NationStates Jolt Archive

The land of the free? Only if you don't piss off the authorities....

MUSIC

Radical music of the 60s and 70s was distributed widely to the public through massive radio play. Anti-authoritarian messages were easy to access and share. Now radio stations are becoming more cetralized and homogenous. Independent radio is harder to find, and artists outside of the Top 40 are rarely heard by the majority of the population.

"• In the US, four groups – Chancellor, Clear Channel, Infinity and Capstar – control 63% of Top 40 Radio stations (61 million listeners) and 56% of Country Music stations (28 million listeners).6

• Radio, promotional and advertising giant Clear Channel, which owns more than 1,200 radio stations across the US, added only 3,000 songs by just 550 artists to their playlists in 2002."

List of censored music:http://ericnuzum.com/banned/

LITERATURE:

Books are still being banned in U.S schools and libraries. What are they afraid of? A list of the 50 most banned books: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/most-banned.html

Are you in favour of this censorship (and of course music and literature are the tip of the iceburg...but we gotta draw the line somewhere:))? How are YOU fighting censorship...or helping it?

The witches banned... kinda funny. ;)

There must be a conspirecy of wiches out there!! ;)

This is why I don't listen to radio outside of classical music stations. I don't like when other people decide what I can and can't listen to; what is and isn't acceptable for my viewership. I am a grown person and I can make my own choices. If I so wish to a song filled with profanities up the ying-yang, I will do it. If I want to watch a guy getting disembowled on TV, I will do it.

Who are these "parental advistory" morons to say I can't? If they were really concerned, they would watch over their own damned brats! when I do have kids of my own, I will teach them to scorn such warnings and ratings; I will expose them to what these paranoid individuals don't like and I will raise them to be good citizens, even if they are little dirty-mouthed bastards!

I can understand banning books from publicly funded places, however there is no justification for censoring private organizations (television, radio).

I can understand banning books from publicly funded places, however there is no justification for censoring private organizations (television, radio).

Why should publicly funded places be censored? Aren't we all paying the taxes that fund that library? Shouldn't we have access to every kind of information, especially if it's public??

While I agree that there's a problem with getting information disseminated in the US, it's less a case of government censorship (except as far as they allow for media consolidation) and more a case where media companies are too big and too powerful and are able to choke off expression of all sorts.

Don't get me wrong--I hate what the FCC has done to Howard Stern. I think it's bullshit, plain and simple. But I'm more concerned about what they've done as far as allowing ClearChannel to so totally dominate the industry. But to call it government censorship is really a misnomer--it's corporate censorship that's the problem, as far as the airwaves are concerned.

I fight censorship by loudly denouncing it when it comes up :p

I also speak my opinion, regardless what others around me thinks. THat's pretty much my senior year in high school right there xD

This list is taken from the table of contents of Banned in the U.S.A. by Herbert N. Foerstel. It shows the fifty books that were most frequently challenged in schools and public libraries in the United States between 1990 and 1992.

That was 12-14 years ago. In any event, not every piece of literature should be available in school libraries, no. I don't know enough about most books on that list to state whether they should have been banned.

As for music, that has nothing to do with censorship or 'pissing off the authority'. :rolleyes: These people are corporations. They make money by playing music people listen to. Something must be working for them if they haven't changed their path.

If you want to get your music distributed, you can sell it online via a web site - either physical copies, or digital - and even place free samples online, you can make use of internet radio, you can use p2p programs, etc. There are actually more ways to distribute your music now than ever before.

I know. The FCC has already butchered Gundam SEED and countless other anime. Those sexually repressed cowards.

While I agree that there's a problem with getting information disseminated in the US, it's less a case of government censorship (except as far as they allow for media consolidation) and more a case where media companies are too big and too powerful and are able to choke off expression of all sorts.

Don't get me wrong--I hate what the FCC has done to Howard Stern. I think it's bullshit, plain and simple. But I'm more concerned about what they've done as far as allowing ClearChannel to so totally dominate the industry. But to call it government censorship is really a misnomer--it's corporate censorship that's the problem, as far as the airwaves are concerned.

