Music Censorship

As people describe the US as the country of freedom, music is not liberal here. Censorship of music, in order to impose controls on society to demand conformity of thought and opinions, makes it difficult to reach the 'freedom'. As censorship is based on fear(Johnny Clegg), the government carries out censorship for fear that people would be affected by the lyrics pertaining to drugs, politics, racism and so on. But would people really lose themselves listening to such contents? These bad things are also parts of our world. Should musicians have to hide what is going on in the the world? If they really become blind, deaf and silent of the real world, music would lose its artistic charm since music is not music when it is lack of emotions, which are derived from the real world. In this paper, I argue that since everyone including the musicians have the freedom to express their own opinions, censorship of music should not be tolerated.

Music talks about drugs and sex, so do television, movies and the Internet. Music talks about politic and societal problems, so do Time magazines and six o'clock news reports(Nuzum). People watch TV and surf Internet everyday, getting lots of information about school shootings, violent acts, riots, drugs, sex, alcohol, and defamation of other people, why does not everyone act like a bad guy repeatedly shown in the medias? These things are all choices that a person is obligated to make within their character's nature. It is not the music that forces them to do so, but personal choice. The highest authorities in America agree that there is no evidence that music can make a "good" person go "bad." (Nuzum 11). Then why music is censored? It is easy to understand. For few things are more anti-adult and anti-establishment than music.(Nuzum). Unlike TV news and movies, music is the direct expression of the emotions. From the music we hear, we can easily feel the composer's feelings, causing the impression from the music is much more stronger than that from the TV shows. The only difference is just the extent of the feeling hitting on us, but what left in our mind is still determined by our own choice. It is just like someone paying you hopes that you could help him cheat in a exam. If you can resist the temptation, no matter how much he pays you, you won't make the wrong decision.

However, someone might feel concern about the children who have no ability to distinguish between bad and good, meaning that they are not able to make right choice. Henry Jenkins said that "In the wake of Littleton, we've lived through a period of moral panic. Moral panics are a bad basis for public policy... The way to solve the problem is through education, parental control, and realizing that in solving the problem 'one size does not fit all." There are many ways to protect the children from bad lyrics but censorship is not a good way. Think about the time when