SCHOOL OF ROCK
DATELINE July 2007 Deli (“Crazy”) is the name of a punk rock band based in Istanbul, Turkey, that is now being taken to court by the government over a several-year-old song that prosecutors suddenly consider “an insult to the state and its employees.” Far from espousing anarchic violence or political revolution, Deli merely recorded a song, “OSYM,” that decries something any young student anywhere might: the educational requirement that high schoolers take an exam (like the SAT test in the USA) in order to advance to college. But when the authorities belatedly stumbled across a fan’s youtube.com lip-sync video of the tune and discovered its mildly rebellious lyrics (“Life should not be a prison because of an exam, I have gotten lost, You have ruined my future, I am going to tell you one thing: Shove that exam...”) official revenge was the result. Prosecutors in the capital of Ankara have been increasingly aggressive in limiting free expression by the citizenry and in recent years have pursued artists and writers whose statements or work “insults Turkishness.” If convicted, Deli, their manager, & even a former member, each face up to 18 months in jail. Crazy! [Source: "Punk band's protest song lands members a trial date," by Christopher Torchia, Associated Press (7/15/07)]

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JOSE, CAN YOU SEE...
DATELINE May 2006 In a hypocritical dust-up reminiscent of the criticism that Jimi Hendrix endured in 1969 after his unconventional Woodstock Festival performance of the United State’s national anthem – “The Star Spangled Banner” – a new version of that same tune has now been enveloped in controversy. This time, crotchety conservatives are fuming about a hip Spanish-language version, titled “Nuestro Himmo” ( or, “Our Anthem”), featuring artists such as Wyclef Jean, Carlos Ponce, Olga Tanon, & the rapper, Pitbull. Among the most vocal critics was President Bush who flatly decreed that: “I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English.” An interesting position to take, it would seem, for a man who not only sang the anthem in Spanish himself many times while campaigning across Texas – & whose 2001 inaugural ceremony highlighted a Spanish version sung by Cuban exile, Jon Secada – but who also now heads a government whose very own State Department has a web site [http://usinfo.state.gov] that highlights the lyrics to four different Spanish (and dozens of other “foreign” language) versions of the song. [Sources: “Bush Says Anthem Should Be in English,” by Jeannine Aversa, Breitbart.com/news (4/28/06); “Spanish ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ Draws Fire,” by Laura Wides-Munoz, apnews.myway.com (4/28/06); U.S. State Department web site (accessed 5/8/06) “W’s anthem-nesia: He sang in Spanish,” by Kenneth R. Bazinet, Daily News (5/3/06)]

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STAIRWAY TO GITMO
DATELINE April 2006 A commercial airplane flight heading from Durham to London, England, was halted & a British telephone salesman was hauled off by police agents who then questioned him for three hours under the authority of the national Terrorism Act. All this because, “his choice of music had aroused suspicions.” Mr. Harraj Mann had reportedly spun a few tunes on a digital player while riding in a taxicab before boarding that flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport, and his driver became paranoid about those songs – specifically Led Zeppelin’s 1970 gem, “Immigrant Song” & the Clash’s 1979 classic, “London Calling” – which somehow made him “fear his passenger was a terrorist.” Additional airings of the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man” & Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” apparently didn’t terrify the driver so badly, and when the whole ordeal was finally over, Mann remarked that “It turned out the taxi driver alerted someone when I arrived at the airport and had spoken about my music. He didn’t like Led Zep or The Clash but there was no need to tell the police.” [Source: “Playing The Clash made me a terror suspect,” by Anne Campbell, The Daily Mail (4/5/06)]

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MAN IN THE MIRROR
DATELINE December 2005 Iran’s conservative new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has announced the return of a ban on “indecent and Western music” (including tunes by Eric Clapton, the Eagles, George Michael, & Kenny G) from radio & TV. This crackdown is a sad return to the harsh days following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution when foreign music was outlawed by Ayatollah Khomeini who condemned it as being "intoxicating." Then – after a promising eight-year period (1997-2005) of liberalization during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami which allowed the broadcasting of classical music, the resuming of concerts, & also offered up friendly gestures of outreach to the Western world (that were rudely rebuffed by the Bush Administration) – an ultraconservative backlash resulted in the unfortunate election of Ahmadinejad in August, 2005. Although Bush (whose hard-line ideological Christian Right base similarly condemns “indecent” modern music) missed a huge historic chance to befriend Iran’s democratic moderates, it is remarkable how Bush's and Ahmadinejad’s religiously fueled instincts and strong-man tactics actually mirror each other, as Iran’s leader has “jettisoned Iran’s moderation in foreign policy and pursued a purge in the government, replacing pragmatic veterans with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners.” [Source: “Iran's President Bans Western Music,” by Nasser Karimi, SFGate.com (12/20/05)]

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SHADY DEALS & CHRONIC DECEIT
DATELINE December 2005 The esteemed New York-based organization, Human Rights Watch, has revealed that the USA ran a secret gulag – the “Dark Prison” – near Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, where detainees were “deprived of sleep, chained to walls and forced to listen to loud music in total darkness for days.” And, in particular, the music of Eminem & Dr. Dre “were used as instruments of torture.” HRW’s report “quoted an Ethiopian-born detainee as saying he was kept in a pitch-black prison and forced to listen to” rap recordings “for 20 days before the music was replaced by ‘horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds.’” Meanwhile, leaders within the Bush Administration continue to confound the citizenry with a tortured logic which asserts that the United States does not and would never engage in torture – while simultaneously pushing the U.S. Congress to enact controversial new laws that would allow for the legal torture of detainees. [Source: “Eminem Music Allegedly Used As U.S. Torture Device,” Associated Press via kcra.com/news, (12/19/05)]

