Music Censorship and the Taking Away of Our Rights

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Music Censorship and the Taking Away of Our Rights Throughout the history of our great nation, we have fought to keep our society as clean as possible. Yet, we have also made strong efforts to make our lives as fair and just as possible by giving ourselves freedom. Such freedoms are brought to us through laws and amendments made by our early leaders in hopes that our rights will not be infringed upon. Music censorship is a topic that has found itself conflicting with these two facts. While the censorship of music is an attempt to rid the world of "the bad", it is also an area that violates the first amendment right of freedom of speech. Some say the fight for music censorship is a valid battle, while others would argue that it is merely a scapegoat for the problems in America today. This review on the topic of music censorship focuses on defining this complex idea. The censorship of music has been present for as long as music has been around. Even before there were any CD's to be edited and taken off of shelves there was censoring of music occurring. In the mid nineteenth century the libretto of Giuseppe Verde's opera La Traviata was either removed or censored in performances throughout Italy (Woods, "PMRC Launches New Offensive Against Rock and Rap"). Even since the first days of rock and roll there has been censorship around us. Elvis Presley was censored on television because of his hip movements that some people found to be too offensive and perhaps too sexually suggestive. Music censorship has affected our generation's society since the rap groups of the early eighties, when they brought their sexual lyrics and explicit content to the music scene, were first labeled as indecent and explicit. In the nineti... ... middle of paper ... ...Music." Massachusetts M.I.C.. 20 Feb. 1997. Online Internet. 4 Jan 2001. . Mass. M.I.C.. "Michigan's Concert Rating Bill." Massachusetts M.I.C.. 21 May 1998. Online Internet. 4 Dec 2000. . Mass. M.I.C. "Wal-Mart's CD Censorship", Massachusetts M.I.C.. 14 June 1999. Online Internet. 9 Dec. 2000. . Schiller 12 Nuzum, Eric. "Music Censorship: From Elvis to Ice T." 1 Dec. 2000. Online Internet. 9 Jan. 2001. . Viles, Peter. "Three stations, two responses to rap." Broadcasting and Cable. December13, 1993. p90. Weisel, Al. "Freedom Rock." Rolling Stone. October 20, 1994. p50. Woods, John. "PMRC Launches New Offensive Against Rock and Rap." The Roc. 1 Nov. 2000. Online Internet. 7 Dec. 2000. . Woods, John. "Tennessee Considers Censorship of Music, Movies, and Video Games." The Roc. 21 June 2000. Online Internet. 5 Dec. 2000. .

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