Censorship In America Essay Research Paper Marilyn

Censorship In America Essay, Research Paper

Marilyn Manson, The Beatles, NWA, Garth Brooks, and the king, Elvis, What do all

these people have in common. Well, yes, they are all musical groups, but there is something

more. Marilyn Manson is a heavy metal group who worships Satan, the Beatles were one of the

greatest Rock N Roll bands of all time, and NWA was a hard-core rap group from the 80 s.

Garth Brooks is a country singer and greatest selling performer of all time, and well, Elvis is the

king of Rock N Roll. So what do they all have in common. All of these artists have or had

songs with indecent or obscene lyrics.

Since the dawn of musical expression, there have been people trying to stop or hinder

the constitutional right to listen and enjoy music of all forms. There were ordinary, everyday

people during the infancy of Rock N Roll in the 1960 s who made it their mission in

life to stop so-called obscene music like the Beatles song Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds,

from polluting our airwaves and minds. These groups succeeded in banning some songs from

the radio, but most of their actions were for naught, because there was no real punishment for

radio stations playing those songs labeled obscene. By 1985, many people wanted to cleanse

the music industry of its indecent music, so the most prominent group in the history of music

censorship was started: The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)-(A Brief ). This was

just the first of many groups who made it their business to decide what the American Population

should or should not listen to.

These censorship groups have also been able to get government money in order to fight,

lie, and bribe their way to censoring music. The PMRC and other organizations have also

convinced government organizations like the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) to

regulate what music is played on the radio. Places like Target, Disc Jockey, and other local

record stores are also forced to label music that the PMRC and other censorship groups find

obscene (A Brief ). Who is to say that what is obscene to someone might not be seen as

obscene to another person. This question, as well as many others, brought forth many anti-

censorship organizations who fight to give the people of America the right to listen to whatever

music they want to, indecent or not. The First Amendment, from anyone who tries to censor it

protects music, like any other form of expression in the U.S. It is a violation of our constitutional

rights for groups like the PMRC to censor music, but alas, they are allowed to tell us what they

think is decent music and what is not. The use of parental advisory labels, as with any system

that aim to deny an individual the right to receive a form of communication, most certainly is a

free speech issue (Crowley).

Censorship should be left up to the public because it is our freedom to decide to use

our better judgment in deciding what we want to listen to, regardless of other s opinions.

The Parents Music Resource Center and other censorship groups became a thorn in the side of

free speech when many parents (like Tipper Gore) were outraged and disgusted by this new

music known as rap. Censorship organizations demand that these new performers like Ice-T

and NWA become banned from the radio and their music be labeled as indecent and explicit in

order to protect America s Youth from listening to this so-called filth. Rap has since been the

biggest target for censorship, with groups going as far as saying that, there has been a marked

increase in explicit violence and misogyny in popular music, and it stands to reason that

exposure to such hate filled lyrics has had a effect on kids attitudes, assumptions, decisions,

and behavior (Senate subcommittee ). This is a crazy assumption with no facts to back it up.

According to Vincent Shiraldi, the executive director of the Center on Juvenile and

Criminal Justice, There has been a 30 percent drop in juvenile homicides between 1994 and

1996, and a 6.5 percent drop in homicides at school between 1992 and 1997 (National

Campaign ). This obviously shows that music is not the cause of juvenile crime, since crime

has actually gone down progressively in the nineties. The Federal Communication Commission

has been around since the 1930 s much longer than the PMRC and other censorship

groups. Their main objective was to regulate what radio stations did not give or receive any

confidential information over the airwaves (Politics of.). The FCC s most noted regulation is one

that includes banning indecent and obscene material until late at night when children are not

awake to hear it. They are also they authority that can give out citations to radio stations that do

not comply with regulations on indecency and obscenity.

There are also groups, many unofficial, consisting of church members who call Rock

N Ross the devil s music (A Brief ). They contend that heavy metal groups promot

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