Censorship in Music

Though Henry Purcell, as organist of Westminster Abbey, gave considerable attention to sacred music during his all-too-brief life, he also explored earthier topics in his catches. These brief vocal works focus primarily on wine consumption, unrequited love, and convivial music making. Though often textually lowbrow, these seemingly insignificant vocal works nonetheless display on occasion considerable contrapuntal skill and high musical style, an attention to musical detail that is seemingly at odds with the oft-indelicate subject matter.
This paper will explore Purcell’s musical technique in these works; in particular, the use of ground bass in “Fie! Nay! Prithee John,” the musical onomatopoeia in “Of All the Instruments,” and the careful placement of rests in “Tom Making a Manteau,” which permits a double-entendre that only becomes evident in performance. These catches, building upon an English tradition that dates back to Medieval days, are an interesting window into the diversity of Purcell’s musical interests, and exemplify the technical skill he lavished on even the basest of texts.

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), little known in the United States, is the Olympics of songwriting, encompassing all of Europe and beyond to geographic and cultural outsiders such as Israel, Jordan, Morocco, and the newcomer of 2015—Australia. Inspired by the popular Italian Sanremo Festival, the Eurovision Song Contest (originally titled The Eurovision Grand Prix) first started in 1956 in the aftermath of World War II as a cultural move towards European unity and peace (Mark Lawson, New Statesman). While over the past decades, the contest has acquired a reputation (particularly in the Western music industry) of a kitsch entertainment show with little musical value, it is worth noting that the ESC has served as a successful platform for international artist debuts, producing the likes of  Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias and ABBA. Even though the European Broadcast Union (EBU), the official operator of the ESC, has long adopted a law that bans songs of protest and propaganda, this has not stopped artists and songwriters from using this same platform to get their political messages of judgement across to the global audience of millions (Milana Knezevic, Index of Censorship).

Written by Robin Denselow,the report reflects on the numerous accounts and incidents of censorship, persecution and imprisonment of artists, as they were revealed in testimonials and panel debates during ‘All that is Banned is Desired’, the first world conference on artistic freedom of expression which took place on 25-26 October 2012 at the Oslo Opera House in Norway.

Editado en 2010, "La oposición musical al franquismo: canción protesta y censura discográfica en España" es producto de una investigación que recurre a documentación mayoritariamente inédita, y trata de ofrecer una visión más cercana de un tema sólo recientemente interesante incluso para los investigadores que, en el campo de la censura, habían preferido otras a la que aquí se trata: la  musical.
Siguiendo el índice, y a grandes rasgos, tras una breve presentación del contexto histórico franquista en el que se centra su Introducción, trata de forma pormenorizada la Caracterización de la Canción Protesta, concepto en torno al cual repasa denominaciones y contenidos anteriores para unificar las ideas existentes en torno a definiciones detalladas y acotadas para “canción protesta” o “cantautor”, atendiendo igualmente a la “diversidad de nombres” y formas bajo los que aparecieron los artistas –solistas y grupos muchas veces conocidos– a los que no siempre unía ni siquiera el idioma de expresión –en catalán, euskera, gallego, castellano, portugués...–. No se dejan de lado, entre otros detalles, la reflexión acerca de si eran fórmulas de protesta muchas veces contra la Dictactura –pero no siempre–, o la argumentación sobre si debe servir como concepto historiográfico de partida que pueda ser referencia para los especialistas.
Pero sin duda, lo más interesante del trabajo de investigación es al tratar sobre El Desarrollo de la Censura, apartado en el que se revelan las claves para entender la censura estatal y los motivos que pudieron llevar a los censores –algunas de cuyas reflexiones aquí se reproducen– hasta el punto de prohibir la grabación de canciones que, en algunos casos, sólo verían la luz de forma legal en nuestro país varios años después de ese 1968, y cuyos recortes y enmiendas se tratan desde la documentación de archivos públicos estatales presentada a censura por los propios autores o discográficas. Atención especial y temática en torno a la nova cançó, o la llamada nueva canción en castellano, por poner sólo dos ejemplos.
Finalmente, y tras unas breves Conclusiones en las que se pretende retomar el conjunto de lo expuesto en los capítulos anteriores para darle un sentido final, aparece otra de los apartados que puede servir tanto a curiosos como a los especialistas: un Apéndice documental –con reproducción de algunos documentos presentados a censura por Víctor Manuel, Joan Manuel Serrat o Raimon–, así como la lista de textos y resoluciones que tuvieron algún problema durante el famoso año.

