The Arcade BBS/arcadebbs.zip/arcadebbs/TEXT/KUTULU.TXT

Text File | 1993-05-12 | 22.0 KB | 442 lines

                        Michael Edenfield
                         3131 Dubois Ave
                         [phone]
                Calvert Hall College High School
                           220-82-6677

                       Censorship In Music

      Today's society is based on several basic tenets concerning
human rights and human dignity.  These rights, outlined in the
U.S. Constitution, as well as the constitutions of many other
'democratic' countries such as Great Britain, hold that all human
beings have rights.  These beliefs also state that as such, any
human being deserves to choose for himself the course of action
he takes in his life.  In other words, unless their choice
interferes with the rights of others, people should have the
freedom to choose any lifestyle, and job, any school, any movie
or television show, and any form of music they wish to.
      Unfortunately, in this free society, there is a great deal
of close-mindedness.  Many people have come to believe that they
know, without a doubt, what is best for others.  This philosophy
has spawned one of today's most common, and most dangerous,
controversies: censorship.
      Censorship is especially prevalent in popular music.
However, most people either don't realize, or don't care, about
censorship enough to take any action.  The first step to
eliminating censorship is, therefore, to make people aware of its
presence, and effects, and to spur them on to take action.  There
are many steps that can have a profound effect on censorship, but
first, one must understand the problem.
       Popular music has been censored almost as long as it has
existed.  However, to focus on one specific form of pop music,
let's examine heavy metal.  Heavy metal, an offshoot of rock
music from the late sixties and early seventies, is probably,
along with its divergent rock/blues offshoot, rap music, the most
heavily censored form of music.  Three forms of censorship are
generally directed against this type of music: record stickering,
FCC radio regulations, and outright bans on specific groups.
      Record stickering is so prevalent today, that most people
would not even call it censorship.  However, the fact is that
stickering records was the industries capitulation to the
pressures of groups such as the infamous PMRC, or Parents Music
Resource Council, which promote the so-called "regulation of
obscenity" in music to "protect decent citizens from the horrors
of" music.  What it does is to simply influence a person against
buying that album.  It does not, however, give any indication
of why the album is obscene, or how vulgar the images and
language are.  As an example from personal experience, one of the
leading heavy metal bands today is Metallica.  Since their second
album, Ride The Lightning, was released, until their latest,
Metallica, each album has had an obscene language warning sticker
on it.  However, a quick perusal of Ride The Lightning and its
two follow up albums, Master Of Puppets and ...And Justice For
All, does not show a mass of vulgarities and obscenities jumbled
into songs that promote raping of women and senseless violence.
Rather, these three albums contain almost no obscene words at all
(the word 'fuck' appears twice in one song on Master, and 'hell'
is used infrequently.)  What is contained is a compilation of
social messages meant to give the listener pause, presented in a
way that even a "heavy metal burnout" could understand it.
Basically, stickering uniformly groups all bands under the
categroy of obscene, without even at the true content of the
