Should Music Censorship Be Banned
Music censorship has been around since the inception of mass media. By definition, censorship of music is the act of restricting musical works through its availability and access. Music censorship can result from various different reasons including moral, political or religious reasons.
This kind of censorship can range from legally enforced prohibition of a musical work, to voluntary removal of content where a musical work appears in a certain context.
A popular example of musical censorship is the widely used ‘radio edit’. This is so songs can be played wherever possible across different forms of media including television and radio. The most common of which is to censor particular lyrics, particularly profanities, from the overall finished …show more content…
Other common ways to censor songs in media is the use of bleeps, where a lyric or lyrics are replaced with a digital beep. Or when the lyrics in question are removed from the song all together, leaving a blank in the vocal track but keeping the rest of the songs instrumentation intact.
An uncommon way music has been censored in the past is through copyright infringement. This happens more predominantly with rap and hip-hop genres of music with the use of sampling. Sampling is when snippets of other artist’s music are used in that particular artists song. In most cases, the artist asks permission to use the samples before releasing the song, but that is not always the case.
A recent example of an album being altered due to copyright infringement is the re-release of the album “Ready to Die” by the artist “The Notorious B.I.G”. In this case, samples used by “The Ohio Players” music were taken out due to a 2006 court case. This is despite the fact the album was originally released in
This kind of censorship can range from legally enforced prohibition of a musical work, to voluntary removal of content where a musical work appears in a certain context.
A popular example of musical censorship is the widely used ‘radio edit’. This is so songs can be played wherever possible across different forms of media including television and radio. The most common of which is to censor particular lyrics, particularly profanities, from the overall finished …show more content…
Other common ways to censor songs in media is the use of bleeps, where a lyric or lyrics are replaced with a digital beep. Or when the lyrics in question are removed from the song all together, leaving a blank in the vocal track but keeping the rest of the songs instrumentation intact.
An uncommon way music has been censored in the past is through copyright infringement. This happens more predominantly with rap and hip-hop genres of music with the use of sampling. Sampling is when snippets of other artist’s music are used in that particular artists song. In most cases, the artist asks permission to use the samples before releasing the song, but that is not always the case.
A recent example of an album being altered due to copyright infringement is the re-release of the album “Ready to Die” by the artist “The Notorious B.I.G”. In this case, samples used by “The Ohio Players” music were taken out due to a 2006 court case. This is despite the fact the album was originally released in