No one called it government censorship:).

Oh come on:

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

What did they think of his adult books?

Why should publicly funded places be censored? Aren't we all paying the taxes that fund that library? Shouldn't we have access to every kind of information, especially if it's public??
hmmmm I suppose you're right however to me private censorsip is a bigger issue.

Government censorship is there two. Doesn't anyone remember 2 Live Crew's album "Nasty as they Wanna be"?

I find it ironic that I have had to read at least 10 of those books in various literature classes. Of Mice and Men, The Catcher in the Rye, A Wrinkle in Time, Bridge to Terabithia, Huckleberry Finn, A Separate Peace, Lord of the Flies, Slaughterhouse-5, The Grapes of Wrath, and even The Handmaid's Tale are all pretty standard classroom stuff, at one age or another.

Why would anyone ban Judy freakin' Bloom?!

And yes, I agree that ClearChannel and other megamediacorporations represent a threat to up to the fabric of democracy itself because they have such incredible power to affect the news people hear.

That's why I listen to NPR :)

I know. The FCC has already butchered Gundam SEED and countless other anime. Those sexually repressed cowards.
This is why you buy imports or download pirated anime.

Why would anyone ban Judy freakin' Bloom?!
Because the children might learn something worth remembering that their parents or the chruch taught 'em.

No one called it government censorship:).Well, you did say "don't piss off the authorities." :D

Government censorship is there two. Doesn't anyone remember 2 Live Crew's album "Nasty as they Wanna be"?Yeah--I also remember that the obscenity court case was eventually overturned on appeal.

I fight musical censorship by playing my music as loudly as I can...that'll show them!

I fight musical censorship by playing my music as loudly as I can...that'll show them!
Damn right!

2 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

26 Lord of the Flies by William Golding

28 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

34 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

43 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Man you got to be joking is these books baned in US schools? No wonder that americans offen seams to be retared then! you arent even alowed to read some of the biggest classics. It´s an freging insult to history to ban books like these! To ban knowlege or tougths at all in schools are an insult to the core purpose of education (To create self thinking, critisising citisens)

The land of the free? Only if you don't piss off the authorities....

MUSIC

Radical music of the 60s and 70s was distributed widely to the public through massive radio play. Anti-authoritarian messages were easy to access and share. Now radio stations are becoming more cetralized and homogenous. Independent radio is harder to find, and artists outside of the Top 40 are rarely heard by the majority of the population.

"• In the US, four groups – Chancellor, Clear Channel, Infinity and Capstar – control 63% of Top 40 Radio stations (61 million listeners) and 56% of Country Music stations (28 million listeners).6

• Radio, promotional and advertising giant Clear Channel, which owns more than 1,200 radio stations across the US, added only 3,000 songs by just 550 artists to their playlists in 2002."

List of censored music:http://ericnuzum.com/banned/

LITERATURE:

Books are still being banned in U.S schools and libraries. What are they afraid of? A list of the 50 most banned books: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/most-banned.html

Are you in favour of this censorship (and of course music and literature are the tip of the iceburg...but we gotta draw the line somewhere:))? How are YOU fighting censorship...or helping it?
Literary censorship in school libraries is fine, as the information exists elsewhere (it needs to by law). As for music, I doubt that it'll ever be censored. The FCC has a very tight leash on the radio industry, and it'd be a cold day in Hell before there's a monopoly on radio, by either the government or a business. In fact, the contraversial FCC rules released last summer for TV and newspapers actually tightened control of radio.
Edit: I think the advent of sattelite radio is changing a lot. I have XM in my car. I'm hearing music from genres I never even knew existed.

