The Debate between Music Censorship and Freedom of Expression
The heated debate 1
Running head: THE HEATED DEBATE BETWEEEN MUSIC CENSORSHIP
The heated debate between music
censorship and freedom of expression
The heated debate 2
Our society today largely views censorship as a method that has disappeared from liberal cultures since the enlightenment with the exception of restrictions in time of war. The enlightenment served to cripple the intolerance of incisive government leaders, but did not obliterate censorship altogether. Instead, the job of expurgating unacceptable ideas has simply fallen into new hands using new tactics. Censors now assume the guise of capitalist retailers and distributors, special-interest groups, and less influential but still passionate religious and government authorities. Their new techniques are market-censorship (dominating the marketplace), constitutive censorship (the control of language), power-knowledge (restricting knowledge), as well as the traditional regulative censorship (law). These new forces can be as equally effective as the forces of remote history.
George Bernard Shaw once stated,”All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institution. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.”
Another worth quoting is Robbie Robertson of Rolling Stones Magazine, “I learned early on Bob Dylan that the people hung around with were no musicians. They were poets, like Allen Ginsberg. When we were in Europe, there’d be poets coming out of the woodwork. His writing came directly out of a tremendous poetic influence, a license to write in images that weren’t in the Tin Pan Ally tradition or typically rock & roll, either.”
Music is a free expression of the ideas, traditions and emotions of individuals and of peoples. It may express musicians’ hopes and aspirations, their joys and
Running head: THE HEATED DEBATE BETWEEEN MUSIC CENSORSHIP
The heated debate between music
censorship and freedom of expression
The heated debate 2
Our society today largely views censorship as a method that has disappeared from liberal cultures since the enlightenment with the exception of restrictions in time of war. The enlightenment served to cripple the intolerance of incisive government leaders, but did not obliterate censorship altogether. Instead, the job of expurgating unacceptable ideas has simply fallen into new hands using new tactics. Censors now assume the guise of capitalist retailers and distributors, special-interest groups, and less influential but still passionate religious and government authorities. Their new techniques are market-censorship (dominating the marketplace), constitutive censorship (the control of language), power-knowledge (restricting knowledge), as well as the traditional regulative censorship (law). These new forces can be as equally effective as the forces of remote history.
George Bernard Shaw once stated,”All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institution. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.”
Another worth quoting is Robbie Robertson of Rolling Stones Magazine, “I learned early on Bob Dylan that the people hung around with were no musicians. They were poets, like Allen Ginsberg. When we were in Europe, there’d be poets coming out of the woodwork. His writing came directly out of a tremendous poetic influence, a license to write in images that weren’t in the Tin Pan Ally tradition or typically rock & roll, either.”
Music is a free expression of the ideas, traditions and emotions of individuals and of peoples. It may express musicians’ hopes and aspirations, their joys and