Music censorship or the censorship of music is primarily the function of disallowing access to prevalent works of music. Music censorship can stem from a variety of reasons, such as political, moral, religious or even military reasons.

 

Music censorship can be partial or total. In the case of partial censorship, some part of the musical work can be banned or removed from circulation. In the case of total censorship, however, the complete musical work may be completely removed from public circulation. Sometimes, just a part of lyrics may be removed from the musical work to take away unwarranted content.

Music Censorship

When was the censorship of music most prevalent? Music censorship became most common in the United States of America in the early 1940s, going on to the 1050s. This was the period when social mores and traditions were threatened by the new morality expressed in the poetry of rock and R&B music. It was at this time that love, drugs and sexual mores began to be openly expressed and flaunted through the poetry of the new music, a trend that was seen as threatening the very moral fibre and the accepted norms of society.

The practice of music censorship was, in this period, first started in 1955, when as many as 55 songs were banned or taken away from public circulation. The interesting part of this development was a lot may of the songs banned were composed and played by Black artists.

The trend of music censorship took a new turn in the 1970s and the 1980s, when music videos, seen as being as obscene were banned. Many of the songs banned were of the heavy metal and rap genres, in which unwarranted violence was seen as the primary trigger for the ban.

A form of music censorship

A milder form of censorship is the removal of several words and lyrics that are considered profane or obscene from a work of music. This last form of music censorship is the most common and is commonly carried out in popular songs, and in fact, all types of songs even today.

To consider one case of music censorship, let us take up the example of the censorship of the song “When I’m Cleaning Windows” by George Formby. The songs was removed from air by the BBC and banned, because of its “smutty” words. Other well known instances of music censorship are the banning of Billie Holiday’s “Love for Sale”. The song was taken off the radio because it speaks of prostitution. However, this case of music censorship was not absolute and the song was soon aired again.

Often performers have been asked to change the words of songs when performing on TV to make them more appropriate for family viewing. One instance of this kind of censorship is the changing of the words of the Rolling Stones classic “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. Music censorship is also carried out in case of copyright infringement.

Music Censorship