Sometimes, when I’m trying to decide on a topic or thesis for an academic paper, I call my father to talk. Sometimes it’s because I’m drawing a blank, sometimes it’s to bounce an idea off him, and in the case of a year ago, to argue my way to a breakthrough. In this particular case, I had signed up for the general topic of censorship, but was struggling to choose a focus to research and write about. My first instinct was to write something about music censorship. It seemed a natural progression for me. After all, I am an audio production major, and having recently completed a course entitled the “History of Rock and Roll”, I knew plenty of background on artists who had been censored throughout American history. Music censorship, however, was still too broad a topic; so I called my father for ideas. A spirited discussion began, but it led only to my frustration. He claimed music censorship no longer existed, an opinion with which I disagreed. He was stubborn about it and wouldn’t listen, making it difficult to let the conversation evolve into an idea that I could base a paper on. Writing the paper, I came to understand why he couldn’t see it. Today’s music censorship looks a lot different then that of my father’s time.

One thing that has changed dramatically is the censors themselves. Today’s biggest music censor is Clear Channel. They control what you hear and when. They control what bands make it on the air, and as a result what CDs and concert tickets sell. Clear channel tells you what you like. To learn more about the Clear Channel monopoly, and the damage that they do, simply type clear channel into any search engine. You don’t have to do much digging. The articles and websites are limitless. [They do far worse then simply subjecting you to Creed and Ashley Simpson]