essays & effluvia: Taboo Tunes

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Taboo Tunes

Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands and Censored Songs

From the medieval eras diabolus en musica to the Dixie Chicks firestorm of late, Elvis to Eminem, from Puff the Magic Dragon to Cop Killer.

A unique compendium of several centuries worth of scandalously morbid murder ballads, blasphemous satanic songs, paeans to intoxicating substances, raunchy sex ditties, and radical political anthems along with the dirt behind historical efforts by censors to squelch artists and their ideas. Taboo Tunes flips the rocks over and casts a much-needed spotlight on the largely untold story of the various societal forces be they repressive governments, busybody community organizations, or self-appointed moral guardians who have throughout history attempted to regulate the conduct of others and limit what forms of public expression are acceptable.

Note that ancient (451 BC) Roman law that defined the singing of bawdy songs as a disruption of public order an infraction punishable by death.

Far from simply recounting dusty old history, Taboo Tunes brings readers fully up-to-date by documenting some of the under-reported impacts that reactions to the 9/11 terrorist attacks have had on music. Most folks probably remain unaware that, for example, within hours of those traumatic attacks Americas largest radio chain (Clear Channel) imposed a ban on further airplay for over-150 particular songs. Or, that the Secret Service leaned on the managers of one popular-if-a-bit-rebellious rock bands Web site resulting in perfectly legal content being disappeared. Or, that the nations largest Internet provider, America Online (AOL), suddenly began cutting service to punish subscribers for simply getting involved in online chats about the political dimensions of certain hit song lyrics. Or, that the Crime Prevention Resource Center (CPRC) recently proposed the creation of computerized databases for law enforcement agencies to monitor the Internet traffic and musical proclivities of suspicious youth. Or that, in the wake of 9/11, certain risk-aversive record companies altered a few new records over concerns that various lyrics or graphics might be offensive to the shell-shocked American psyche. And that, according to the cruelly misnamed USAPATRIOT Act of 2001, anything the authorities now decide to define as advocating terrorism including: home computers, libraries, diaries, and music can be targeted and seized by the FBI.

Taboo Tunes digs deep to examine serious complexities within key censorship issues. Among those are: Threats to authority posed by the intrinsic power that songs have to suggest new and different ideas to people; The constitutional principal of Free Speech as it applies to the arts; America’s traditions of dissent as expressed through music; The varying manifestations of censorship from the political Right and Left; The role that the radio and record industries play in America’s informal censorship “system;” And, perhaps most significantly, the patterns of censorial behavior which have occurred and reoccurred throughout time. As Blecha writes: “By surveying this historical landscape it is hoped that we can gain a more informed understanding of how crusades to ban music—usually in the guise of “protecting society”—have been woefully misguided, often destructive, occasionally comical, and remarkably unsuccessful.”