Censorship of music has been around since the birth of music. The first recorded act of censorship in music was in the 1850s. Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Traviata" was modified for regional performances in Italy. (Szatmary) The same opera performed in Naples would hear it different from that heard by an audience at a performance in Rome. For example, in an Act III scene of the opera, the original libretto states, "He took the desired prize, in the arms of love." The Naples libretto was rewritten by official censors to "Crowned with laurrel he sings the hymn of love." In Rome, the audience would have heard another rewritten version, "He received the prize desired, by fidelity, by love." (Radio Free World)
Today, we know of music censorship largely because of the development of rock and roll in the 1950s. In January 1957, Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. However, at the time, many people believed his dancing was "crude and offensive." (Radio Free World) Thus, Sullivan made sure that the cameras were focusing only on the upper half of Elvis. (Szatmary 11) The 1960s was the decade that rock was prominent, but its opponents were quick on their heels. Songs like the Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction." were banned from many radio stations, because they thought the song was pornographic and too sexual. (Szatmary 12) Close watchers and listeners declared that another popular song, "Louie Louie," by Richard Berry, recorded by the Kingsmen in 1963, to be obscene. (Inglis 20) The FBI, after a two and a half year pursuit with agents in six cities, finally decided, "We don't know what we're dealing with, and it seems to be gibberish, but that gibberish must be presumed guilty until all rampantly paranoid parents and teachers stop believing the fantasies of teenagers suffering from hormonal overload." (Benesch) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) & the FBI played "Louie Louie" backward and forward at 78, 45, and 33 rpm (revolutions per minute) in an attempt to discover what suggestive message the song gave. The FCC verdict was that "the song is unintelligible at any speed," (Holland "Congress Can...") and them and the FBI decided to end the case.
The Beatles, one of the most popular bands in the 20th century, were also frequently banned. In a 1966 interview with British journalist Maureen Cleave, Beatles member John Lennon said "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue that, I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now." (Sterngold 1) In response, Beatle records were burned and many radio stations refused to play their songs. (Inglis 170) In July 1969, Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Two Virgins" album was banned upon its arrival in Newark, New Jersey. 30,000 copies were taken that features the two standing naked on the album's cover. The Beatles' record company, Capitol Records, eventually released the "Two Virgins" album with cover art that was suitable for everyone (find out what in the Cover Art section). (Nuzum "Parental") But that was not the only cover art that the censors banned from the Beatles. The Beatles' 1966 album, "Yesterday and Today" was heavily censored by critics because it shows the Beatles wearing butcher's smocks and covered with bloody meat and decapitated babies. (Inglis) Why did they do this? Find out on the Artists section of this web-site.
The 1970s found no end to the censorship and by the 1980s, the battle reached new dimensions. Since the 70s, American government officials were outspoken in their opinions about the effects of various musical forms aimed at youth. (Torrance 29) The music paralleled the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the assassination of leaders, the "credibility gap," "the generation gap," "the gender gap," and environmental concerns. American youth were already politicized and their ideology permeated the music. (Szatmary 27) President Richard Nixon tried to deport John Lennon of the Beatles in 1970 because of the political content of Lennon's musical lyrics and what Nixon called Lennon's "deviant behavior." (Inglis 23) Vice-President Spiro Agnew claimed that rock lyrics were "threatening to destroy our national strength." (Radio Free World) Performers were fined for their sexual, drug, and anti-war messages after Nixon stated that lyrics "should be screened for content and that drug references should be deleted all together." (Inglis 24) For example, Country singer Joe McDonald was fined $500 in Boston in 1972 for his song "Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag." According to McDonald himself, he was fined because he was a "lewd, lascivious and wanton person in speech and behavior." (Nuzum "Parental" 67) The United States Senate, led by Senator James Buckley, investigated the "drugola" (the word he used) relationship between drugs and rock music. Buckley accused CBS and Columbia Records of using drugs to pay the disc jockeys in return for promoting particular songs and performers. (Nuzum "Parental" 101) |