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DANCES LIKE WOLVES
DATELINE November, 2005 An official with the Seattle school district announced that his department was “setting a new policy after incidents at Roosevelt and other high schools in which parents had written to complain and students had been disciplined for freak dancing.” Various adults “raised concerns that such dancing could lead to sexual activity and shouldn’t be allowed at school-sanctioned dances.” The administrator said youths would now be required to limit their dance moves to those that “reasonable people would consider appropriate.” Problem is: even “reasonable” folks have always disagreed on what is acceptable – which is why this same moralistic controversy occurs time and again. As recently as the 1980’s the Lambada “dirty dancing” craze sparked a fire-storm of outrage, just as the Twist caused a puritanical panic when it was new back in 1961. Before that there were the “corrupting” and “debasing” Jazz Era dance-fads whose moves foes likened to those of “animals in heat” causing the so-called “animal dances” (i.e. the Fox Trot, the Grizzly Bear, and the Kangaroo Hop) to be outlawed by municipal morality codes in various American towns. Even earlier, a new dance called the Tango was banned for being “flirty,” and when the Waltz first emerged in the 1800s it was condemned as “reckless” and “naughty.” Even worse, according to the 1581 fulminations of that famous British scold, Phillip Stubbes, were those long-ago teenagers who he witnessed “smooching and slobbering one of another, what filthy groping and unclean handling is not practiced everywhere in these dancings? Yea – the every deed and action itself – which I shall not name – shall be portrayed and showed forth in their bawdy gestures one to another.” Same as it ever was... [Sources: “'Freak dancing' is too dirty for school officials, parents,” by Sam Skolnik, Seattle P-I, (11/16/05); Taboo Tunes (2004)]

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THE MUSIC WHICH CANNOT BE NAMED
DATELINE October 22, 2005 News from Saudi Arabia tells of an interesting aspect of life under that authoritarian government. In the same land where radio announcers are restricted from uttering words like “dance” or “party,” it seems that there is also a long list of particular words that are forbidden in printed form. And, these are not even the seven words (regarding sexual activities and excremental functions) that have been long banned from American radio and TV broadcasts. Rather, among the terms thought to be so offensive over there are: “music, “musician,” and “violin.” Thus, one daring Arabic reporter has wondered: “How can a musical instrument that is used so plentifully in every Arabic orchestra in the region be considered so subversive that it must be blackened from the textbooks of our children? Does the word “violin” really constitute such a threat to these innocent minds that it needs to be eradicated from all printed material available?” And, “whereas we are allowed to listen to music...we are [not allowed] to...name any of the aforementioned and must engage in the pretense of not knowing what these things are even though we hear them and see them loudly and clearly.” [Source: “We See Them, We Hear Them, but We Can’t Name Them,” by Lubna Hussain, arabnews.com (10/21/05)]

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WE WILL ROCK YOU
DATELINE September 5, 2005 The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department just hosted an event at Edwards Air Force Base where songs by musicians including Frank Sinatra and Queen were used to dazzle military and law enforcement officials with a new “crowd control” technology. Two companies, HPV Technologies and American Technology, proudly showed-off various “non-lethal sonic devices” like the Magnetic Acoustic Device (MAD) which is “capable of aiming sound precisely for thousands of feet – like the sonic equivalent of a laser, or spotlight.” Targets of this aural assault (which is intended “to harm subjects who do not comply with commands” and “can cause hearing damage”) experience excruciating inner-ear pain. Such weapons created “dizziness and nausea in human targets” when the Israeli Army employed them against protesters, and the U.S. Military is “currently using 60 of the devices in Iraq.” Although “several U.S. law enforcement agencies are using or plan to use the device shortly,” the first big domestic test for the MAD toys may be conducted by Hurricane Katrina military responders who are now set to recieve some – “for disaster-relief efforts” – in the Gulf Coast states. [Source: “Sonic ‘Lasers’ Head to Flood Zone,” by Xeni Jardin, wired.com/news/technology (9/2/05)]

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DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOATHE
DATELINE August 23, 2005 Finally! The deceitful lullabies sung by the Bush Administration to lull the public to sleep for the last five years no longer sound so sweet to some newly awakening ears. With Bush’s lies now being exposed, brave musicians are increasingly stepping forward with an alternative play-list for listeners to tune in to. Conscientious artists like Joan Baez, Steve Earle, and James McMurtry, have all sung in Crawford, Texas, to support Cindy Sheehan’s quest to make Bush aware of the crimes his war policies are committing. Hip-hop producer, Fredwreck, just released the confrontational (“there’s blood on all our hands”) record, “Dear Mr. President,” that includes raps by KRS-One and members of Cypress Hill, Dilated Peoples, and House of Pain. “Stranger in a Strange Land,” Barbara Streisand’s new song, is based on a pro-troops theme but includes lyrics about “fighting someone else’s war.” The lyrics of the Rolling Stones’s new tune, “Sweet Neo Con,” take pointed jabs at the war-profiteering of the confederate conmen (and Condi Rice) behind the Bush regime. Dolly Parton announced the release of a new album that includes versions of such Vietnam protest era classics as Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind,” the Byrds's ‘Turn, Turn, Turn,” Cat Stevens’s “Where Do The Children Play?,” and Peter, Paul and Mary's “The Cruel War” – an oldie that actually dates back to the Civil War. [Sources: “Earle lends passion to Iraq War protest near Bush’s ranch,” by Andy Langer, Dallas Morning News, (8/22/05); “The Iraq war, set to music,” by Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times (8/21/05); “Dolly Parton Gets Retro With Cover Tunes,” by John Gerome, Newsday.com (8/19/05); “Putting politics back into US hip-hop,” by Kris Evans, english.aljareeza.net (8/17/05)]