Questions of the permissibility and regulability of music in Islamic jurisprudence and Persian/Iranian governance have been historically disputed. Since the Revolution of 1979, Iranian music and musicians have been suppressed by their theocratic state and its agencies. Religio-political censorship has ensured the prohibition of musicians performing in public, banned women from singing and, among several other examples, suppressed the production,distribution and consumption of music deemed "incompatible" with the values of the IslamicRepublic (H. G. Farmer 1975, 1942, Bo Lawergren 2011, Youssefzadeh 2005). In the last three decades, however, musicians and their music have harnessed new media technologies in the evasion of these censures. From ethnomusicological, new media, and network theory approaches, this thesis explores how music reproduction technologies and the Internet have altered dealings with barriers of bureaucracy facing music and musicians in Iran and the Iranian diaspora.

The report, ‘Music, Culture and Conflict in Mali’,  written by Andy Morgann analyses the background of the conflict. He has interviewed 20 of Mali’s most acclaimed musicians, artists and observers on how music and culture has been affected as a consequence of the crisis in the northern part of the country.

Λογοκρισία υπάρχει σε όλες τις εκδοχές δημόσιου λόγου, από τις εικαστικές τέχνες, το στίχο, τη μουσική, το θέατρο, τον κινηματογράφο ως τη δημοσιογραφία: από τις πιο πα-ραδοσιακές εκφορές ως τις πιο σύγχρονες στο χώρο του Δια δικτύου. Μπορεί να εμφανιστεί όταν και όπου μέσω της ελευθερίας του λόγου διακυβεύονται υλικά αγαθά ή αξίες: το έθνος, το κράτος, η αγορά, η θρησκεία, τα χρηστά ήθη. Όταν, δηλαδή, απειλούνται αξίες πραγματικής και εμβλημα-τικής εμβέλειας. Στον τόμο που κρατάτε στα χέρια σας επι-χειρήσαμε να αναδείξουμε για πρώτη φορά την ιστορία της λογοκρισίας στην Ελλάδα σε μία αυτοτελή ενιαία αφήγηση. Ποια είναι η θέση της λογοκρισίας σε μία εδραιωμένη δη-μοκρατία; Ποιες είναι οι κρίσιμες διαφορές μεταξύ της λο-γοκρισίας παλαιότερα και σήμερα; Ποιες είναι οι μορφές της, πώς ταξινομούνται και πώς περιοδολογούνται; Ποια είναι τα όρια ανάμεσα στη λογοκρισία και την κριτική; Πόσο η «κρίση» οξύνει τον λογοκριτικό πειρασμό των κρατού-ντων; Αυτά υπήρξαν τα κρίσιμα επίδικα, ψηφίδες στη δια-μόρφωση ενός γνωστικού αντικειμένου που βρίσκεται στα αρχικά στάδια της ερευνητικής του μορφοποίησης. Η προσ-δοκία αυτού του συλλογικού τόμου είναι να αποτελέσει ένα άξιο λόγου στιγμιότυπο σε αυτή την πορεία διαμόρφωσης του γνωστικού αντικειμένου «λογοκρισία» στην Ελλάδα.

