The Impact of Censorship

on Popular Music

Music, the Arts and Society

MUM707

Meredith White

Maria Busen-Smith

Kaewalin Prasertchang

MA in Music Education

K0733740

Deadline Date: 12 May 2008

The Impact of Censorship on Popular Music

Introduction

This presentation will address the impact of censorship on music by considering many

elements. For this purpose, the relationship between music, politics, and censorship is presented

first in order to explore the significance of its relationship. An importance of lyrics as a medium of

information is then presented, in order to understand the principle concept of the communication

processes which led to the reason for censorship. Following this, the definition of ‘censorship’ will

be provided by discussing some examples from various scholars. There will be the information

regarding censorship, such as the level of censorship, and the variety of censorship methods. A

sample of music which was affected by the censorship will also be examined. Moreover, brief

information of the Parental Music Resource Center (PMRC) is then reviewed. The reason is

because the censorship on popular music can be seen through an historical examination of the

actions under the control of the PMRC. Finally, the presentation concludes by summarizing the

information discussed by the speaker and will also show the speaker own opinion on to topic.

The relationship between music, politics, and censorship

Music is often considered to express the values, politics, and culture of the society from

which it comes (Cohen, 1997). Indeed, even when aspects of society are not directly related to

music, it is nevertheless always control to a society as the key means by which people perceive the

concerns of that society. As a result, music can reflect society’s attitudes and beliefs, and it can be

retained as a historical document of a specific period. For example, attitudes towards the success of

the society, the view of an unsuccessful issue, and so on.

Moreover, music can be considered as the most memorable aspect of the entire historical

context as it can reflect important situations and ideological concepts over many decades and

periods of time (Street, 2001). An example of this can be seen in music that has been used within a

political context, which therefore combines society and politics. Moreover, there is music that is
frequently used to define the powerful means of raising consciousnesses of a politician and to act

for the funds in political issues (Shuker, 2002). When looking back in this manner, there are lots of

ideas and philosophies that represent the relationship between music, society and politics.

Importance of Lyrics as a Medium of Information

Music has a strong symbolic force, and is often called the ‘language of emotion’. It also

adopts the ‘Power of Language’ (Street, 2001). Most composers and artists use music to express

their feeling and to communicate with their society. Definitely, they stimulated their emotion

through their works. Although, many times the inspiration comes from their own experience, such

composers’ motivation also comes from other sources, for example the social context, cultural,

economic, and political issues.

Consequently, music is a very useful tool and language for humans to connect with each

other. However, the success of the listening is mostly depending on the self-experience of each

person. Elliott (1995) claims that there are various means of communication. Firstly, is the way to

communicates idea through fact that can be proved. This kind of communication normally does not

cause any problems, because it is the way to describe fact or true story. By contrast, the second is

concerned with the ideology of the value of things, which follow the inducement of society to

comply with such ideas that is presented.

As a result, there was control from the government towards the way society communicated

amongst itself. One example of governmental control is censorship. Therefore, the understanding

of this form of government intervention helps to identifying the nature of the problem and its

solution.

Definition of Censorship

Compared to other genres of music, popular music has always been a subject linked with

censorship. During the mid-1980s, a trend towards censorship becomes known in the United States
(Shuker, 2002). When concerning popular music genre, it has increasingly featured politically-

inspired lyrics since the middle of the 20th century.

Referring to Cloonan (2003) there are many scholars who research popular music and

censorship, but they faced the problem that there is not exactly a set meaning for ‘censorship’.

There are various definitions that claim by many scholars, for example:

Firstly, Higgin defined censorship as ‘the process whereby restrictions are imposed upon the

collection, dissemination and exchange of information, opinion and idea’ (1972 in Cloonan,

2003:14). Similarly, Blom-Cooper wrote the book ‘Index on Censorship’ in 1997 and claims the

meaning of censorship by using the same word as Higgin

In addition, Higgin and Blom-Cooper have a view on censorship in terms of ‘processes’.

They believe that it can result from processes which are not obviously concerned with restricting

access to artistic works. Moreover, they both have a view on censorship in terms of ‘restriction’.

They suggest that censored works do not have to be banned entirely, merely kept from being openly

available to all.

