All through history, music censors have attacked controversial lyrics and have blamed the music for the basis of societies problems. This act of censoring music is most definitely not recent. Records date back for years, in 1957 when Elvis Presley was performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, the camera men were forced by the host to only film Elvis from the waist up to avoid offending sexually sensitive viewers (because of the rotating motions of his pelvis). Although many views are not as strict as in 1957, music censorship is becoming more of a concern among parents of young children. According to the Boston Globe, Wal-Mart has decided not to "carry record albums with parental advisory stick ...view middle of the document...
listening to violent lyrics will make you violent). When being interviewed for the article "Music Censorship: The Beating Goes On." Author Eric Nazum claims, "It's never been proven that music causes people to do bad things" and that "What may seem like violent lyrics to some can also be seen as songs of protest." (Dollarhide 2). It is true that young children should not be hearing the obscenities that are in some of the songs being played, which is why the parents of these children should make sure to be involved with seeing what their children are listening to. Instead of watching over their children and not letting them listen to "bad" music parents expect the music industry to censor this music and have formed groups that try to ban the sale of albums to minors which have explicit lyrics.The real motive behind these advisories seems to be to get offensive music off the shelves, since seven legislatures are currently considering bills forbidding sales of stickered CDs to minors, and/or divestiture of state funds from companies that manufacture offensive music CDs and videos (DesRosiers para 5).CD's with questionable lyrics are "banned in Wal-Mart, meaning the 2,300 stores across the nation that won't carry record albums with parental advisory stickers" (Morse c13). To me, this is an outrage and I believe that the topic of music censorship shouldn't even exist because of the free speech right.The effects of music censorship are just as numerous and controversial as the causes. Artists feel that when their music is being censored, it is taking a...