Zentrale These ist: Kommerzielle populäre Musik war im deutschsprachigen Raum vom 19. Jahrhundert bis heute Gegenstand von Kritik und Kampagnen, die sie als moralisch gefährlich und geschmackszerstörend attackierten. Doch der Vergleich mit den Feldzügen gegen populäre Literatur und das populäre Kino zeigt: Die Musik war sehr viel weniger von Empörung und Repression betroffen.
Was waren die Ursachen für die unterschiedliche Behandlung? Der Beitrag benennt einige Spezifika populärer Musik, die dem zugrunde liegen könnten: Geringes narratives Potenzial, vermeintlich geringe Jugendgefährdung, schwer zu verbieten, Unverzichtbarkeit als sinnlich-ästhetisches Schmiermittel für moderne Alltage.

Mediterranean Periplus – voyages in time and space, around and beyond the sea of civilizations: we follow the movements of peoples, goods, ideas and cultural patterns in our historical space, underlying that exchange was the determining factor in the development of civilizations; therefore, the latter constitute a common heritage of the Mediterranean peoples.

In the late 1970s musician Roger Lucey sang protest songs against the injustices of the apartheid government in South Africa. In response the South African Police assigned security branch policeman Paul Erasmus to put a stop to Lucey’s music. Erasmus proceeded to conduct covert acts against Lucey, eventually forcing Lucey to give up on his musical career. With limited skills and a family to support, Lucey was compelled to take any work he could, even becoming the doorman and later barman at venues where he had once been a performer. Eventually he even sold his guitar to make money, symbolically confirming the demise of his music career. He turned his attention to a career in the news media, and gradually worked his way up to the position of news correspondent, covering events from conflict zones around the world.  In the mid-1990s Lucey retired from his stressful life as a journalist and gradually returned to a life of music, often alongside other less stressful media work.

On a broader level, the mid-1990s also saw South Africa’s turn to democracy. The country’s attempt to deal with its past was in part realised through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which perpetrators of apartheid crimes could apply for amnesty in return for full disclosure of atrocities committed during the apartheid era. At this time Erasmus went public about his actions as a security branch policeman, and eventually testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He admitted to his actions against Roger Lucey. It was at this point that Lucey heard about these revelations, allowing him to piece together the destruction of his career from a perspective of the new knowledge provided. 

Lucey’s story as presented in this paper is based on a series of interviews with Lucey and Erasmus, and through the words and music of Lucey’s songs. Throughout Lucey’s career the metaphor of the road has been central to his understanding of South Africa’s journey to democracy and of his own part in that journey. The paper explores the powerful role of music (and the image of the road within Lucey’s songs) in expressing the yearning of an individual confronting gross social and political inequalities and of that individual’s attempts to come to terms with his and his country’s past from the vantage point of a new democratic dispensation. As Lucey declares, the role of music in his attempt deal with his traumatic past has been cathartic. It has allowed him to come to terms not only with his own past, but also with the very person who ended his career. Lucey’s music has brought him face to face with Erasmus, and has been influential in the subsequent reconciliation of these two former antagonists. It is argued that music’s ability to articulate the singer-songwriter’s sentiments potentially allow for a context of confrontation and healing for singer-songwriter and audience alike, depending on the positioning of the individuals involved.

XXIII Colloquio di Musicologia del Saggiatore Musicale, abstract pubblicato online. Il demone amante, ovvero Giugurta di Matteo Noris, messo in scena nel 1686 al Teatro S. Angelo di Venezia su musiche perdute di Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, rappresenta un interessante caso di studio nell’ambito delle ricerche sulla censura nei libretti d’opera veneziani della seconda metà del Seicento, sino ad ora solo sporadicamente coltivate. Sottoposto al giudizio degli Esecutori contro la Bestemmia, necessitò, prima di essere messo in scena, di una pronta riscrittura che rese necessaria una riedizione del libretto poco prima della première.

To ensure a consistent approach, Zimbabwe needs to come up with a consistent, open and transparent framework which complies with the Human Rights Committee’s General Comment 34 on Article 19 of the ICCPR. This will provide sturdy guidance in the application of human rights considerations in the Censorship Board’s decisions. That way, the government won’t have unfettered discretion- a situation where officials can make rules on a whim. This violates the principle of legality. They will also be constrained from simply applying the law out of political convenience but out of necessity, as spelt out in the three part test, ​set out in the covenant. A framework will ensure that in its approach the Board only responds to genuine social needs rather than to political pressures.