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A BLACK DAY IN HISTORY
DATELINE August 15, 2005 In an obvious attempt to bolster the plummeting public approval rates for the Bush dynasty’s War For Oil in Iraq, his Pentagon has announced that it will sponsor something called the “America Supports You Freedom Walk.” Although Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld asserts that the upcoming September 11th event will be geared towards reminding people of “the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation” – the very name they’ve applied to the march seems to make clear that the actual intent is more personal: to soothe Bush’s hurt feelings. The itinerary for that day – a public 2-mile hike from the Pentagon over to Washington’s National Mall where participants will be serenaded with pro-war anthems like “Iraq and I Roll” by country music star Clint Black – merits harsh criticism for being a bit of tax-payer supported propagandistic street theater, meant simply to further Bush & Rumsfeld’s discredited attempts to link Iraq to the terrorism of 9/11, 2001. [Sources: “Pentagon to host 9/11 march, show,” by Michael McAuliff, nydailynews.com (8/10/05); “September 11 walk stirs ire of anti-Iraq war protesters, Gulf Times, (8/13/05)]

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(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER
DATELINE Spring 2005 Re-fighting old fights is what a remarkable array of America’s radical-right are seemingly obsessed with. Back in the 1960s, conservatives attacked the Beatles as long-haired, satanic, sex-crazed, drug-addicted pacifists – now they charge the long-dead John Lennon, and his beautiful paeans to peace & love, with far worse offences. Example #1: The ongoing trial of Atlanta’s "Olympic Park bomber," Eric Rudolph, has revealed an admission that his goal had been to “to force the cancellation of the Games” because they exist “to promote the values of global socialism, as perfectly expressed in the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon.” So, because that tune was designated the official song of the 1996 Olympics which “promote these despicable ideals,” our all-American terrorist’s bomb killed two & injured 111 innocents. Example #2: A prominent Baptist Rev., Richard Land, habitually sermonizes against Lennon & the song “Imagine,” whose lyrics (his paranoid imagination has determined) promote “clone plantations, child sacrifice, legalized polygamy, and hardcore porn.” The good news? The bomber is in jail. The bad news? The Reverend actually serves as a regular weekly advisor to the Bush White House! [Sources: “Tipping Point,” Rock & Rap Confidential (5/05); The Daily Grail (4/15/05); “Plea Bargain” by Rachael Bell, crimelibrary.com (4/05)]

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VIVA LOUIE, LOUIE
DATELINE May 5, 2005 Those never-ending controversies over the song “Louie Louie” have, unbelievably, come to life yet once again. This time, the Superintendent of McCord Middle School in Benton Harbor, Michigan has ordered their marching band to desist from performing “Louie, Louie” because its “raunchy lyrics” are objectionable. Supt. Paula Downing has reportedly asserted that the banned song is “not appropriate for Benton Harbor students to play while representing the district.” And this, even though the band was planning on performing an instrumental version at the town’s upcoming annual Blossomtime Festival parade! Downing has since explained that her decree was made in response to concerns raised in a letter received from a parent. All of this hoopla is perfectly reminiscent of how the harmless song first got into trouble back in 1964 when some busybody parents – who took seriously a rumor that The Kingsmen’s recording of it had “pornographic” lyrics – and snitched to the FBI, sparking a two year tax-payer financed investigation which ultimately concluded that the song was safe because the record was, in truth, “unintelligible.” It would seem that some educating – based on facts not puritanical paranoia – might be in order for both Downing and those uninformed parents. [Source: “Band banned from performing 'Louie Louie',” boston.com (5/5/05)]

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UNDER THE GUN
DATELINE April 2005: Right-wing religious forces continue their campaigns of intolerance against modernity by pushing for increased governmental censorship within their societies. In Egypt this conservative crackdown is led by the plainly named Egyptian Censorship Committee who’ve targeted modern music videos featuring "sexual connotations and females barely dressed" & lyrics that "held no meaning and were basically gibberish." Meanwhile, with similar disdain for popular American radio and TV content, the crusade is being enforced in the USA through arbitrarily increased punitive measures as regulated by the Republican-led FCC. Recently, GOP U.S. Representative Fred Upton introduced a bill to Congress that authorizes the FCC to fine entertainers as much as $500,000 for intentionally performing "indecent material." And now, GOP U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner opens fire with calls for even harsher punishment & changing of the monitoring of “indecent” broadcasts from a regulatory matter for the FCC, to one where radio & TV staff who offend his sensibilities would personally "face a criminal process"– a point he emphasized with this violent rhetoric: "That is the way to go. Aim the cannon specifically at the people committing the offenses.” [Sources: “Key lawmaker calls for criminalizing TV indecency,” Hollywood Reporter via netscape.com (4/5/05); “Egypt opens fire on seductive music videos, albawaba.com (3/31/05); "Anti-Indecency Forces Opposed," Frank Ahrens, Washington Post (3/26/05)]

