Eric Nuzum is the author of the fascinating Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America:
- What we commonly refer to as "music censorship" (and what will be examined in this book) is actually implicit censorship: community, institutional, and corporate attempts to regulate society according to their personal standards of decency and order - or to the standards they feel best serve themselves and their peers. Their purpose is to control, suppress or ban the music, lyrics, and/or music-related art that they find offensive or objectionable. Often, these people balk at the idea that they are censors - they believe that they are acting for the common good. And, as you will soon see, they view the target of their fight is obscenity - not music.
Another commonly held myth is that people have the right to NOT be offended. Some people believe that anything THEY find offensive should be legally censored. But there is no legal ground for this belief. In fact, our founding fathers EXPECTED we would encounter offensive things. The checks and balances created with such encounters help to challenge and test our laws and belief systems.
So where does that leave us today? If this Web site is about music censorship - an issue which cannot be identically defined by any two people - then why write about it? Because this site serves as a chronicle of musical events which illustrates how dangerously close our society has come to compromising its principles of freedom - freedom of thought and freedom of choice.
In conjunction with his book, he has a sobering list of music that has been banned, censored, or otherwise stifled on his website, beginning in the '50s:
- 1951
Radio stations ban Dottie O'Brien's "Four or Five Times" and Dean Martin's "Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am" fearing they are suggestive.
1952
The Weavers are blacklisted due to the leftist political beliefs and associations of several members.
1953
The phrase "gardenia perfume linger on a pillow" is altered to "a seaplane rising from an ocean billow" in the song "These Foolish Things."
Six counties in South Carolina pass legislation outlawing jukebox operation anytime when within hearing distance of a church.
1954
Stephen Foster songs are edited for radio to remove words such as "massa" and "darky."
Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass" is banned from radio because the lyrics are thought to condone heavy drinking.
Congressional representative Ruth Thompson introduces legislation that is meant to ban the mailing of certain "pornographic" records through the U.S. mail.
Article comments
1 - Chris
There are several examples in there of real Censorship, but the rest of the list is not. Only when the Government supresses speech in some form can it be truly called censorship. The rest are examples of people/businesses exercising judgement about what they will/will not release and/or play. There is no right to a record contract, and there is no right to radio play. Ask David Allan Coe.