Secondly, there is another definition of censorship states by Scammell as:

‘the systematic control of the content of any communications medium, or of several or all of

the media, by means of constitutional, judicial, administrative, financial or purely physical

measures imposed directly by, or with the connivance of, the ruling power or ruling elite’

(1988 in Cloonan, 2003:16)

Level of censorship

North and Hargreaves (2003) suggest that the level of censorship would obviously be desirable

if there was evidence that music had harmful effects upon young people. Generally, however, there

are three main levels of censorship regarding censorship upon popular music:

1. Prior restriction
 An example of prior restriction in popular music censorship is the way that music businesses

sign policies with artists. At this stage, there are two forms of prior restraint that occur,

which are deciding not to sign the artist and denying artists (Wicke and Shepherd, 1993)

2. Suppression

Indeed, there are not many examples showing the relationship between suppression in

popular music and censorship. However, there is the example which is the control of

government and a country’s legal system. Cloonan (2003) suggests that one of the most

interesting examples of suppression occurred during the arrival of the internet. It is evident

that governments try to control the electronic borders and spend limited resources

suppressing objects which appear on the internet.

3. Restriction

An example of restriction in popular music through censorship is the banning of records

from radio airplay. Collins and Murroni (1996), as cited by Cloonan (2003) describe this as

the imposing of certain conditions upon the placement or ownership of products.

Example of the Restriction Censorship

1. Airplay Censorship

The beginning of Airplay censorship was in the 1940s. It was an early example of censorship

which effected music on the radio.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) banned the airplay of Six Pistols ‘God Save The

Queen’ in 1977 (North and Hargreaves, 2003). This song had been banned from receiving radio

airplay by the British government because of the lyrical content of the song (Cloonan, 2003). This

often had a counter-productive effect, with the records concerned increasing in sales because of the

curiosity engendered by the banishment.

2. Broadcast Censorship

The Federal Communications and Commission (FCC) is take responsibility to licensed

broadcasting radio and television station in the United States (Shuker, 2002). The FCC is one of the

most important organizations, who support the censorship. In this presentation, an example of

music which had effect from the banned will be present through the ‘Rocky Mountain High’ (1973)

composed by John Denver.

3.Word Censorship, Self-Censorship and Political Censorship

It is evident that the censorship on popular music occurred from the time of the founding of

the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in 1985. For this reason, the information regarding the

PMRC will be provided in the presentation, with the purpose of studying the relationship between

censorship of music and its political context (Deflem, 1993).

‘Rocky Mountain High’

The ‘Rocky Mountain High’ had banned by The Federal Communications and Commission

(FCC). This music affected the airplay ban from many radio stations because the text seems to

promote drug use. The Commission suggested that the meaning of the word ‘High’ in the song is

the explanation regarding the motion of the people after use drug.

However, there is evidence to show Denver’s concepts considered in this song. Actually,

Denver argued that he composed this song to describe about the Beauty of Aspen, Colorado. He

had shown that the arrival of the travel industry destroys nature and the land around the mountain.

Denver stated at the Senate Hearings by the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

on record labeling on 19th September 1985 that:

‘This was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains

and also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life, or the joy in living that one
 feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Paradises […] and introducing them

to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the very first time’ (Denver, 1985 in

USSCCST, 1985:65)

Presently, in 2007 ‘Rocky Mountain High’ became one of the two official state songs of

Colorado. At the election, Brown (2007) claims that there was the final argument which concludes

that the song is about ‘Colorado's elevation’ and ‘in no way reflects or encourages’ drug use.

Furthermore, Sen. Bob Hagedorn, who supported to use this song as the States song had the view

on the sentence ‘friends around the campfire and everybody's high’ that ‘they are just words’ and he

also stated that ‘It's how people want to interpret them’ (Brown, 2007).

Parental Music Resource Center (PMRC)

The PMRC was established by a group of the wives of major politicians in the United

States. For example, the wives of the senator, congressmen, cabinet officials, and public figures.

Chastagner describes PMRC as:

‘an American organization found in 1985 whose main concern has been to denounce the

obscenity and violence of rock music on the grounds that it is partly responsible for the

numerous ills that plague the United States’ (1999:179)

The PMRC’s goal was ‘to educate and inform parents of this alarming new trend […]

toward lyrics that are sexually explicit’ (PMRC 1985:1, in Chastagnet, 1999:181). They created this

organization to inform parents about the improper contents of rock records. The PMRC contributed

the ‘cleaning up’ of rock music, because they believed that it was a serious and real problem.

Moreover, they observed rock music as a dangerous item to young people.