album.  To many young people especially, this censorship turns
their parents away from their choice of music, and prevents them
from having that choice.
      When stickering does not work, parent groups turned to the
FCC for help.  By lobbying the federal government, they have
essentially banned many forms of music from the airwaves.  Here
in Baltimore, we are fortunate to have not one, but three
stations that will play heavy metal, and at least two that play
rap formats. However, even these stations are restricted to what
they can play.  For example, a popular metal station from
Annapolis was restricted, according to a programming manager I
spoke to on the phone, to only playing music considered 'vulgar',
by a random sample of parents on a committee, after 8:00 PM.  The
reason was that it was received in several areas in southern
Maryland, like St.Mary's county, where enough people had heard
their format to complain successfully to the state government.
Even worse is when enough people's popular opinion is turned
against a music form to censor it, without even seeming to be
censorship.  This effect can be seen in the determining of
playlists for local stations.  One station I spoke to, at length,
described the method by which they determine playlists.  It
involves a random sample of listeners deciding what they like and
dislike, among other things.  However, this random sample is
rather small.  Just as the larger a sample the closer to the true
population it becomes, the smaller the sample the less
representative it becomes.  Thus a small group of people could
conceivably determine exactly what songs we do and do not hear.
This, despite it rather democratic undertones, is censorship.
      A final, much more drastic, measure is to take legal action
against specific groups or albums.  A startling example of this
is the Two Live Crew incident in Orange County.  The group and
its album was banned by a judge who ruled it obscene.  As
ridiculous as it sounds, many store owners were arrested for
merely carrying old copies of the album, and the ban was arrested
and kept off stage until a higher court judge finally threw out
the ban.  Also, a popular occurrence in past years has been to
sue bands for actions beyond their control.  Cases in point: Ozzy
Osbourne's highly anti-suicidal song "Suicide Solution" was
attacked for causing one young man's death by suicide.  Judas
Priest's Stained Class album was attacked, and the band sued, for
two more suicides.  Although the band was acquitted, the very
fact that it made it to trial should startle anyone who values
their free choice.
      All of these methods of censorship are slowly restricting
our choice of music.  But, it can be fought.  In a book entitled
50 Ways to Fight Censorship, David Marsh shows how to fight the
censors, and win.  His suggestions include writing congressmen,
listening to controversial at least once, and making a personal
judgement, taking one's own legal action, and bringing the issue
out via newspaper and (radio) talk shows.  Also, try to find out
how your local stores feel about censoring what they can sell,
and learn about radio stations decisions on this issue.  Most of
all, the key to fighting censorship is getting involved.
(Interestingly enough, there already has been a positive reaction
in the censorship movement.  Tipper Gore, Vice Presidential wife
and head and founder of the PMRC, attempted to hide or tone down
her censorship image during the campaign, especially by using
Fleetwood Mac to show her openness to freedom in music.)
Everyone's opinion counts, and if everyone made an effort to
insure my freedom to choose, they will only receive more freedom
of their own in return.
























