Censorship in the Music Industry Censorship in the music industry can be divided into two categories involving new music technology and music products. In the United States, the issue of censorship doesn’t necessarily concern music products but rather new music technology. The music industry has become increasingly concerned with online peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and Morpheus, which use the MP3 format or motion pictures expert group, allowing users to download music for free and fast (Cloonan, 2003). In almost every other part of the world, music is censored in some way, usually by a country’s government, religious leaders, or individual broadcasters who are financed by their government (Cloonan, 2003). For example, the Middle East and North Africa region had the highest number of censorship incidents with 54 reports from 1980-1999 (Cloonan, 2003). The highest-rated country was Turkey with 23 reports, followed by the United States with 18 from 1980-1999 (Cloonan, 2003). During this period, the Turkish government succeeded in suppressing the language and culture of the Kurdish people, involving the forbidden sale of cassettes by a Kurdish artist named Yzan Cugdis for being “against law and order” and the arrest of Ahmet Kaya for causing “political incidents” during one of his performances (Cloonan, 2003). In some countries, being a fan of certain types of music can be a reason for arrest or enforcement of a state ban. For instance, in 1996, Iranian officials arrested 28 teenagers for possessing "obscene" CDs and cassettes, and in 1988, two men of Albanian ethnic origin were arrested by Serbian police for possessing cassettes of Albanian music (Cloonan, 2003). Certain countries have even taken the step of completely banning a genre of music because the government felt threatened by the idea of music harming "the sound emotional development of youth" (Cloonan, 2003)....
... middle of paper ...
...Even though the jargon of the law creates confusion for publishers, music is only censored if it contains lyrics regarding politics or sexual content. Music censorship is still a heavily debated topic around the world. I believe that in the areas of the world where censorship does take place, it isn't enforced to protect citizens from the dangers of influential music but rather to maintain political control in these countries and also psychological control of their citizens. Is censorship really necessary? Do government authorities and religious leaders need to have this responsibility to censor music with supposedly good intent? And if so, what is the real purpose of censorship? Book: Cloonan, M and Reebee G, Ed; (2003). Policing Pop. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Online/Web Site: Index Online (2003). Report: Morocco: Judge jails Moroccan heavy metal fans. March 7. Available online: http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030307_morocco.html (accessed March 7, 2003)
Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone, narrates the story of Ishmael’s life as a child soldier in the Sierra Leonean civil war. Ishmael chronicles his journey from a scared, adrift child who lost his family in the war to a brutal child soldier who mercilessly killed many individuals to a guilt stricken rehabilitated teen who slowly learns to overcome his remorse from his past actions. Ishmael’s life as a child soldier first started when the Sierra Leonean army took him and his friends with them to the village, Yele, occupied by army officials and seemingly safe from the rebels. Unfortunately, within a few weeks of their stay, the rebels attacked Yele, and Ishmael and his friends decided to make the choice of becoming a child soldier in order to sustain their slim chances of staying alive. Ishmael’s interaction with violence was very different as a child soldier compared to as a civilian: while he witnessed violent actions before, as a child soldier he was committing them. As his life as a soldier demanded more violence from him, Ishmael sank deeper into the process of dehumanization with his main driving point being the revenge that he sought from the rebels for the deaths of his family and friends. After a few months as a child soldier, Ishmael was brought to the Benin home by UNICEF officials who hoped to rehabilitate the completely dehumanized child soldiers. With the help of Esther, a compassionate nurse, and other staff members in the center, Ishmael was able to ultimately reverse the effects of the war on him. By forgiving himself and the rebels who took away his close ones from him, Ishmael was able to restore his emotion of empathy and become rehabilitated.
Hạnh, Nhất, and Arnold Kotler. Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life.
The war in Sierra Leone lasted eleven years and resulted in mass murder, destruction, and mainly, loss of innocence. This war impacted nearly everyone in the country, however its specific damage on the children of Sierra Leone is a tragedy that haunts the victims to this day. The Rebels killed and tortured thousands of innocent people and destroyed villages throughout the country. Boys as young as twelve were forced to form an army and fight against the rebels. Ishmael Beah, a young boy living amongst this war, tells his story in the book A Long Way Gone. He explains the gory and disturbing details of his life as a boy soldier. As the young boys were brainwashed into killing, the women and young girls of the country were being raped,
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, censoring it would just be violating everyone's right to freedom of speech and expression.
The two largest religions in the world are Islam and Christianity and they have several facts of contact. Both inbred from Judaism an acceptance of one God, the creator of the world and cares about the beliefs and behavior of human beings. In spite of having some points of principle in common, Christianity and Islam have enormous differences, not merely in beliefs regarding salvation, Christ and forgiveness but in several other fields affecting human attitudes, behavior and daily life.