D'Imperio (2002) suggests that rock music frequently seen as target of censorship,

particularly because of allusions to sex, and drugs, not to mention its indecipherable lyrics. To
support this argument, it can be seen when the PMRC published a ‘Rock Music Report’ (Shuker,

2002), which presenting what the PMRC believed to be the five major themes in the music

- Rebellion

- Substance Abuse

- Sexual Promiscuity and perversion

- Violence-nihilism

- Occult

According to Chastagner (1999), the PMRC studied several solutions towards informing

parents and protecting children. For instance, printing lyrics on record sleeves, and systematically

monitoring radio and TV shows. Nevertheless, the high point of this effort was when the PMRC

agreed with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in creating the "Parental

Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" label.

Parental Advisory: Explicit Content label

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) designed the "Parental Advisory:

Explicit Lyrics" label (Lombardi, 1991). This label will appear on the songs or albums that the

PMRC noticed as objectionable regarding to the five major themes including drug, sex, violence

and other potentially harmful material (Shuker, 2002). After that, in 1990 the PMRC signed an

agreement with the RIAA to change the old label and approved the new "Parental Advisory:

Explicit Content" label instead (Cloonan, 2003).

Moreover, the PMRC also sent the lists of songs and albums to the programme directors of

radio, television stations and record companies to reassess the contracts of artists who used those

major themes in their works. As a consequence, this had the immediate effect that some large music

stores refused to carry labeled albums (Chastaney, 1999).

Conclusion
 In conclusion, there is evidence to show that there is a link between music and social

problems. There are many problems that still remain after the censorship processes. It happens that

almost all music that specify as the harmful music always lead to the airplay censorship which

concern lyrics of the song. Therefore, many scholars try to find out what is the real reason for the

PMRC to ban the music. Many musicians were received the label on their CDs, but there are no

actual rules as to when the label has to appear on the CD (Deflem, 1993).

In my opinion, music is a free expression of the ideas, traditions and emotions of individuals

and of peoples. It may merely express musicians’ hopes and aspirations, their joys and sorrows.

However, it may express stronger situation which may conflict with those of people in power. The

ideas themselves may simply be unpopular or outside the current thinking or practices of an

organization or special group. Indeed, the meaning of censorship still remains as the question and it

seems to continue and carry on to next decade. There is not only an issue of authority or

constitutionality, but censorship on music is also an issue of honesty and individual preference

(D'Imperio, 2002).

Bibliography (By MHRA)

Book

- Cloonan, Martin, ‘Call That Censorship? Problem of Definition’ in Policing Pop, Ed. by

Martin Cloonan and Reebee Garofalo (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003)

- Elliott, David J., ‘A New Philosophy of Music Education’ (New York, Music Matters, 1995)

- Shuker, Roy, ‘Understanding Popular Music’ 2nd Edition (London: Routledge, 2002)

- Strett, John, ‘Rock, pop and politics’, in The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock, Ed.

by Simon Frith, Will Straw, and John Street (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)

Article

- Cohen, Ronald D., ‘The Delinquents: Censorship and Youth Culture in Recent U.S.

History’, History of Education Quarterly 37:3 (1997), 251-270

- Chastagner, Claude, ‘The Parents’ Music Resource Center: From Information to

Censorship’, Popular Music 18:2 (May 1999), 179-192

- Deflem, Mathieu, ‘Rap, Rock, and Censorship: Popular Culture and the Technologies of

Justice’, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association,

Chicago, (May 1993)

- North, Adrian C., and Hargreaves, David J., ‘Is Music Important?’, psychologist, 16:8

(August 2003), 406-410

Website

- Brown, Jennifer, “Rocky Mountain High-now 2nd state song”

<http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_5421650> [Accessed Date 14 April 2008]

- D'Imperio, Kate, ‘Music censorship’

<http://www.essortment.com/all/musiccensorship_rill.htm> [Accessed Date 14 April 2008]

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 <http://www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/essays/music_censorship.html>

[Accessed Date 06 April 2008]

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<http://www.censorart.com/censorship_of_music/Music_and_Politics.html>

[Accessed Date 06 April 2008]

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<http://www.censorart.com/censorship_of_music/Parents_Music_Resource_Center.html>

[Accessed Date 10 April 2008]

- ‘The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United Stated Senate on 19th

September 1985’ <http://www.joesapt.net/superlink/shrg99-529/index.html>

[Accessed Date 14 April 2008]

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<http://www.freemuse.org/sw184.asp> [Accessed Date 14 March 2008]