banned? If The 2 Live Crew's music is indecent, shouldn't Andrew Dice Clay's comical tape be banned also? When Tipper Gore & Hillary Clinton's Parent Music Resource Center got the major record labels like Warner Bros., Elektra, Atlantic, MCA, and Polydor to start record labeling with the ever noticable "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" stickers, they successfully censored many heavy metal and rap albums from large chain record stores. Still today, we see these “Tipper Stickers” on CD’s and cassettes. In my opinion, Luther Campbell and The 2 Live Crew have every right to produce or create any type of music that they choose. The only stipulation that remains is that if the material is in fact “obscene” then the first amendment will not protect it.. This is where the two lines cross; for between those lines are very gray, oxymoronic areas, areas in which we still have trouble with today. So…is there really such thing as free speech?The Law of ObscenityWith the forthcomings of Roth and Miller, material is obscene if and only if, “the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interests.” The problem asks one question…who is the “average” person. What is prurient to one may not be prurient to another. “Obscene” things and their effects on people vary by gender, race, religion, economic status, and education just to name a few. Therefore, with such a definition, obscenity is not refined.History and Censorship of MusicIn 1926, Ernst Krenek, composer of Jonny Speilt Auf was targeted by the Nazis as an "outrageous introduction of Jewish-Nigger filth" by the "half-Jewish Czech" (although Krenek was neither). The title character is a black violinist/jazz band leader, and the opera combines aspects of the 19th century Wagnerian tradition with elements of jazz, operetta, spirituals, Br...
