A brief, recent history of music censorship in the United States, from 1927 to present.
Created by ncac on May 12, 2011
Last updated: 07/13/11 at 04:02 PM
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British artist M.I.A.’s video, “Born Free” is banned from YouTube for graphic content. YouTube later allows the video to be posted behind an age block.
The City Council of New York City requests the Recording Academy to exclude musicians from Grammy award eligibility if they use the word “nigger” in their lyrics. The Academy does not submit to this request.
The metal group Slayer makes its network TV debut on the Jimmy Kimmel show. The network edits out around 40% of the lyrics form the band’s song “Jihad,” a song written from the perspective of a terrorist and containing the lyric “God will give victory to his faithful servants/When you reach ground zero you will have killed the enemy.”
A live Rolling Stones performance at the Super Bowl is bleeped because the lyrics of two songs are deemed too sexually explicit. ABC, which broadcast the show, claims the decision was made by the show’s producers and the National Football League.
Radio stations and MTV remove the lyric “Why did Bush knock down the towers?” in Rapper Jadakiss’s song “Why,” which alleges President Bush was involved in the 9/11 attacks.
Lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, says she is embarrassed that President George W. Bush is from her home state of Texas. Radio stations throughout the country refuse to play the band’s music.
The FCC threatens a radio station with a $7,000 fine for playing Sarah Jones’ rap song “Your Revolution,” which criticizes hip-hop culture’s portrayal of women. Jones suit against the agency is dismissed in part because the FCC fails to issue a final opinion. In 2003 the FCC drops charges against the radio station, finding the song not indecent. During this period, no radio station dared play the song.
After the September 11 attacks, Clear Channel distributes a list of “lyrically questionable” songs to all of its radio stations. While some of the songs include references to airplanes, burning, and death, John Lennon’s “Imagine” and all Rage Against the Machine songs are also included.
More than 60 CDs are seized from a New Iberia, LA roller-rink by police. Music on the confiscated albums included Britney Spears, “The Hokey Pokey,” and Christina Aguilera, which police allege incited a fight amongst the rink’s patrons.
Rapper Shawn Thomas (C-Bo) is arrested. Police claim that the lyrics on a new CD violate the terms of his parole agreement, which mandate that he refrain from any behavior, which might encourage the gang lifestyle, criminal behavior or violence against law enforcement. The charges are subsequently dropped.
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority announces that it will not host Ozzfest if Marilyn Manson will be performing. Ozzy Osbourne successfully sues and the Ozzfest is held as planned.
The number of music videos that MTV censors rises from one out of every ten in 1984, to one out of every three. MTV returns clips to the record company to edit and demands that they will not be played on MTV unless the offending material is removed.
“The Manson Family: An Opera,” by John Moran is the first classical recording to carry a parental advisory warning sticker.
At least 21 state legislatures introduce “explicit lyrics” bills, which seek to restrict the sale of labeled albums to minors. None of the bills passes.
A Florida judge holds that 2 Live Crew’s album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, is obscene, and a local retailer is arrested for selling a copy to an undercover police officer. This is followed by the arrest of three members of the group after a performance in Hollywood, Florida, but they are acquitted.. In 1992, appeals court overturns the obscenity ruling, and the case ends when the US Supreme Court denies further appeals. The album goes on to sell over two million copies.
In Westerly, Rhode Island, the city council adopts an ordinance to prevent a 2 Live Crew concert. The concert promoter is forced to appear in court to explain why his entertainment license should not be revoked. A federal court rules that censoring the concert constituted a prior restraint and was thus unconstitutional
Tipper Gore, wife of then Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, is offended by lyrics in a Prince album she has purchased for her daughter. She helps form the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) to oppose explicit content in music. The PMRC asks the Radio Industry Association of America (RIAA) to adopt a rating system. The RIAA and the PMRC agree that a voluntary warning sticker, stating “Parental Advisory- Explicit Lyrics,” will be affixed to certain albums. Each record label is given the discretion to devise its own rating standards.
The parents of a nineteen-year-old bring suit against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS Records, claiming that the singer’s lyrics in his song “Suicide Solution” persuaded their son to commit suicide. The courts hold that the lyrics are Constitutionally protected speech.
The National Parent Teachers Organization (National PTA) adopts a resolution to encourage record companies to rate music according to the amount of violence, sex, profanity, or vulgarity it contains, and to include this rating on the covers of albums.
Church groups in Iowa organize record burnings of albums by The Beatles, Ravi Shankar, The Carpenters, Peter Frampton and John Denver, among others.
The Supreme Court rules that the FCC can restrict indecency, in case brought about by comedian George Carlin's monologue about the “seven dirty words” you can’t say on the air.