                        Michael Edenfield
                         3131 Dubois Ave
                         [phone]
                Calvert Hall College High School
                           220-82-6677

                       Censorship In Music

      Today's society is based on several basic tenets concerning
human rights and human dignity.  These rights, outlined in the
U.S. Constitution, as well as the constitutions of many other
'democratic' countries such as Great Britain, hold that all human
beings have rights.  These beliefs also state that as such, any
human being deserves to choose for himself the course of action
he takes in his life.  In other words, unless their choice
interferes with the rights of others, people should have the
freedom to choose any lifestyle, and job, any school, any movie
or television show, and any form of music they wish to.
      Unfortunately, in this free society, there is a great deal
of close-mindedness.  Many people have come to believe that they
know, without a doubt, what is best for others.  This philosophy
has spawned one of today's most common, and most dangerous,
controversies: censorship.
      Censorship is especially prevalent in popular music.
However, most people either don't realize, or don't care, about
censorship enough to take any action.  The first step to
eliminating censorship is, therefore, to make people aware of its
presence, and effects, and to spur them on to take action.  There
are many steps that can have a profound effect on censorship, but
first, one must understand the problem.
       Popular music has been censored almost as long as it has
existed.  However, to focus on one specific form of pop music,
lets examine heavy metal.  Heavy metal, an offshoot of rock music
from the late sixties and early seventies, is probably, along
with its divergent rock/blues offshoot, rap music, the most
heavily censored form of music.  Three forms of censorship are
generally directed against this type of music: record stickering,
FCC radio regulations, and outright bans on specific groups.
      Record stickering is so prevalent today, that most people
would not even call it censorship.  However, the fact is that
stickering records was the industries capitulation to the
pressures of groups such as the infamous PMRC, or Parents Music
Resource Council, which promote the so-called "regulation of
obscenity" in music to "protect decent citizens from the horrors
of" music.  What it does is to simply influence a person against
buying that album.  It does not, however, give any indication
of why the album is obscene, or how vulgar the images and
language are.  As an example from personal experience, one of the
leading heavy metal bands today is Metallica.  Since their second
album, Ride The Lightning, was released, until their latest,
Metallica, each album has had an obscene language warning sticker
on it.  However, a quick perusal of Ride The Lightning and its
two follow up albums, Master Of Puppets and ...And Justice For
All, does not show a mass of vulgarities and obscenities jumbled
into songs that promote raping of women and senseless violence.
Rather, these three albums contain almost no obscene words at all
(the word 'fuck' appears twice in one song on Master, and 'hell'
is used infrequently.)  What is contained is a compilation of
social messages meant to give the listener pause, presented in a
way that even a "heavy metal burnout" could understand it.
Basically, stickering uniformly groups all bands under the
categroy of obscene, without even at the true content of the
album.  To many young people especially, this censorship turns
their parents away from their choice of music, and prevents them
from having that choice.
      When stickering does not work, parent groups turned to the
FCC for help.  By lobbying the federal government, they have
essentially banned many forms of music from the airwaves.  Here
in Baltimore, we are fortunate to have not one, but three
stations that will play heavy metal, and at least two that play
rap formats. However, even these stations are restricted to what
they can play.  For example, a popular metal station from
Annapolis was restricted, according to a programming manager I
spoke to on the phone, to only playing music considered 'vulgar',
by a random sample of parents on a committee, after 8:00 PM.  The
reason was that it was received in several areas in southern
Maryland, like St.Mary's county, where enough people had heard
their format to complain successfully to the state government.
Even worse is when enough people's popular opinion is turned
against a music form to censor it, without even seeming to be
censorship.  This effect can be seen in the determining of
playlists for local stations.  One station I spoke to, at length,
described the method by which they determine playlists.  It
involves a random sample of listeners deciding what they like and
dislike, among other things.  However, this random sample is
rather small.  Just as the larger a sample the closer to the true
population it becomes, the smaller the sample the less
representative it becomes.  Thus a small group of people could
conceivably determine exactly what songs we do and do not hear.
This, despite it rather democratic undertones, is censorship.
      A final, much more drastic, measure is to take legal action
against specific groups or albums.  A startling example of this
is the Two Live Crew incident in Orange County.  The group and
its album was banned by a judge who ruled it obscene.  As
ridiculous as it sounds, many store owners were arrested for
merely carrying old copies of the album, and the ban was arrested
and kept off stage until a higher court judge finally threw out
the ban.  Also, a popular occurrence in past years has been to
sue bands for actions beyond their control.  Cases in point: Ozzy
Osbourne's highly anti-suicidal song "Suicide Solution" was
attacked for causing one young man's death by suicide.  Judas
Priest's Stained Class album was attacked, and the band sued, for
two more suicides.  Although the band was acquitted, the very
fact that it made it to trial should startle anyone who values
their free choice.
      All of these methods of censorship are slowly restricting
our choice of music.  But, it can be fought.  In a book entitled
50 Ways to Fight Censorship, David Marsh shows how to fight the
censors, and win.  His suggestions include writing congressmen,
listening to controversial at least once, and making a personal
judgement, taking one's own legal action, and bringing the issue
out via newspaper and (radio) talk shows.  Also, try to find out
how your local stores feel about censoring what they can sell,
and learn about radio stations decisions on this issue.  Most of
all, the key to fighting censorship is getting involved.
(Interestingly enough, there already has been a positive reaction
in the censorship movement.  Tipper Gore, Vice Presidential wife
and head and founder of the PMRC, attempted to hide or tone down
her censorship image during the campaign, especially by using
Fleetwood Mac to show her openness to freedom in music.)
Everyone's opinion counts, and if everyone made an effort to
insure my freedom to choose, they will only receive more freedom
of their own in return.
























                        Michael Edenfield
                         3131 Dubois Ave
                         [phone]
                Calvert Hall College High School
                           220-82-6677

