The Bible provides help when look ing at the issue of music censorship. The Bible does not come right out and say that music should be censored, but a few verses can be related to music censorship. Ephes

This verse is saying that music is a wondrous thing as long as long as it is sung in praise to the Lord and not polluted. The biblical material as mentioned above, should be looked at as a guide when dealing with music censorship, to lead people in the right direction to make the right choices concerning the music they listen to.

to the Communications Decency Act, music is not protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. This act was good while it lasted. On June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court declared The Communications Decency Act unconstitutional. Justice John Paul Stevens said:

One reason that music should be censored is that some people may be on the edge or entertaining evil thoughts. These thoughts may include murder, rape, or suicide. They also may be very impressionable people and if they hear a song saying it's all right to kill someone, then they may just go out and kill the next person they see. They may not be true in all cases, but in some it is very possible. In 1996, 15-year old Richard Kuntz of Burlington, North Dakota killed himself. His father, Raymond, believes it is because of the music he listened to. The Stout article provides a sample of the boy's writing. He always listened his favorite, Marilyn Manson, and it was no surprise when he wrote about the band for English class, Richard said "Marilyn

To even further the difficulty of a child (minor) getting a hold of CD's with parental advisory stickers, Wal-Mart, in 1991, announced that they would not carry any albums containing parental advisory stickers. They will sell "clean versions" of the CD. Wal-Mart has a lot of influence in the music industry. In one year, out of the 615 million CD's sold in the United States, Wal-Mart accounts for 52 million (Bennett and Tucker _). According to Bennett and Tucker, "Wal-Mart's stand has sent many in the artistic community into a tizzy" (_). A lot of artists believe that Wal-Mart is forcing this

Music censorship is no longer a personal issue where a person can choose whether or not to listen to uncensored music. It is an issue that deals with the general public hearing uncensored music whether they want to or not. Perhaps the biggest emphasis on music censorship is censoring the music so young children (minors) will not be able to hear to the lewd content. The exposure of minors to obscene and indecent material should be controlled, as well as the sale of such material to minors. In 1985, the music industry started putting parental advisory stickers on CD's (which the record companies reluctantly agreed to do) with explicit content (including the cover art on CD's). The law states that a person has to be at least 17 to purchase these CD's. These advisory stickers area better than nothing, but not by much.

even non-Christians appreciate it. Not very many people want to turn on their car radios and hear a song about gang rape or bestiality, for example.

Along with department store chains, radio, and television, the United States government is also taking a stand for music censorship. Many artists feel that by censoring or changing their music, it is taking away the freedom of speech that the

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Approximate Word count = 2157
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)