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RADIO FREE AMERICA?
DATELINE March 2005: A France-based musician, Rachid Taha (& native of Oran, Algeria), has pointed out a fallacy foisted by nationalists like Msrs. Bush & Blair whose hyper-patriotic rhetoric rests upon the notion that their countries’ particular socio-political systems are superior to any others around the globe. Taha says “Censorship is actually stronger in the West,” & that “Western leaders lead us to believe we are free to express our views – when actually we’re not.” The BBC notes that Taha – whose music reflects the folk-music traditions of rai – the Arabic term for “opinion” – observed that “Western radio stations [are] more restrictive in what they play than their counterparts in the Middle East.” His point is that our conservative radio industry systematically rejects songs with overt political content: “You hear no political songs on the radio in Europe – just Britney Spears and that sort of thing.” Whether one agrees with the messages within political music broadcast in certain Muslim countries or not, it is hard to deny that songs of dissent have disappeared from corporate American radio in recent times. [Source: “Algerian star slams ‘censorship’” BBC News (3/10/05)]

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ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN BE USED AGAINST YOU…
DATELINE January / February 2005: While President Bush sings about freedom in the air, his Federal Communications Commission bulldozes ahead with an intimidation campaign against freedom of expression on the airwaves. The FCC – whose job is to enforce rules against the broadcasting of descriptions or depictions of “sexual or execratory organs or activities” – is on a spree of imposing huge fines on broadcasters whose transgressions actually deserve debate. But in lieu of a civic debate, the FCC has instead created a fearful atmosphere in which skittish TV networks expand the list of words that people can’t say, and radio stations rush to censor songs – even old ones that have aired countless times over decades without problem. Examples: several months back, major radio networks suddenly began bleeping ‘70s Classic Rock gems like Steve Miller’s “Jet Airliner” and Pink Floyd’s “Money.” Of course, neither Miller’s lyrics [“I don’t want to get caught up in that funky shit goin’ down in the city”] nor the latter song’s [“Don’t gimme none of that do-goody-goody bullshit”] had anything do with sex or, say, bovine body waste. But, fear rules the day and so there is no rhyme or reason to this neo-Victorian censorship campaign. Witness: MTV edits out the word “pants” from Avril Lavigne’s “Don’t Tell Me” [“Don’t tell me that your charm…will get you in my pants, I’ll have to kick your ass”] while leaving intact that violent reference to assaulting someone’s derrière – even though the exact same word [“ass”] was censored from Ludacris’ “Blow It Out” by NYC’s top hip-hop radio station. Now consider the countless airings Toby Keith's violent "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" ["we'll put a boot in your ass"] has gotten from "conservative" Country music radio stations since 2001! Then there’s the poor, now-suspended, Florida high school journalism student who blew it during his daily sports broadcast by enthusing that their victorious soccer team had “really kicked some booty” – and then added: “I love booty.” And the singer Nellie McKay, whose utterance of “You suck” on herGet Away From Me album caused NPR to censor it on the advice of an attorney wary of “the FCC’s rapidly shifting use of indecency and profanity rules.” The  arbitrary nature of the FCC-driven purge indicates that one set of rules applies to rockers and rappers, and second one applies to conservatives. Just consider that the right-wing radio king, Rush Limbaugh, recently made a hateful joke about someone going “to San Francisco to have an add-a-dick-to-me operation.” And with this (the nation-wide broadcasting of a slang reference to male genitalia) we finally have an actual and undeniable breach of the law – yet, Bush’s government remains oddly passive about the incident. This hypocrisy perfectly showcases why freedom of speech works best without political interference, because ultimately, as the late Lenny Bruce once noted, “If you can't say ‘fuck,’ you can't say ‘fuck the government.’” [Sources: “Student suspended for “booty” TV remark,” www.news-press.com (2/4/05); “Fearful US TV networks censor more shows,” Dominic Timms, The Guardian (1/18/05); “FCC launches probe into latest profanity slip,” David Bauder, SanDiego.com (1/4/05); “FCC Action Alert!!!,” atrios.blogspot.com (12/15/04); “For Better or Curse: An FCC crackdown has radio stations on high alert,” Michael Roberts, Westword.com (8/5/04); “What the #%@& is off-limits now?,” Jeremy Egner, Current (4/26/04)]

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BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
DATELINE November 2004: Back in 1963 Bob Dylan’s classic “Masters of War” (which has been celebrated as one of the toughest anti-war protest songs ever penned) probably helped earn him his spot on the FBI’s Security Index “watch list.” Similar illegal domestic surveillance operations in the 1960s also targeted his anti-war musical peers like Phil Ochs, Odetta, the Fugs, Eartha Kitt, Janis Ian, and the MC5. Now, with President Bush’s “crusade” to force “freedom and democracy” on various far-flung lands, intimidation campaigns against skeptics of this Bush Doctrine increase back home. A news report informs that on November 11th Bush’s Secret Service agents visited Colorado’s Boulder High School to assess the danger posed by three students planning to perform “Masters of War” at a talent show. Responding to phoned-in tips provided by un-named tattletales within that community, agents grilled the Principal “about whether any threats were being made against the president’s life.” But, of course they weren’t – it’s just a song after all – albeit one that even a peace-nik like Dylan admitted was unusually desparate: “I've never really written anything like that before…I don't sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn't help it in this one. The song is a sort of striking out, a reaction to the last straw, a feeling of what can you do?” Despite the ultra-bitter lyrics, however, “Masters of War” remains perfectly legal to sing under our Constitution’s Free Speech guarantees. Still, upon hearing the tune – or reading the lyrics [Click here: bobdylan.com] – it is easy to see why Dylan’s four-decade-old scathing condemnation of leaders who cavalierly launch senseless wars would hit so close to home for the Bush White House. [Sources: “Secret Service pays a visit to Boulder High,” Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (11/12/04), The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, LP liner notes, Columbia Records (5/27/63)]

