Government Censorship of Music Misguided :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Government Censorship of Music Misguided Granted, there are entertainers in the music business who, as Tipper Gore says in "Curbing the Sexploitation Industry," want to send the message that "sadomasochism is the essence of sex," so that they can make a not-so-honest dollar. As Charlene Choy says in "Romantic Rot," some performers will scream about anything, including "suicide, sadism, incest, [and] bestiality," if it will make them stand out and turn a bigger profit than another musician. Still, Gore and Choy are missing the essence of modern rock. To explain which aspect of modern rock Gore and Choy have overlooked, I will define rock in a broader sense than many people use in their day-to-day conversation: for the purposes of this argument, I will define "rock music" to mean any form of music which has emerged since the 1940's which has had enough popularity to allow people to identify themselves as a member of a group based on the type of music to which they listen. Therefore, types of music as diverse as disco, heavy metal, rap, classic rock (from the 1950's through the 1970's), "grunge," pop, industrial rock, and country-western will be covered under this definition. What Gore and Choy have misunderstood is the way that music can create bonds between people, both between individual fans of a particular group and between the singer and an individual fan. People can learn how others think and can learn more about themselves through the sometimes-brutal reality of modern musical lyrics. Nirvana's song "Dumb" can show popular people how it feels to go through high school as a social outcast. The music of Garbage and L7 can give men a glimpse of the female mind. The music of Nine Inch Nails and the Gin Blossoms can take sane people on a trip through the mind of someone who is losing his (or her) sanity. Music can also help people, particularly those going through painful times (such as adolescence) to understand that they are not alone and that other people have the same feelings that they do. After grunge-rock superstar Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994, one fan wrote to Rolling Stone magazine describing how the music of Cobain's band, Nirvana, made her feel. "I could be feeling like total shit," wrote Carrie Loy, "and hear a Nirvana song and end up feeling renewed afterward.