History of music censorship

In the 1940s, when traditional value were challenged by the early rock and rap music. People start to worry about the bad influents of them. Then in 1955 thousands of letters were sent to sent to Chicago rock stations accusing them of playing "dirty" records, which made the stations promise that they will censor itself of all controverisal music. After that, over 30 songs were banned in US, most of them were R&B and rap by black artists.

In the early 1970’s music censorship expanded from songs to music videos, which contained too much violence or sexual express scene. For some unknown reason, music video by black artists were not being aired on MTV until the famous hit song “ billie jean” by Michael Jackson. “ Billie jean” is the first music video performed by black artist can be watched on TV.

In 1985, Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was formed to protect the children to be affected by music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual expression. PMRC urged the music industry and government to create and promote a rating system for music, evaluating the musical content.

In 1990, in one of the most famous music censorship cases rock band Too Much Joy were arrest for performing “obscene material in a club.