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DEMOCRACY IS NOT KID STUFF
DATELINE September 2004: Even though Kid Rock did go to New York City during the recent GOP Convention to perform for Republicans, the hyper-Patriotic musician apparently failed to listen to Senator Zell Miller’s speech there, which asserted that: “it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.” And, it is the Kid who apparently doesn’t honor those hard-won freedoms, as the Clear Channel News Network reports that he “insists rockers have no right getting involved with politics.” On the warpath against fellow musicians who are opposed to Bush’s policies (calling out Bruce Springsteen & Jon Bon Jovi specifically), Kid stated that “I do not believe that artists or actors and people should be out there like voicing their full-blown opinions on politics.” Digging his hole deeper, Kid asks: “Who would you trust to make your decisions, (Secretary of Defense) Donald Rumsfeld or the Dixie Chicks?” – a rhetorical inquiry easily countered with another: Well, of those two choices, which one has proven to be, "like," catastrophically wrong about almost everything in Bush’s Iraq War? Even Kid’s attempt to justify why other citizens shouldn’t exercise the precious rights that generations of our soldiers have died protecting, didn’t help his argument one bit: “because, let’s face it, at the end of the day, I’m not that smart of a guy. I play rock ‘n’ roll, that's what I do.” [Source: “Kid Rock Blasts Political Rockers For Ignoring the Troops,” Clear Channel News Network via z1077.com radio, St Louis, Missouri (9/04)]

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TWISTED, WEIRD & STRANGE
DATELINE September 1, 2004: Faced with national opinion polls showing Vice President Dick Cheney to be a very unpopular man, his wife, Lynne Cheney, took on the task of trying to soften her husband’s harsh public image via a televised speech at the GOP Convention. After relaying a charming tale about meeting as teenagers & becoming high school sweethearts, she then proceeded to proudly brag that as a young dating couple they’d never ever done “The Twist.” That was a reference, of course, to the phenomenally popular dance-fad named after Chubby Checker’s (#1) 1960 hit song. And with that revelation – an admission that even in their youth, this duo had no affinity with the common interests of their own generation – she effectively negated her assigned goal: that of humanizing the VP through the portrayal of him as a regular Joe. Considering the Cheneys’ mutual penchant for endless warring against the 1960s (& all of modern pop culture), this new biographical detail simply solidifies their reputation as out-of-touch sticks-in-the-mud. And when you pair the VP with George W. Bush – a guy who has previously stated that he’d lost interest in rock ‘n’ roll after the Beatles got “a bit weird” & “strange,” & who also informed an Oprah Winfrey Show audience in 2000 his favorite song is “‘Wake Up Little Susie’ by Buddy Holly” – the 1957 hit (about a couple teens who fall asleep at the drive-in movie & then conspire to concoct a “cover story” to tell their parents) that was actually recorded by the Everly Brothers (not Holly) – we get an even clearer sense of how little connection these bunkered & blindered millionaire elitists really have with mainstream America. [Sources: C-Span (9/1/04); songfacts.com; “John, Paul, George and.... Al?!,” Martin Lewis, Time.com (11/6/00)]

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JAMAICA JERKS
DATELINE August 2004: For the third consecutive year, British gay rights groups have worked to draw attention to the recent spate of violently homophobic lyrics favored by a number of popular reggae artists including Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Sizzla, Elephant Man, Buju Banton, TOK, Capelton, & Vybz Kartel. Concerns that such artists’ songs overtly “encourage and glorify the murder of gay people” have led to boycotts, picketing, & demands that the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) organization ban them from their annual awards show. One activist group, OutRage!, apparently applied enough “pressure drop” on the EMI label – imploring them to cancel Beenie Man’s contract – that the ‘03 MOBO nominee was forced to cough up a statement offering his “sincerest apologies to those who might have been offended, threatened or hurt by my songs.” Among those who have felt threatened by his lyrics – or the actions of his hate-filled fans – include OutRage! members who were physically assaulted (& threatened with death) by a mob while peacefully protesting outside the ‘02 MOBO event in London. The head of OutRage! explained that “The MOBO organizers would never agree to the nomination of a racist singer who advocated the killing of black or Jewish people. Why are they validating homophobes? …It would be great if some MOBO winners used their acceptance speeches to make it clear that racism and homophobia have no place in popular music.” This year, MOBO’s leadership finally responded by excluding various reggae stars from consideration & declaring a new commitment to refrain from helping to “publicly promote” them. Given that calls to kill people in this “murder music” amount to no less than hate speech – one of the very few forms of communication not protected (here in the USA) by free speech guarantees – MOBO’s stance is an admirable-if-belated one. [Sources: “Mobo bars anti-gay musicians,” Ben Townley, uk.gay.com (8/24/04); “Gay group seeks Mobo awards ban,” BBC News (8/23/04); “Mobo awards marred by anti-gay violence, OutRage! News Service (10/2/02); “MOBO Awards picketed by gays tonight,” OutRage! News Service (9/30/02)]

