Premium Essay

Speechless Freedom

In: Social Issues

Submitted By mrmiko
Words 1501
Pages 7
Speechless Freedom
Robert Landrum
COM/156
August 28, 2014
Adam Meehan

Introduction

Music has been a part of American culture since the early sixteenth century and during that time period musicians had the freedom to use their music as a medium to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas without the threat of restraints or punishment. In this day and time, musicians are held to a totally different standard because some people perceive music as being a form of art and literature while others view music as being immoral and detrimental to the Christian principles that are so prevalent in our society. Music censorship was introduced in 1927, by way of the Radio Act, which prohibited the use of obscene, indecent or profane language on radio airways. In 1934 the Federal Communications Commission was created by Congress and at this point, censorship encompassed not only music but all public mediums for artistic expressions. Censorship has been used as a tool to suppress artistic expressions from entertainment to literature and even though the First Amendment affords us the right to freedom of expression, censorship still has the power to dictate how we express our thoughts, feelings and ideas. The debate over censorship deals mainly with the First Amendment and whether or not it is constitutional for opposing groups or individuals to impose their beliefs upon our fundamental right to exercise freedom of speech. Music censorship has become a mainstream social issue because our right to freedom of expression is infringed upon and rap music has been targeted even more so because of the content of the content their songs.

Music censorship is term used to describe the act of editing, altering or preventing the listener from hearing the music as the artist created it. This action directly impacts the artist because it takes away the right to freedom of expression.

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