A part of the apartheid state’s attempt to maintain hegemony in South Africa was through censorship. The terrain of popular music was no exception. This paper considers popular music censorship by means of the metaphor of space as both a real and imagined area of contest. It is argued that censorship involved contests over the use of space, and those involved in the contest sought to reposition themselves according to the most suitable strategies available to them. Influenced particularly by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the analysis of contest posited in this paper emphasizes that agency is possible, even in contexts of severe repression.. Throughout the apartheid era some musicians engaged in instances of resistance  within the context of social movements to devise means of overcoming censorship and making themselves heard. Despite apartheid censorship, creative and meaningful spaces of resistance were discovered and successfully manipulated.

Music is intended to be expressive and unconstrained, a tool of communicating emotion and bridging humanity. As such, censorship is widely despised among music creators, listeners, publishers, distributors, and other music industry stakeholders. “Freedom of expression,” however, proves to be an applicable argument for both sides of the matter when the censorship concerns hate directed at marginalized communities. Analyzing the concept of censorship through the lens of those with privilege and power fails to recognize the extent to which hate speech impacts its victims and the indirect recipients of the message. As a powerful influencer of popular and youth cultures, the music industry has a responsibility to benefit society rather than harm it. Distribution platforms must be active players in building an ethical society because of their tremendous power as the channels to the consumer facing side of the industry.

This article examines the response of musicians to social violence,
focusing specifically on the phenomenon of hybridized corporate/
self-censorship by pop musicians in the wake of the Sandy Hook
school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, at the end of 2012.
Immediately following the shooting, several popular songs with
putatively inflammatory titles and lyrics—most notably, Ke$ha’s “Die
Young” and Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks”—were pulled
from the airwaves, largely in the name of a generalized sensitivity to
the emotional needs of the listening public. This action received the
vociferous support of the artists themselves, who issued concomitant
pro forma apologies for their work. The tacit acknowledgment of the
connections between music and acts of violence, the complicity of
artists in the censorship or suppression of their own work, and their a
posteriori  participation in apology rituals are the focus here, with
comparisons also drawn between similar acts of social violence—the
Columbine school shooting of 1999 in particular—and the calls for
and responses to the music censorship that followed.

ABSTRACT A part of the apartheid state's attempt to maintain hegemony in South Africa was through censorship. The terrain of popular music was no exception. This paper considers popular music censorship by means of the metaphor of space as both a real and imagined area of contest. It is argued that censorship involved contests over the use of space, and those involved in the contest sought to reposition themselves according to the most suitable strategies available to them. Influenced particularly by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the analysis of contest posited in this paper emphasizes that agency is possible, even in contexts of severe repression. Throughout the apartheid era some musicians engaged in instances of resistance within the context of social movements to devise means of overcoming censorship and making themselves heard. Despite apartheid censorship, creative and meaningful spaces of resistance were discovered and successfully manipulated.

Abstract This article explores limiting expressions in the transgressive genre of metal, paying special attention to the value of authenticity. Focusing on the case of the Finnish metal bands Turmion Kätilöt and Stam1na, the study first charts the instances of (self-)censorship that the two bands have faced, starting with their reactions to the Kauhajoki school shooting in Finland, and, second, investigates how these instances have been discussed and interpreted. Based on the analysis of Internet and interview material, I identified seven discourses that construct a multifaceted image of censorship, ranging from useless and illogical to justified, further intertwined with the value of authenticity.

This article explores limiting expressions in the transgressive genre of metal, paying special attention to the value of authenticity. Focusing on the case of the Finnish metal bands Turmion Kätilöt and Stam1na, the study first charts the instances of (self-)censorship that the two bands have faced, starting with their reactions to the Kauhajoki school shooting in Finland, and, second, investigates how these instances have been discussed and interpreted. Based on the analysis of Internet and interview material, I identified seven discourses that construct a multifaceted image of censorship, ranging from useless and illogical to justified, further intertwined with the value of authenticity.