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LEAVIN’ LAS VEGAS
DATELINE July 2004: “It was a very ugly scene,” is how the boss of Las Vegas’ Aladdin Hotel-Casino described the finale to Linda Ronstadt’s 7/17 concert. For her tour’s encore number, the singer has been introducing “Desperado” with a few words praising film-maker Michael Moore as a “great American patriot” whose Fahrenheit 9/11 is “spreading the truth” about President Bush’s questionable leadership. Just a couple days prior, the singer was quoted as saying: “This is an election year, and I think we're in desperate trouble and it's time for people to speak up and not pipe down.” The casino crowd apparently disagreed as her comments “drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater” & “also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air.” Aladdin’s response to this lawless vandalism? After the show, Ronstadt was refused reentry to her private suite & then “escorted off the property” with a publicly delivered warning that she’d never work the room again. In response to this latest example of corporate America’s serving as flank-guard for a notoriously thin-skinned Administration, Moore penned a scolding missive to Aladdin: “For you to throw [her] off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and Un-American.” Others, the singer noted, agree: "Irving Azoff, who is the Eagles' manager, immediately pulled all his acts from the Aladdin. I've had phone calls and messages from all over. Elton John sent me flowers last night. Keith Richards, Sting – the list goes on and on of people pouring in support." Differing with Republicans who insist that liberal stars "just shut up," Ronstadt sez: "I think (celebrities) should try to get people to think. I think they need to bring information to the public. The American media has been completely hijacked by corporate interests. The news is so biased, and we've got to get it through any way that we can. ...Now I don't think somebody should take my word. Because I'm a singer doesn't necessarily make me an expert in world politics... But I think my obligation at this point is to try to steer people into just thinking." A less reactionary audience at LA's Universal Amphitheatre on (7/20) reportedly "reserved its longest and loudest ovation for her endorsement of Moore's film," justifying Ronstadt's retort to the Sin City's censors: "I'll damn well say what I please, as I always have." Which is why, at her San Diego show (7/19), she pointedly dedicated her rendition of Nat King Cole's "Straighten Up And Fly Right," to "the good folks at Enron, who brought you the California energy crisis." [Sources: "Linda Ronstadt annoying or not?," Norm Clarke, Las Vegas Review-Journal (7/21/04)"Reports of casino incident not accurate, Ronstadt says," Daniel Buckley, Tucson Citizen (7/21/04); “Casino boots Ronstadt for praising Moore,” Adam Goldman, Associated Press via Seattle P-I (7/19/04); “The real deal: Linda Ronstadt's current tour – ‘history lesson of music...’” George Varga, San Diego Union Tribune (7/15/04)]

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STIR IT UP
DATELINE July 2004: President Bush has asserted that it’s up to future historians to determine whether or not his Iraq crusade was justified or not. In the meantime, musicians continue to weigh-in on the matter – John Fogerty’s new antiwar contribution, “Déjà Vu (All Over Again),” notes the obvious parallels to an earlier military debacle. As he explained: “For anyone old enough to have lived through the Vietnam War, the thing in Iraq just seems spookily reminiscent…I just keep thinking, ‘Gee, we aren’t going to do this, are we? We’re not that dumb, are we?’…It’s like the latter stages of the Vietnam War. A lot of people are learning that to speak out against your government policy is not un-American. It’s OK to protest. It seems like a lesson that has to be learned by every generation.” A younger generation represented by, say, Moby & Public Enemy who just collaborated on a tune, “Make Love F*ck War,” about which Moby said: “we do still ostensibly live in a democracy, so my hope is that at some point the people will vocally rise up and let the current leaders know that they've had enough.” Another artist who’s had enough is rapper, Jadakiss, whose new album, Kiss of Death has struck a resonant chord with music fans – the disc’s heavy sales caused it to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. The album’s hot single is “Why?” a song that raises a number of questions about 9/11 including the incendiary inquiry, “Why did Bush knock down the Towers?” Jadakiss explains: “I just felt [Bush] had something to do with that…A lot of my people felt that he had something to do with it.” Fearful of government retribution, the entertainment industry has taken steps to protect itself: Interscope Records provided a censored video to MTV & censored promotional singles to skittish radio stations. One station’s Program Director informed Billboard (on the condition of anonymity) that he would not be airing the original uncut version because “‘they can hear us in Washington D.C., and I don't want the Secret Service knocking down my door in the middle of the night.’” Conversely, New York’s WWPR is bravely playing it as their PD correctly noted of the rapper: “‘Freedom of speech gives him the right to say what he does.’” Jadakiss sez: “‘They’re censoring me all over the place, and that’s good. …I wrote it to be political, controversial, and to stir some things up.’”[Sources: "Jadakiss Single Courts Controversy,” Rashaun Hall, Billboard.com (7/9/04); ”Iraq gives him 'Déjà Vu' :John Fogerty once wrote protest songs about Vietnam. Now he looks at today's conflict, and still he wonders,” Robert Hilburn, LA Times (7/9/04); “‘Make Love F*ck War’ iTunes download exclusive available now!,” V2 Records Press Release (7/1/04)]