2 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

26 Lord of the Flies by William Golding

28 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

34 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

43 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Man you got to be joking is these books baned in US schools? No wonder that americans offen seams to be retared then! you arent even alowed to read some of the biggest classics. It´s an freging insult to history to ban books like these! To ban knowlege or tougths at all in schools are an insult to the core purpose of education (To create self thinking, critisising citisens)
Seems to be a bogus list

Because they sure were not banned in Minnesota

In fact read them in class when I was in high school three years ago. (well 3 of them anyways)

Seems to be a bogus list

Because they sure were not banned in Minnesota

In fact read them in class when I was in high school three years ago. (well 3 of them anyways)

Is sure hope it´s an bogus list. If it aint i would be werry scarred.

I think the list was composed of books that were banned somewhere in the US, not nationwide. I've known places where Huck Finn was banned, and yet I read it in high school (some 20 years ago--Christ, am I that old?).

I think the list was composed of books that were banned somewhere in the US, not nationwide. I've known places where Huck Finn was banned, and yet I read it in high school (some 20 years ago--Christ, am I that old?).
And I read A Seperate Peace (ugh).... It does indicate they are books that have been banned at one time or another in somewhere.

This amused me:
Police in New Iberia, Louisiana, close down a roller skating rink in February, and seize more than 60 CDs, after a fight broke out in the rink's parking lot. Police accused the rink's management of instigating the incident by playing music over the rink's PA system. Amongst the confiscated CDs are Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and the popular tunes "The Chicken Dance," "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," "The Hokey Pokey," and "Jingle Bells."

I had something to say, but the original poster and Incertonia (as usual) more or less covered it before I got here. sigh.

LITERATURE:

Books are still being banned in U.S schools and libraries. What are they afraid of? A list of the 50 most banned books: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/most-banned.html

Are you in favour of this censorship (and of course music and literature are the tip of the iceburg...but we gotta draw the line somewhere:))? How are YOU fighting censorship...or helping it?

I teach Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, A Streetcar Named Desire et cetera and two of the most popular books in the school's book club (an after school discussion night) were Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Also, I teach Fahrenheit 451 which is about how stupid and enslaved a society becomes when they are fixated on TV and are not allowed to read anymore.

[QUOTE=Enter nation here]I can understand banning books from publicly funded placesQUOTE] thats because ur stupid. the books children are being made r crap.

[QUOTE=Enter nation here]I can understand banning books from publicly funded placesQUOTE] thats because ur stupid. the books children are being made r crap.

Ah, such delicious irony.....

Yeah... about the banned books list, they must have only been banned once, somewhere, accidentally, or else it's completely bogus... because one of the books, My Brother Sam is Dead, was required reading for my fifth grade class. :-P I mean, really. I keep seeing that all these books were supposedly banned, but I can't possibly imagine it being true.

The land of the free? Only if you don't piss off the authorities....

MUSIC

Radical music of the 60s and 70s was distributed widely to the public through massive radio play. Anti-authoritarian messages were easy to access and share. Now radio stations are becoming more cetralized and homogenous. Independent radio is harder to find, and artists outside of the Top 40 are rarely heard by the majority of the population.

"• In the US, four groups – Chancellor, Clear Channel, Infinity and Capstar – control 63% of Top 40 Radio stations (61 million listeners) and 56% of Country Music stations (28 million listeners).6

• Radio, promotional and advertising giant Clear Channel, which owns more than 1,200 radio stations across the US, added only 3,000 songs by just 550 artists to their playlists in 2002."

List of censored music:http://ericnuzum.com/banned/

LITERATURE:

Books are still being banned in U.S schools and libraries. What are they afraid of? A list of the 50 most banned books: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/most-banned.html

Are you in favour of this censorship (and of course music and literature are the tip of the iceburg...but we gotta draw the line somewhere:))? How are YOU fighting censorship...or helping it?

They banned "Blubber"?! Why? That book might be stupid but there's is no reason to ban it! Jeez, it's by JUDY BLUME!!!

Why would anyone ban Judy freakin' Bloom?!

Easy - because she actually dares mention that a girl's body changes when she reaches puberty. She mentions menstruation and boobies. Obviously, this is a bad thing.

[QUOTE=Enter nation here]I can understand banning books from publicly funded placesQUOTE] thats because ur stupid. the books children are being made r crap.
I think you need to read a bit more...... or better yet, how about my last post?