                       Censorship In Music

      Today's society is based on several basic tenets concerning
human rights and human dignity.  These rights, outlined in the
U.S. Constitution, as well as the constitutions of many other
'democratic' countries such as Great Britain, hold that all human
beings have rights.  These beliefs also state that as such, any
human being deserves to choose for himself the course of action
he takes in his life.  In other words, unless their choice
interferes with the rights of others, people should have the
freedom to choose any lifestyle, and job, any school, any movie
or television show, and any form of music they wish to.
      Unfortunately, in this free society, there is a great deal
of close-mindedness.  Many people have come to believe that they
know, without a doubt, what is best for others.  This philosophy
has spawned one of today's most common, and most dangerous,
controversies: censorship.
      Censorship is especially prevalent in popular music.
However, most people either don't realize, or don't care, about
censorship enough to take any action.  The first step to
eliminating censorship is, therefore, to make people aware of its
presence, and effects, and to spur them on to take action.  There
are many steps that can have a profound effect on censorship, but
first, one must understand the problem.
       Popular music has been censored almost as long as it has
existed.  However, to focus on one specific form of pop music,
lets examine heavy metal.  Heavy metal, an offshoot of rock music
from the late sixties and early seventies, is probably, along
with its divergent rock/blues offshoot, rap music, the most
heavily censored form of music.  Three forms of censorship are
generally directed against this type of music: record stickering,
FCC radio regulations, and outright bans on specific groups.
      Record stickering is so prevalent today, that most people
would not even call it censorship.  However, the fact is that
stickering records was the industries capitulation to the
pressures of groups such as the infamous PMRC, or Parents Music
Resource Council, which promote the so-called "regulation of
obscenity" in music to "protect decent citizens from the horrors
of" music.  What it does is to simply influence a person against
buying that album.  It does not, however, give any indication
of why the album is obscene, or how vulgar the images and
language are.  As an example from personal experience, one of the
leading heavy metal bands today is Metallica.  Since their second
album, Ride The Lightning, was released, until their latest,
Metallica, each album has had an obscene language warning sticker
on it.  However, a quick perusal of Ride The Lightning and its
two follow up albums, Master Of Puppets and ...And Justice For
All, does not show a mass of vulgarities and obscenities jumbled
into songs that promote raping of women and senseless violence.
Rather, these three albums contain almost no obscene words at all
(the word 'fuck' appears twice in one song on Master, and 'hell'
is used infrequently.)  What is contained is a compilation of
social messages meant to give the listener pause, presented in a
way that even a "heavy metal burnout" could understand it.
Basically, stickering uniformly groups all bands under the
categroy of obscene, without even at the true content of the
album.  To many young people especially, this censorship turns
their parents away from their choice of music, and prevents them
from having that choice.
      When stickering does not work, parent groups turned to the
FCC for help.  By lobbying the federal government, they have
essentially banned many forms of music from the airwaves.  Here
in Baltimore, we are fortunate to have not one, but three
stations that will play heavy metal, and at least two that play
rap formats. However, even these stations are restricted to what
they can play.  For example, a popular metal station from
Annapolis was restricted, according to a programming manager I
spoke to on the phone, to only playing music considered 'vulgar',
by a random sample of parents on a committee, after 8:00 PM.  The
reason was that it was received in several areas in southern
Maryland, like St.Mary's county, where enough people had heard
their format to complain successfully to the state government.
Even worse is when enough people's popular opinion is turned
against a music form to censor it, without even seeming to be
censorship.  This effect can be seen in the determining of
playlists for local stations.  One station I spoke to, at length,
described the method by which they determine playlists.  It
involves a random sample of listeners deciding what they like and
dislike, among other things.  However, this random sample is
rather small.  Just as the larger a sample the closer to the true
population it becomes, the smaller the sample the less
representative it becomes.  Thus a small group of people could
conceivably determine exactly what songs we do and do not hear.
This, despite it rather democratic undertones, is censorship.
      A final, much more drastic, measure is to take legal action
against specific groups or albums.  A startling example of this
is the Two Live Crew incident in Orange County.  The group and
its album was banned by a judge who ruled it obscene.  As
ridiculous as it sounds, many store owners were arrested for
merely carrying old copies of the album, and the ban was arrested
and kept off stage until a higher court judge finally threw out
the ban.  Also, a popular occurrence in past years has been to
sue bands for actions beyond their control.  Cases in point: Ozzy
Osbourne's highly anti-suicidal song "Suicide Solution" was
attacked for causing one young man's death by suicide.  Judas
Priest's Stained Class album was attacked, and the band sued, for
two more suicides.  Although the band was acquitted, the very
fact that it made it to trial should startle anyone who values
their free choice.
      All of these methods of censorship are slowly restricting
our choice of music.  But, it can be fought.  In a book entitled
50 Ways to Fight Censorship, David Marsh shows how to fight the
censors, and win.  His suggestions include writing congressmen,
listening to controversial at least once, and making a personal
judgement, taking one's own legal action, and bringing the issue
out via newspaper and (radio) talk shows.  Also, try to find out
how your local stores feel about censoring what they can sell,
and learn about radio stations decisions on this issue.  Most of
all, the key to fighting censorship is getting involved.
(Interestingly enough, there already has been a positive reaction
in the censorship movement.  Tipper Gore, Vice Presidential wife
and head and founder of the PMRC, attempted to hide or tone down
her censorship image during the campaign, especially by using
Fleetwood Mac to show her openness to freedom in music.)
Everyone's opinion counts, and if everyone made an effort to
insure my freedom to choose, they will only receive more freedom
of their own in return.