The New York Fraternal Order of Police places Bruce Springsteen on its boycott list, and calls for the cancellation of his New York performances, after Springsteen debuts a song about the shooting of Amadou Diallo entitled, "American Skin."
In August, two Michigan concerts of the Up in Smoke tour (staring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and Eminem) cause police intervention over violent and sexual imagery. During the concert, a video is shown featuring a robbery and partially-naked women.
The Federal Trade Commission holds hearings before the U.S. Senate contending that the entertainment industry (including record companies) should be regulated and sanctioned for deliberately marketing violent and sexual content to children.
2001
Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, Clear Channel Communications, the largest owner of radio stations in the United States, releases a list of more than 150 "lyrically questionable"songs that station's may want to pull from their playlists. Few songs portray explicit violence, but most have metaphoric themes that ring a bit too close to the tragedies. The list, containing music from almost every genre in popular music, includes Sugar Ray's "Fly," "Jet Airliner" by Steve Miller, Nine Inch Nails; "Head Like a Hole," AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill" and "Highway to Hell," Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas, Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire," REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It," "Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel, Dave Matthews Band's "Crash Into Me," "Nowhere to Run" by Martha & the Vandellas, and all songs by Rage Against The Machine. Click here to view the list of songs. Amazing site, there's much more on the hit list, check it out.
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.