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TIENNAMEN SQUARES
DATELINE Summer 2004: Authoritarian leaders in China are unleashing yet another wave of repressive measures against the citizenry in ongoing efforts to control the expression of unregulated ideas. Word has leaked out that they are now expanding censorship controls to include all cell-phone text-messages. Telephone service providers will monitor private communications, filter for the use of certain key-words, & then automatically notify police. While the obvious concern is that political rebels will be targeted, the situation is apparently even more complex than that. The LA Times reports that “the government recently announced a series of steps to bolster social, ethical and moral standards among underage Chinese.” As the publisher of a teen-oriented magazine over there explained: “‘What they’re really afraid of is not political dissidents. It’s long hair, decadence, punks and hip-hop.’” As the China Communist Youth League’s propaganda department vice-chief explained: “‘We’re trying to enhance our influence over young people and promote traditional culture.’” While fostering a greater appreciation for cultural traditions certainly can be a noble goal – forcefully obstructing cultural evolution is not. [Sources: “Increasingly rebellious teens give China’s senior officials the jitters,” Mark Magnier, Seattle Times (7/4/04); “China’s Newest Cultural Revolution Worries Elders,” Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times (7/3/04); “China to censor text messages,” Louisa Lim, BBC News (7/2/04)]

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SEEMS YOU JUST CAN’T ANTI-TRUST ANYONE ANYMORE
DATELINE June 25, 2004: At a time when edgy artists already face increasing attacks from conservative foes, the ever-greedy music biz has created a new, and wholly unnecessary, problem by supplying objectionable music directly to public schools. As part of an anti-trust settlement for a price-fixing case where the defendants – distributor/retailers like Tower & Musicland, and labels like EMI, WEA, Sony, Universal, & BMG – were accused of conspiring to set artificially high CD prices, these firms agreed to refund consumers a paltry $67 million. In addition, they were required to give $75 million worth of free CDs to public schools & libraries in the 43 plaintiff states. A key detail in that sweet deal was that those discs could not be junk. Ideally, the discs would represent a wide array of age-appropriate music that might provide valuable educational opportunities for students. But when the CDs started arriving in mid-June, librarians were understandably disturbed. As one newspaper noted: “Raunchy music wasn’t what anyone in education or the Attorney General’s Office had in mind.” But – in a cynical move that reeks of a bulk dumping of old dead-weight product – the defendants supplied (in addition to such “hot” product as CDs by Yanni, Martha Stewart, & the Bee Gees) the following among their 115,241 “donations” for the kids: 114 copies of Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch;” 204 copies of Everclear’s “Good Time for a Bad Attitude;” 387 hip-hop CDs (with “Explicit Lyrics”) by Big Punisher; 356 copies of some Barry “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me” White disc; and plenty of copies of that wholesome family fave, the soundtrack to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” [Sources: The Anti-Trust Litigation Settlement Web Site (musiccdsettlement.com); “CD settlement arrives with a note of irony,” Associated Press / Seattle Times (6/25/04); “CD trove is proving short on treasures,” Candace Hickman, Seattle P-I (6/24/04)]

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RACY LANGUAGE ALERT!
DATELINE June 25, 2004: Vice President Dick Cheney broke with both diplomatic decorum and long-standing tradition yesterday by angrily cursing a senator on the hallowed floor of the U.S. Senate. When greeted by Democratic Sen. Leahy – one of the few alert enough to have actually noted the VP's apparent personal war-profiteering conflict-of-interests in the Iraq debacle – Cheney roared “GO FCCK YOURSELF!” Ironically, just two days prior, that very same Senate – who, it's been said, are facing an “uproar” of “public ire over racy language” – voted 99-1 to vastly increase fines for broadcasters & entertainers that air objectionable words. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback asserted that “People are tired of this indecent material on over-the-air public broadcast.” Furthermore: “the issue had been debated enough,” & this “is something the public wants.” That alleged societal consensus must be why these 99 public servants united to rush their vote without even bothering to hold a floor-debate over its highly debatable merits. Indeed – because the bill (S. 2056) was snuck in through the backdoor as a stealth attachment to a wartime Defense Department budget authorization – one could easily conclude that naughty words are now considered an urgent "National Security" issue. With Bush’s FCC looking to exact higher fines – now up to $3 million a day per violator – it might have been nice if such public-interest/ cultural issues were addressed in broad daylight & in an above-board manner. But, perhaps it is merely quaint and old-fashioned to wish for a bit more democratic process in our “democracy.” [Source: “Salty Language as Cheney and Senator Clash,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times (6/25/04); “Senate OKs Higher Fines for Indecency,” Jessie J. Holland, Associated Press via Yahoo.com (6/22/04)]

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CLEARLY CHANNELING JESSE HELMS
DATELINE May 28, 2004: Volatile racial issues continue to swirl around Fox-TV’s popular talent-show series, American Idol. First there were the charges of racism leveled at the voting public when one African-American singer was voted off in favor of a few other obviously less-talented white contestants. Now, only one day after the season finale resulted in a different African-American singer – the glamorous young (single-parent), Fantasia Barrino – prevailing, controversy has once again broken out. News reports from Durham, North Carolina, note that a local Baptist minister, Paul Scott, has launched an on-line petition-drive seeking public support for his condemnation of statements broadcast on a local radio station, G105, by an on-air “talent” named Bob Dumas. While the problematic Dumas has been suspended a few times in the past (due to his unacceptable language and behavior), this time G105 (a member of the controversial national network, Clear Channel, which had only recently announced their own new “Responsible Broadcast Initiative” – an in-house policy intended to “make sure that material aired…conforms to the standards and sensibilities of the local communities they serve.”) has defended him. Station management insists that Dumas’ rude characterization of Barrino as a “low class,” “ghetto,” person who even had “a child out of wedlock,” had “nothing to do with race.” And thus, one can fairly presume, those slurs perfectly conform to the standards and sensibilities of the local community they serve. If so, then the sorry legacy of Senator Helms lives on. [Sources: “Clear Channel Imposes Strict New Standards for Broadcast Decency,” businesswire.com (2/25/04); “Elton John: 'Idol' vote is 'racist' – Upset about 'great voices' ending up in bottom three,” Reuters, via cnn.com (4/27/04); “Minister takes aim at radio personality for ‘Idol’ comments,” Mark Schultz, the herald.sun.com (5/28/04)]

