by everending

Created on: December 19, 2008

Censorship exists to protect impressionable minds from ideas and notions that may be harmful. Music can easily be categorized as one of those harms. The censorship of music has existed as long as humans have been able to look around, see an imperfect world, and blame it on everything outside their own doings. Often times, the fear of polluting minds with garbage like rock & roll brings about unjust and biased reasons for banning songs, concerts and other means by which music is enjoyed. No one can deny that language and words are a powerful and potentially dangerous tool, but no one has the right to abolish the freedom of appreciating all music at the whim of a select few.

The issue of music censorship serves as a great tool in measuring parenting, because parents are the forerunners in the debate. Instead of listening to what their children buy, and evaluating the album for themselves, they decided to fight for a committee to do it for them. That way, any CD brought home with a "parental warning sticker" they could dispose of without a second glance. Parents, in fact, invented the sticker, headed by Tipper Gore after she was outraged by the content of a Prince album. To cover up for her own lack of parenting, she ran to her vice-president husband and requested the right to form a committee to insure the protection of the nation's children. The honest fact is, not all bad music even has a sticker, and if a parent is determined to shield their child from all mentions of sex and swears, they need to listen for themselves. For example, Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette is one of the most controversial albums I have listened to, and even Wal-Mart, the family store, sells it.

This failure of parents to perform a background check on music is also visible in the audiences at concerts. Most adults seem to have the mindset that if the show were inappropriate, it would be an eighteen and over show. However, the age limitations usually depend upon the venue and whether or not alcohol is being served, not if the bands playing are for a mature audience. Even a concert by a decent band (in the moral sense) can be a bad place for young children, because the other concertgoers might judge their fun by how many drugs they have. This does not give a right for parents to petition, after the humiliation of sending their child to a concert they had no idea about, that certain singers not be allowed in a town. That is unfair not only to the performer, but also to the individuals

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>