About a Radio Censorship

The results from an anonymous poll on debate.org, had an outcome of, out of 100%, 85% say radio should not be censored, while 15% say radio should be censored. Censorship has been a debate for a while, things such as, books, movies, articles, pictures, videos, and music are censored. Music should be censored for the protection of young, innocent children.

Although federal law prevents immoral and vulgar content from being publicized, who decides what music is censored and, how do they make that decision (obscene, indecent and profane broadcasts)? Personal.psu.edu claims that WEAF, an AT&T station in New York broadcasted the first radio advertisement in 1923. Since radio censorship has been around for a while, as you can guess, there have been many solutions and ideas for censoring music. Backtracking, in late 1920r's and early 1930r's, government directors were allowed to confiscate the licenses of laborers who broadcasted profane or abusive language (censorship in radio).This has continued into today but is now the duty of the Supreme Court (Tom Head). Furthermore, the name of the Supreme Court has been announced, but, how does the supreme court choose what music to censor? The everlasting process starts with civilians requesting certain songs to be censored or banned, this request in then sent to the Supreme Court for them to do the three-prong test; does the work contain phornography? As well as, does it show sexualy explicit conduct, and does it lack reasoning or purpose (The Miller test)? Finally, after the three-prong test, the Supreme Court then vetoes or approves the censorship and is sent off to be censored to later be played on radios or, the song is banned.

As with every problem, there are always at least two opposing ideas and solutions, so as you presume, the conflicting idea to the censorship of music. On the other hand, some critics argue that censoring music shields the authenticity of the song from the community, especially kids. They claim uncensored songs show children the bitter principles of life which they will need to deal with (connect US). The censorship issue is very prominent in today's society, with many ideas, soulutions, and many, many opinions. In addition to, the anti-censorship crowd claims as Connect US states, this practice is a clear violation of the First Amendment which is about freedom of self-expression and speech. If censorship is made into law, it prevents artists from expressing themselves and conveying what message they want to get through to their listeners. Opposingly, Tom Head states, The right to free speech is a long-standing US tradition, but actually respecting it is not. This statement therefore provides an opposing view to the most prominent argue seen with the issue of music censorship.

Many popular songs have been censored or even banned. Songs such as Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison in 1967, Greased Lightning, featured in the Movie Grease in 1978, sang by John Travolta, and, Walk Like an Egyptian liberated in 1986 by The Bangles have been censored or banned. In the case of the song, Brown Eyed Girl, it was supposedly banned for the original name, Brown Skinned girl and some suggestive material. The once profane material was then changed to, laughing and a-runnin, hey, hey. With the edited version now out, it is suitable for all ages and played on many radio stations. In the same way, Greased Lightning featured in the movie Grease has been censored or snipped from radio stations across the US. The song features profane language and indecent subjects. Strangely, Look at me, Im Sandra Dee, a song featured in the same movie has an Italian cuss word, but was never banned or censored. Lastly, Walk like an Egyptian, banned in both 1991 and 1986. Judging by the title you can probably guess the reason they banned this song, which was to prevent offending people in correlation to this subject (What do we do). Many popular songs are heard on the radio, the songs may be silenced, bleeped, or changed. As we know, songs are banned in the US, but what about other countries? As said by, Filip Fortuna, According to a study by independent monitor Freedom House, China has been ranked the worst in the world when it comes to internet freedom, while web access in Iceland and Estonia were jointly the most free. Due to the strict regulations of censoring internet, China employs more than two million workers who read, review, and ban internet sites, articles, videos, photos and more from the viewerr's eyes (Media censorship in China). Iceland is one of the countries with the most internet freedom. Thus, in 2010, Iceland initiated a new media initiative protecting the freedom of speech, making Iceland a safer place for journalists and whistleblowers. Whistleblowers are people who inform the public of wrongdoing in the government (Iceland, Freedom house).

There are many pros and cons to the censorship of music, music is censored by the Supreme Court with the three-prong test, and, censorship is not a problem in just the US, but around the world. Music is a prominent issue in todayr's society, children must be protected from profane and indecent language and ideas.

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