o the power of resistance from the mid-sixties to the early seventies (Winfield pg. 15).This form of censorship ahs only targeted one form of music media. There are still many other areas and sides to music that have faced the scrutiny of censorship. Take for example the sale and distribution of records. Earlier in the paper I talked about voluntary labeling of records but with songs like ICE T's "Cop Killer" there was a call for mandatory labeling (Winfield pg. 13). Although it seemed like a good idea to try to prevent kids from getting their hands on the music it is still a form of limiting free speech and it never made it past the state level. Many store chains such as K-Mart and Wal-Mart refuse to carry and album with a warning label because of their reputation as a wholesome store. This is why the labeling hurts artists. Those are sales that could benefit an artist's career but because of a sticker on an album some stores will not carry it. Some artists choose in an attempt to please censors to release a clean and dirty, if you would like to call it that version, of their album. Prince released a double CD set and made one vulgar and in the other used sound effects to muffle the obscene words.2 Live Crew was the first group to be indicted on charges of obscenity. With lyrics like "Hey, we want some pu**y" they were found offensive by people everywhere (Winfield pg. 13). However when they were brought to trial the Supreme Court ruled that they were not legally obscene. Sexual lyrics in rap are not the only controversial issues at hand. Violence in rap songs have also taken center stage and are getting their share of criticism and attempted censorship. Rapper Ice T ended up pulling a song "Cop Killer" of his album body count because his record officials were receiving death threats for releasing it (Winfield pg. 13). The predecessor to Ice T's stance on cops would be the rap group Nigga's with Attitudes or NWA. They received a lot ...
