This month the Banned Books Book Club will explore Censorship and Music. We will explore and discuss individual artists and why they were censored, along with three very different books on the subject. Including how in the 1980s, the Parental Advisory sticker ended up on music CDs, the hidden and censored stories in the world of early blues & jazz, and the censorship and banning of opera, vaudeville, and Broadway Musicals. Please join us in what should be a lively discussion, and maybe encourage you to create a new playlist that will be "music to your ears."
Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America by Eric Nuzum
Believe it or not, music censorship in America did not begin with Tipper Gore's horrified reaction to her daughter's Prince album. The vilification of popular music by government and individuals has been going on for decades. Now, for the first time, Parental Advisory offers a thorough and complete chronicle of the music that has been challenged or suppressed -- by the people or the government -- in the United States.
From Dean Martin's "Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma'am" to Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar; from freedom fighters such as Frank Zappa and in-your-face rappers such a N.W.A. to crusaders such as Tipper Gore, this intelligent and entertaining book shows how censorship has crossed sexual, class, and ethnic lines, and how many see it as a de facto form of racism. With nearly one hundred fascinating photographs of musicians, record burning, and controversial cover art; illuminating sidebars; and a decade-by-decade timeline of important moments in censorship history, Parental Advisory is by turns frightening and hilarious -- but always revealing.
Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories by Elijah Wald
In Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories, Elijah Wald takes readers on a journey into the hidden and censored world of early blues and jazz, guided by the legendary New Orleans pianist Jelly Roll Morton. Morton became nationally famous as a composer and bandleader in the 1920s, but got his start twenty years earlier, entertaining customers in the city’s famous bordellos and singing rough blues in Gulf Coast honky-tonks. He recorded an oral history of that time in 1938, but the most distinctive songs were hidden away for over fifty years, because the language and themes were as wild and raunchy as anything in gangsta rap.
Those songs inspired Wald to explore how much other history had been locked away and censored, and this book is the result of that quest. Full of previously unpublished lyrics and stories, it paints a new and surprising picture of the dawn of American popular music, when jazz and blues were still the private, after-hours music of the Black "sporting world." It gives new insight into familiar figures like Buddy Bolden and Louis Armstrong, and introduces forgotten characters like Ready Money, the New Orleans sex worker and pickpocket who ended up owning one of the largest Black hotels on the West Coast.
Revelatory and fascinating, these songs and stories provide an alternate view of Black culture at the turn of the twentieth century, when a new generation was shaping lives their parents could not have imagined and art that transformed popular culture around the world—the birth of a joyous, angry, desperate, loving, and ferociously funny tradition that resurfaced in hip-hop and continues to inspire young artists in a new millennium.
Silenced on Stage The Censorship and Banning of Opera, Vaudeville, and Broadway Musicals from Shakespeare to Hamilton by Richard Fleschman
From the raucous riots over Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to the fierce backlash against The Book of Mormon, Silenced on Stage takes you on a whirlwind journey through the fascinating history of censorship in theatre and music. In this compelling exploration, Richard Fleischman dives deep into the clashes between powerful authorities and the bold artists who have pushed boundaries and challenged the status quo.
Whether it’s religious protests against rock operas, political crackdowns on operas under totalitarian regimes, or cultural debates around race, sexuality, and identity in Broadway musicals, Silenced on Stage reveals the struggles, triumphs, and tragic moments of artists who dared to defy the rules. Learn how the themes of love, politics, revolution, and rebellion have been tangled up in a centuries-old battle between creative freedom and societal control.
Packed with stories of iconic musicals, operas, and theatrical performances that have been banned, censored, or altered over the years, Silenced on Stage is a must-read for anyone who loves theatre, music, history, or simply wants to understand the complex, often controversial relationship between art and authority. From Carmen to South Pacific and Rent, this book unravels the dramatic struggles that shaped—and continue to shape—the art we consume today.
Get ready for a deep dive into the high-stakes world of censorship, a place where artists fight not only for their voices but for the freedom to shape culture and history. Will the power of art overcome the forces that seek to suppress it? This book will leave you thinking long after the curtain falls.