From the ‘immoral’ rock ‘n’ roll lyrics of the ’50s to the sexual colloquiums of Eminem, contemporary music has been the target of censorship since its creation as an art form.

Yet many people, despite their frustration with padded radio lyrics, consider music censorship a vital part of protecting the general public.

‘Since we’re often exposed to the media, whether or not we want to be, (censorship) is important because we don’t have control,’ said Liz Crosby, who graduated last year from Syracuse University with a degree in illustration.

The media watchdog known as the Federal Communications Commission is largely responsible for dealing with music that is deemed illicit or degrading. Established by the Communications Act of 1934, the government agency was created to regulate international communication and respond to complaints made by media consumers.

A recent instance of censorship by the FCC board forced hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas to change the chorus-and thus the title-of one of its songs from ‘Let’s Get Retarded’ to ‘Let’s Get It Started.’ This change has aroused a great deal of frustration, particularly from younger music fans.

‘When you start singing along with a song on the radio and it’s not the lyrics that you know (from the CD), it’s very annoying,’ said Jessica Dawson, a sophomore special education major. ‘But I took offense to the word ‘retarded,’ so I would not prefer the song otherwise.’

According to Lynne Flocke, an S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications professor who teaches a course in communications law, the FCC board deals with inappropriate lyrics by responding to complaints filed by the public, and not by probing the radio themselves.

‘Regulations passed mostly have to do with indecency,’ Flocke said. ‘The chilling effect of these things is often worse than government action because people tend to beach themselves.’

The FCC considers indecent speech, ‘language that depicts or describes…by contemporary community standards…sexual or excretory organs.’

‘I personally feel the FCC is bull,’ said Jeff Kaczmarczyk, a sophomore rhetorical studies major, and WJPZ disc jockey known on the air as JeffyK. ‘They infringe on free speech because when artists write music, they don’t censor themselves at the same time.’

Many students agree with some form of censorship, but feel the FCC enforces it too stringently or too subjectively.

‘The F-bomb is a pretty intense word and should be filtered,’ said Torie Hajdu, a freshman English and textual studies major. ‘But it’s annoying when a whole song title is changed (as was done with Black Eyed Peas).’

The FCC doesn’t always directly censor the lyrics of musicians; sometimes record companies self-impose warnings to the public. In 1990, the Recording Industry Association of America, after years of pressure from the Parents’ Music Resource Center, agreed to stick ‘Parental Advisory’ labels on music with questionable lyrics.

The list of warning-labeled music is endless. An entire book, ‘Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands and Censored Songs,’ by Peter Belcha, was released earlier this year, and is dedicated to this list. The book also focuses on scandalous songs from before the warning-label era.

Among the songs focused on in the book is Peter, Paul and Mary’s ‘Puff the Magic Dragon,’ which was suspected of being a thinly veiled drug endorsement in 1971. Other popular musicians who have been forced to deal with the red tape of censorship include the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and, most recently, Black Eyed Peas.

‘I liked both versions of the song,’ Kaczmarczyk said, ‘but I could see how a person could have a problem with it.’

Another WJPZ disc jockey, Joan Kump, a sophomore art history major, noted that while many songs can include the word ‘bitch’ in their lyrics, the FCC has threatened to shut down radio stations where disc jockeys use the word.

‘You give the fans what they want,’ she said, ‘but you have to do it legally.’

Kump agrees that filtering music to protect young children is important, but only to a certain degree.

‘If you buy a CD, you know what you’re getting,’ Kump said. ‘But these squeaky-clean songs can be ridiculous.’

Published on September 21, 2004 at 12:00 pm