Galen Stickels English IV Mr.

Gilbert 3/14/10 Censorship of the Arts Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This excerpt from the American constitution, as shown above, entitles every American citizen to the right of freedom of speech. Therefore the American people, by constitutional law, have the privilege and freedom to express themselves in whatever way they like. Throughout our history as a nation, Americans have utilized many forms of expressing free speech. Some of the most utilized Include literature, art, music and more recently broadcasts such as radio and television. Although these methods of expressing free speech have evolved over hundreds of years, a threat has also evolved alongside it. This threat is known as Censorship. Censorship has been around just as long as the idea of free speech and has gained an increasingly significant amount of influence over the last century. Censorship is the mortal enemy of our constitutions first amendment. It legalized oppression that inhibits the development of culture and society. Although a minimal amount of censorship is necessary, in certain cases, it is clear that it is being overused and abused. In todays society, there is an excessive amount of censorship placed

upon music, television, and literature that impedes creativity as well as free speech; because of this, regulations should be made to abolish or at least decrease the amount of censorship present in our nation today. Traditional conceptions of censorship are rooted in rigid systems of ecclesiastic and governmental control over discourse and printing. (Strange) Censorship has been around since the early beginnings of establishment. For example, during the 16th century the Catholic Church created a list of literary works that were banned from public viewing. These works were believed to have heretical connotations; the catholic churched feared the effect of the publication of these beliefs. Censorship seems to be a common tool used by government as a method of controlling the public and keeping peace. The true definition of censorship is widely debated, Under strict uses of the term, censorship means the prior restraint of information by government. (Strange) There is truth in the fact that Censorship is necessary to help control the mass as well as keeping them happy, but it is only necessary to a certain extent. The Catholic Churchs list of banned texts was indeed an abuse of censorship. They used censorship to protect their image instead of using it for the welfare of the people. The Church actually put authors, of what they believed was, Heretical material on trial and tortured them; even members of the Church such as Galileo. When he published works supporting the Copernican theory about the universe running on a heliocentric model (planets revolving around the sun) opposed to a geocentric model (the universe revolves around the earth). If these beliefs, now known as scientific fact, were not censored the evolution of society may not have been slowed down for so long. This instance, although it occurred so long ago, is just one of millions of

similar instances that have occurred all over the world throughout the history of established society and is still occurring today in many different forms. Text and speech is not the only thing that can be censored these days. In the last fifty years the music industry has been bombarded with censorship allegations. This is somewhat understandable because in the last 50 years music has become much more expressive just as the minds of Americans become more accepting of different forms of expression. Even before the modern music scene exploded musical censorship, fueled by racial tension, had been demonstrated on jazz and blues music because of prominent ties to African American culture and the working class.(Fischer) Although many people appreciate wide variety of music and its topics, there are still many who are much more closed minded when it comes to the subject. Therefore there will always be a threat to music and expressionism. These threats come in the form of associations with acronyms, such as, the R.I.A.A. (Recording Industry Association of America), the P.M.R.C. (Parent Music Resource Center), and the N.P.T.A. (National Parent Teacher Associations). These groups are responsible for parental advisory warnings on CDs with explicit lyrics, putting artists on trial for various reasons, and other horrendous acts of creative censorship. These organizations seem to frown upon explicit music because they believe it damages the children if they listen to it. However, it should not be up to these people to decide the fate of a musical artists work, it should be up to individual parents to decide what their children should listen too. Certain events may cause music censoring to become more extreme according to the specific event. After the 9/11 attacks many changes were made in the music industry to not

disturb the public. For instance, the strokes removed the song New York City Cops from the U.S. version of their album Is This It (Nuzum), because it stated that new York city cops, they aint to smart (Casablancas). After the events of 9/11 the record company believed that it would be unfair to the cops in new York. As another example, recording artist Dave Matthews was unable to release his upcoming titled The World Will End (Nuzum) because his record company believed it was too suggestive a name to release so soon after 9/11. The abusive censorship of music today is something that can be stopped. It does not have to be halted all together but it at least should be greatly reduced. It should not be up to different organized groups or the government to decide how and what needs to be censored in music. The 2nd Amendment should be respected and the record label and recording artist should be able to decide the amount of censorship, if any, is needed. Unfortunately, music is not the only form of free speech being bombarded with censorship regulations. Since it was invented Television has been a staple in American society. It is a fantastic method of expressionism, but like all methods of communicating free speech with the public, television is under constant assault form censors. The most prominent one being the F.C.C. (Federal Communications Committee). Just like with music censorship, the F.C.C. fighting to remove Offensive Art (Brozell) from the Air. It works to regulate the use of swear words in