| It was feared the Barry McGuire�s �Eve of Destruction� was �nihilistic and could promote suicidal feelings amongst teens� (Nuzum), so it was banned by several stations in 1965. One should sit down before learning that John Denver�s �Rocky Mountain High� was forbidden to radio stations. A mellower, and less suggestive song cannot be discerned, and besides, it�s John Denver. More recently, the explosion of �gangsta rap� in the late 1980s and early �90s spurred countless pleas for stricter parameters of decency in the music industry, due in large part to 2 Live Crew�s misogynistic album As Nasty As They Wanna Be, or the edited version: As Clean As They Wanna Be. If ever there were an incidence worthy of censorship, this would be the front-runner, but since there isn�t, we shall entertain such frivolous thoughts with only the utmost disdain. Still fresh in the minds of all Americans are the terrorist attacks on America of 11 September 2001. Tragic? Yes. Unwarranted? Mostly. Cause for censorship? Not hardly. Yet, it transpired. Well over 150 songs were listed as having questionable content in the aftermath, including all songs by Rage Against the Machine, a notoriously apolitical band that is unwavering in its critiques of corrupt capitalism. Many songs were temporarily banned based on their titles alone, and their inferred relation to the events, such as �Another One Bites the Dust� by Queen, Talking Heads� �Burning Down the House�, and certainly Dave Matthews� �Crash Into Me�. The most flippant selections to this list, however, include �Walk Like an Egyptian� by the Bangles, �What a Wonderful World� by Louie Armstrong, and �The Night Chicago Died� by Paper Lace (note the stress on �Chicago�). It was written, �We must, to find the cause of these tragedies, look deeper than�the media� (Lyrics�). A few songs and albums were simply re-titled at the artist�s discretion, such as Bush�s latest single altered from �Speed Kills� in favor of �The People That We Love�, though no lyrics were distorted, and the album Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World containing the single �The Middle� was renamed Bleed. This may be the only case when lyrical alteration is suitable: as the artist�s proposal. |
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