Censor This
Music, which has been around since the beginning of time, is a vital aspect to every individual’s daily life. It surrounds us as we work, as we play and as we go from place to place. Some use music as motivation while they work. Others use music as a release, a way to loosen up after a hard day. Music can be inspirational, deep and moving. Artists project their feelings and emotions to their audience through words and melodies. Music is powerful because it allows people to express themselves uniquely. The opportunity to create music and share it with the world is a right that every person has, and deserves. However, this opportunity becomes more and more limited as time goes on. Years ago, people began trying to censor music and it hasn’t been the same since. In 1990, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), after being pressured by the Parent’s Music Resource Center (PMRC), a conservative activist group lead by Tipper Gore and Susan Baker, introduced a music labeling system for those works found to have explicit lyrics. Record companies were provided with stickers that read, “Parental Advisory – Explicit Lyrics,” to be placed on CDs, tapes and albu
No government, special interest group or corporation should be allowed to deny anyone the freedom of expression that lies in the first amendment. “In 1992, the state of Washington passed a law that required storeowners to place ‘Adult’s only’ labels on any recording that a judge found to be ‘erotic’” (SILS 529). Many have attempted to introduce legislation that put more severe limits on the sale of controversial music. This law also made it a crime to sell any labeled recordings to a person under the age of 18. In the end, the burden has to rest with parents, schools, and churches to prepare young people to listen objectively and make their own decisions about what they hear. This corporate chain has an explicit censorship policy that bans all music carrying a warning label along with any questionable material. Storeowners should never feel that carrying a CD with a label on it makes them a target. Our founding fathers made it the first amendment because it is the most important. Wal-Mart, one of the biggest music retailers in the country, holds a different opinion. The issue of freedom of speech in the fight againstmusic censorship remains eminent. These companies have a right and an obligation to provide the means by which artists can make their music, thoughts and feelings heard.
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Acceptance Essays
