Art, culture, and policy: three factors that govern our lives day In, day out. Although the relationship between them may not always be apparent, they both reflect and progress one another. If one were to change, the others would have to adapt. I’m Nick Thomson, owner of Atlantic Records, long time social commentator, and avid fan of music. As can be inferred from the works of Irish poet Seam’s Haney, art has the power to redress social imbalances. However, politically based censorship is a roadblock faced by any artist that wishes to do so.
Whether It be race, religion, ideology, financial class, gender, age, and Just about any other demographic or otherwise exclusive label, if the barrier of unnecessary censorship is broken there is no limit to what art can achieve. Censorship has been around ever since organisms were able to communicate, stemming from the instinct of living creatures to avoid what is seemingly dangerous, unusual, or offensive in any manner. Modern censorship Is a little more refined than that, with a range of categories, and laws that vary from region to region.
We’ve built cultures around the value of self-censorship and the needless censorship of everything around us for our comfort. The category that is most detrimental to the redressing of social imbalances is political censorship, in which a governing body prevents the free expression of information or ideas that may not support their image, objectives, or power. This often means the prohibition of public broadcast, being stocked in retailers, and In extreme cases, the very possession of the art piece.
While this seems Like something that would only exist In preemptively dictatorships, It Is very much present In modern democratic nations such as the U. S. , England, and Australia. Two artistic movements that have been able to work round political censorship are punk in sass England, and hardcore hip-hop in the U. S. In the late ass and early ass. The goal of the artists in both of these movements was to shock the public and the government into paying attention to the silenced, uncommon viewpoints of social outcasts and minority groups, as well as the struggles they faced.
The punk movement can be typified by the song ‘God Save the Queen’ by the Sex Pistols – and no, this was not a cover of the British national anthem. The lyrics of the song reflect the previously silenced anti-monarchist viewpoints held by a minority of the English at the time. They express the distrust, disappointment, and disapproval that the artists held for the Monarchy, even going as far to say that the Queen is as dangerous as a hydrogen bomb. In light of the explanation of political censorship provided earlier, It probably won’t surprise you to know that this Is the most extensively banned song In the history of British radio.
But through stores that were brave enough to stock the record, ‘God Save the Queen’ quickly became one of the highest selling singles of the time – having well and truly worked around the harsh censorship that was implemented on the song, a task that is not done by many, ND done well by even less. The group’s influence can be seen in the approval rates of British citizens for the monarchy, having dropped from a majority In favor of the monarchy In the early ass, to a balanced 48% by 1997, and freely expressing Immediate censorship and abasement. Of the aforementioned hardcore hip-hop movement, N.
W. A were by far the most famous, infamous, impacting and insightful group. With an acronyms name standing for Inning With Attitude, controversy for the group was inevitable. Their seminal 1988 album ‘Straight Auto Compton’ was refused airplay on many stations, and even attracted investigations from the F. B. I. The album focused on exposing the police brutality of the time, the negative impacts of the illicit drug crack cocaine, the gang culture built around the drug, and the discrimination that black and Latino {Touts suffered at the hands of the authority.
When questioned on the confronting content on the album, the group’s producer, DRP. Deer is quoted to have said “We’re like news reporters. We’re telling everybody exactly what’s going on in the streets. That’s all it is. ” Due to the lack of conventional news coverage of these issues prior to the album’s release, the middle and upper class knew little to nothing of what life in the hetero of California was really like. Since the late ass, studies show that discriminatory police brutality has dropped by as much as 70%, which has to be put down to the new found awareness that N.
W. A gave to the people of America. While it may seem that these artists managed to break the barrier of censorship with ease, the truth is that it was a long and arduous process. There are many more artists that never get past political censorship, many messages that are never delivered, and many imbalances that are never redressed. All that needs to be done is the abolition of policies that support political censorship. But how do we stop this? How do we change a policy that is built around human culture, and continually reaffirmed by our own censoring thoughts and actions?
The answer is simple. All we need to do is Change our thought processes. When something is strange or offensive, don’t immediately hide it from view. Look a little deeper and take what you can from it, grow from it. Unlock your investigative potential, and we will see more instances of art redressing imbalances in all aspects of life. As we grow as individuals, the culture Nil reflect our growth. And in turn, policy will reflect the growing culture of investigation rather than needless, petty censorship.