Radio stations refuse to give Loretta Lynn’s song “The Pill” airplay because of its content regarding birth control.
In Miller v. California, the US Supreme Court defines obscenity and holds that it is not protected by the First Amendment. The Miller test requires that the average person, using contemporary community standards, would find that the work in question appeals to the prurient interest; that the work contains sexual content that is patently offensive under state law; and that the work lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Theoretically, the Miller standard is applicable to music, though it is more commonly applied to images.
Court ruling holds that the FCC’s action criminalizing discussion of illegal drugs violates the First Amendment. The court holds that while drugs may be illegal, the FCC cannot make it illegal to talk about drugs.
President Nixon and the governors of forty states request that radio stations censor songs that make references to drugs.
Janis Joplin is fined after a performance in Tampa, Florida because she has allegedly violated profanity and obscenity laws.
President Nixon and the governors of forty states request that radio stations censor songs that make references to drugs.
The FCC fines a Pennsylvania radio station over an interview with Jerry Garcia that contained references to sex and excrement. This is the first time that the indecency provisions in the Radio Act of 1927 are used to punish a radio station.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono release their album, Two Virgins, with a naked picture of themselves on the cover. The New York City Police seize 30,000 copies of the record and the U.S. Customs service brings suit in an attempt to stop the album from being brought into the country.
Police arrest Jim Morrison onstage during a concert in New Haven, CT for making obscene gestures and comments during a performance. Morrison is closely scrutinized during performances in other cities. Police bring blank warrants to Doors concerts in the event that they "need" to arrest Morrison.
A Texas radio station refuses to play any songs by Bob Dylan because they say the lyrics are indecipherable and fear that they contain messages of rebellion.
The producers of The Ed Sullivan Show request that Jim Morrison of the Doors change a line of the song “Light My Fire” from “Girl we couldn’t get much higher” to something that does not reference drugs. Morrison agrees, but during the live performance sings the original line. The band is not invited again.
John Lennon tells an interviewer that the Beatles are “more popular than Jesus.” Death threats and demonstrations against the Beatles follow. Twenty-two Southern radio stations vow to stop playing The Beatles' music. Some churches sponsor burnings of Beatles records and threaten to excommunicate anyone caught listening to Beatles music.
Police intervene in the middle of a James Brown concert in Kansas City, claiming that Brown’s dancing is obscene and that the concert must stop.
Many radio stations refuse to play the Rolling Stones’ song “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” because it is considered sexually suggestive.
The mayor of Cleveland bans all rock concerts after the Rolling Stones perform in the city. The mayor states that “such groups do not add to the community’s culture or entertainment.”
The Kingsmen’s song “Louie Louie’ becomes the subject of a two-year FBI investigation because of its mumbled chorus. The FBI finally concludes that the lyrics are indecipherable, and are therefore unable to classify the record as obscene.
After producers for The Ed Sullivan Show tell Bob Dylan he cannot perform his song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues," he says he would rather not appear on the show. He is never invited back.
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Radio stations refuse to play certain songs out of concern that they will lead to teen violence. Elvis Presley’s songs are among those banned and one radio deejay goes so far as to burn Elvis’ albums, while others denounce Elvis’ records and swear never to play them.
Elvis Presley performs on The Ed Sullivan Show and is filmed only from the waist up.
The president of the North Alabama White Citizens Council demands that jukeboxes be destroyed to prevent “black music” from corrupting civilization.
Chicago’s Cardinal Stritch bans popular music from all Catholic schools due to concerns about the effects of the “hedonistic, tribal rhythms” of rock and roll music.
During a performance by Nat King Cole, members of the White Citizen’s Council of Birmingham, Alabama, jump on stage and assault Cole. The group claims that they are protecting young teen girls and that black musicians are part of a plot to “mongrelize” America by bringing out an animalism in people through the use of heavy beats in their music.
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), which clears performance rights to music and collects and distributes license fees to songwriters, composers and music companies, denies clearance to over one hundred songs on the basis that they are “objectionable.”
Police in Florida threaten to arrest Elvis Presley on obscenity charges if he does not stand still while performing his music.
An Alabama radio station announces that it will not play R&B music. .
The Boston Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), concerned that obscene songs might stir the hormones of Catholic youths at dances, monitors the music selections at dances and on the radio, and demands that radio stations refrain from playing any songs with obscene or sexually explicit lyrics.
The Weavers, a folk band, are blacklisted because of their leftist political beliefs. The group loses its recording contract and its popularity declines.
Memphis police confiscate records from local stores and destroy the records that they consider obscene.
Congress creates the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to monitor interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.
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