Ignorance is pervasive in contemporary society, no matter where one looks. Due to this idiocy, and also an unwillingness to swallow one�s pride, the populace attempts to vindicate societal ills by amalgamating the vulgar, libelous media into a scapegoat in hopes of having all of �the bad stuff� herded away. It is disheartening to think that a nation as progressive as our own would allow such a preposterous, primitive practice to persist; yet it pervades daily life, especially with regard to so-called �offensive� music. Although censorship has permeated the annals of history, it is an indefensibly immoral, illegal, and ill-conceived interim resolution to ubiquitous societal tribulations. It must be stopped.
Many songs considered harmless by today�s lenient standards caused quite an outrage at their inception into the realm of airplay. Van Morrison�s �Brown Eyed Girl� was not permissible on most radio stations because it casually discussed premarital sex and teen pregnancy, not even a decade after the �I Love Lucy� television show was not allowed to use the word �pregnant�. Stations were even forbidden to play Jerry Lee Lewis� �Great Balls of Fire� and �Wham Bam, Thank You Ma�am� by Dean Martin, because of apparent sexual innuendo. Goodness gracious! Elvis Presley was censored in a different way on his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; he was only shown from the waist up, because of his sexual hip movements. Back in those archaic times, sex was taboo, and the people reproduced asexually, for there could be no other cause for their inane regulation of the music industry. |