 2002. http://www.theroc.org/aboutroc/roc10.htm

2. “Controversial Music, The Beat Goes On.” 7 February 2002. http://teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm

3. Fitzhenry, Robert I., ed. The Harper Book of Quotations. New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 1993.

4. Hoffman, Hank. “Wal-Mart Blues.” 18 February 2002. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/01.09.97/walmart-music-9702.html

5. Record Industry Association of America. 7 February 2002. http://www.riaa.org/Parents-Advisory-4.cfm

6. “The 2 Live Crew.” 11 February 2002. http://music.lycos.com/artist/bio.asp?QW=2+Live+Crew&AN=The+2+Live+Crew&MID=66486&MH

7. Winfield, Betty Houchin and Davidson, Sandra, eds. Bleep! Censoring Rock and Rap Music. Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.