Censorship of rap music
Music has thrived in America since its establishment over two centuries ago. In those two centuries people have enjoyed listening to music ranging from classical to rap music. However, in recent decades the lyrics in modern rock, rap, hip-hop, and nearly all other music genres, have come to be seen as obscene and vulgar to today's society. All around the country rap songs have been banned from the air by radio stations. "WBLS/New York announced it will no longer play songs it feels encourage violence, misogyny, or vulgarity; WPGC/Washington, D.C. reaffirmed a bleep-and-ban policy; BET unveiled a ban on 'violent' rap videos; and WCKZ/Charlotte exiled gangsta rap to late night airplay" (Rock 1). Are rap lyrics too harsh? Should music be censored? Musicians have always used music as a way to deliver a message or a belief. If rap artists and rock groups are censored they will lose what drives them the most; their freedom to write and perform what they choose. Many rap artists grow up in tough neighborhoods where their families struggle to survive. These musicians work their way out of the violence and poverty of their childhood to become famous and successful, and most importantly a role model to aspiring rap artists. "Th
By censoring the lyrics in musician's songs the true words of the musician is changed. Drugs are also closely connected to the lyrics in gangster rap. Many famous rap artists such as Boyz N' the Hood and the NWA (Niggas with Attitude) use violence as the main topic of their raps. Censorship will only cause rap artists to revolt against yet another blockade set in their path to success. They search for a way to make the world understand what they went through as they grew up. Katz and Smith state, "Hip-hop is the fundamental matrix of self-expression for this whole generation" (Krohn 1). Despite what most people say, racism is still a major part of American society. Subcommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. "Even though the controversy about sexually explicit lyrics in rap music has become a heated issue, out of a list of the top fifty rap groups, only about 10 percent can actually be identified as using truly obscene and violent lyrics in relation to women" (Berry 617). As stated by Dyson, "Their obscenity court case is famous because it centered the group in a vortex of powerful social and cultural issues such as First Amendment rights to free Castro 3expression, the force and extent of misogynist and cultural impulses, and the function of race in judging controversial artistic expressions" (Krohn 3). Censorship will mean the death of self-expression for all music genres. The violence and obscenities in rap lyrics do at times seem to serve no purpose at all.
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Acceptance Essays