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
these scenes out to allow that age group to see it, it should be left
As David Machin stated in 2010, “lyrics are not only about artists telling stories but also communicating discourses about their identity.” (Machin D, 2010: 78) indeed, the lyrics of a song play an important role in connecting with people and providing people with reflexive identities, when people listen to the music, the linguistic meaning offers the audience with better representation of the music and creates more emotional connection between the singers and the audiences. Also, as different music genre has different representational characteristics, the lyrics also differ from each other within different genre, meanwhile, the composition of lyrics also changes along with the development of the social movement, as Kaufmann discussed, “the recording industry has been blamed for causing morally or socially unacceptable behavior, thereby placing it in an uncomfortably defensive position.” (Kaufmann, W B, 1986: 225) Thus regulation of music lyrics gradually becomes problematic to the music creation and the necessity of the music regulation or the censorship seems to be increasingly important to the music industry. As a matter of fact, the history of music censorship has already emerged in early times, and developed from the self-regulation into government-regulated regulation these years. This essay will mainly discuss the historical root of the lyric censorship from early ages, explain why the censorship is needed in this industry and finally analyze the censored issue in Cee Lo Green’s song, Forget You (also known as Fuck You) which was released in 2010.
There have been so many studies recently that talk about how homework has started to become more burdensome for more students. The United States has gone from teaching to shoving homework in kids’ faces to keep them on the idea that school is always there. Classes have been extended from 45 minutes each day to an hour and a half. This was supposed to allow students work time at the end of classes and get help when needed. Instead, teachers lecture from beginning to end. This gives no time for students to get the help they need when can’t come in any other time. The rationale has changed in America that doing more, always means doing better. This, however, can be the downfall to anything. There can’t be homework assigned just for busy work, that becomes a waste of time. The homework needs to be assigned as a thoughtful way to engage students, so they know what is being
Censorship has always altered the lives of many people, whether they know it or not. People are constantly exposed to the censored version of entertainment. The movies they watch, the music they listen to, and the games they play have all first been screened through different rating systems to find anything in them that can be interpreted as “obscene”. Once someone finds something, the creator of the work has no choice but to delete, edit, and basically censor the offending portion, otherwise it never gets to see the light of public consumption. Censorship has been used for all different kinds of works, for all different kinds of reasons. The many examples of album covers provided at TabooTunes show different types ...
Echoing off what popular historian Michael Grant once said, Christianity and Islam are, “one of the few revolutions in the world’s history that have lasted” (Nardo, 1999, p. 12).Christianity and Islam are currently the world’s two largest religions. At first glance, Islam and Christianity appear to be very different. However, these two religious movements share similar origin, concepts and values. It is important to note now that Christianity and Islam share similarities mostly because they were both technically derived from Judaism. In fact the Hebrew Yahweh of the Old Testament is the same God/Allah that Christians and Muslims worship. This paper seeks to illustrate the origin, concepts and values of ancient Christianity and Islam; illustrating
Hence, censorship is essential in society to eliminate discrimination on basis of race and gender, protect children, maintain stability and restore what censor sees as lost moral values. Censorship occurs when expressive materials like books, magazines, movies, videos, music or works of art are restricted to particular audiences based on their age or other characteristics. http://www.ala.org/oif/intellectualfreedeomandcensorship.html) Censorship is not a recent development. It wasn’t imposed properly or there weren’t strict regulations before.
With the music being the highly profitable, capitalist enterprise that it is today, it is no wonder that it is controlled and regulated by a few large conglomerates that exist is today’s world. It is important to make clear that although evidence is being presented of the positive aspects of globalization through music that there is overwhelming evidence that cultural imperialism is more than it seems on the outside. One must keep in mind that cultural imperialism, globalization and the creation of a global village is a business. People are profiting at other people’s loss of cultural identity, they are sold a culture and heritage. With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.
Christianity and Islam are the two largest religions in the world, founded upon the principal belief that there is one God who created the world. Nevertheless, both ideologies have their own accounts that have contradicted each other since their beginnings. As time changed these religious sects have undergone a numerous number of events that question their validity and have led to controversy in recent years.
Jesus and Mohammed both are two huge historic religious figures. However, even though they are both very respectable in their religion they have many differences. Mohammed was born in Mecca and was an orphan. At the age of 40 he was appointed by God as a prophet. Jesus, however, was born in Bethlehem to the virgin Mary. The angel Gabriel proclaimed him as the “Son of the most High”. Jesus worked as a carpenter and at the age of 30 began his public ministry. Jesus and Mohammed both began their ministry late in life, but Jesus was appointed as a savior from the beginning and Mohammed was not. Although both men had different view of God’s nature they both believed that there was only one true God. They