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FRIENDLY PERSUASION
DATELINE April 21, 2004: Leave it to that milquetoast ‘50s pop singer, Pat Boone, to resurface expounding on all the benefits of society embracing more censorship. Boone recently mentioned how, in his view, “I don't think censorship is a bad word, but it has become a bad word because everybody associates it with some kind of restriction on liberty.” With the FCC currently on an intimidation rampage against the radio biz, Boone stepped up to suggest the preferred model of censorship for his ideal America: “It must be majority approved ... voluntary...and self-imposed. Censorship is healthy for any society, and that goes for arts, entertainment, anything. Self-imposed means that the majority of people say that is what we want, and it can be changed if people’s attitudes change, which is how a democratic society works.” Boone, who works as a conservative political lobbyist today, insists upon his utter reasonableness: “I know better than to collar people and try to force my views on people.” [Source: “Censorship in arts 'healthy,' Boone says,” Steve Miller, www.washingtontimes.com (4/21/04)]

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YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG
DATELINE April 2004: Reports from Iraq inform that U.S. Army Psy-Ops teams have revived a dubious war-fare technique ever-popular with Presidents named Bush. Way back during G.H.W. Bush’s 1989 assault on Panama, our forces famously used high-volume broadcasts of rock music to, ostensibly, drive that nation’s leader, Manuel Noriega, out from his hiding spot. Now, with Bush’s son’s war raging in Iraq, we are back doing the same thing in order to “grate on the nerves” of militant Muslim forces. Thus, when night descends on the poor town of Fallujah, our guys blast tunes like ACDC’s “Hell’s Bells,” Jimi Hendrix hits, & “sound effects like babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs, and piercing screeches” from a giant loudspeaker with “hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic…will draw the gunmen out.” Oh, and the tactic is also intended to “give a laugh to marines along the front line.” [Source: “U.S. deploys loud music, insults in Fallujah,” Associated Press / globeandmail.com (4/16/04)]

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I WANT MY WAR-TV
DATELINE April 13, 2004: With Egypt’s traditional Spring Festival, Sham Al Nasim, fast approaching, a member of that nation’s parliament submitted a request to their Minister of Information pleading that Egyptian TV be barred from broadcasting such events as the upcoming Cairo concert by Lebanese singing star, Nancy Ajram. His justification? “Egypt needs to give support to the Iraqi people at the current time,” & that, “it is very inconsiderate and inappropriate for Egyptian television to preoccupy people with foolish entertainment by singers like Nancy at a time when Iraqi people are suffering at the hands of the American invaders.” Furthermore, he stressed, the “mere fact that people are being brainwashed with such events hurts the intelligence of the Arab world and drifts them away from what is important.” Besides, “what loss is there if Nancy and her like did not attend such events and sing their songs?” And, “instead of…covering events in Iraq, Egyptian television is wasting its time broadcasting concerts and foolish nonsense.” [Source: “Nancy Ajram encounters new obstacles with the Egyptian Parliament,” Albawaba.com (4/13/04)]

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GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
DATELINE April 4, 2004: Attendees to Canada’s annual Juno Awards event in Edmonton witnessed the usual parade of homegrown talents in performance – along with an unusual bonus: the show’s host, Alanis Morrissette, surprised the crowd with a dramatic political gesture. Once onstage, the popular singer allowed her blue gown to slip to the floor, revealing a skin-tight/flesh-toned bodysuit replete with exaggerated nipples and a remarkably furry pubic area. An obvious visual jab at Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” scandal, Morrissette stated her goal was to “expose” the current wave of “hypocritical U.S. censorship. …They’re in an era when they’re scared, when there’s lots of fear,” she empathized. “We live in a land” she told her fellow Canadians, “where we still think the human body is beautiful and we're not afraid of the female breast.” The singer also took a moment to scorch various prudish American radio networks that have forced her to alter one of her song’s lyrics. [Source: “Alanis Morissette attacks ‘U.S. censorship,’” Scott Pattison, reuters.co.uk (4/5/04)]

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CHINESE TAKE-OUT
DATELINE April 2, 2004: Radio Free Asia reports that on March 10th Chinese state security forces rounded-up two popular Tibetan folk musicians – Namkha & Bakocha (a monk from the Ba Shangtse Monastery) – “apparently because of the implicit political content” of songs such as “Tsenpoe Poinya” (“King's Messenger”), & “Amdo Pogoe” (“Courageous Amdo Man”). “There isn’t actually any serious political content,” to the songs, an RFA source suggested: “it all depends on how you interpret them.” A Tibetan policeman confirmed that compact discs of the musicians’ work had been confiscated, and that fellow monks had been warned of “serious consequences” should they be found in possession of Namkha’s CDs. The current whereabouts of the musicians remain unknown. [Source: “China arrests popular Tibetan musicians,” news.yahoo.com (4/2/04)]

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AN AGE-OLD PROBLEM
DATELINE Spring 2004: A veteran hit-making band discovers that the music biz & media are shunning them as "has-beens" & both refuse to give their latest recordings a fair chance. Frustrated, the musicians devise a ruse intended to bypass this de facto embargo. A batch of new songs are secretly recorded & stealthily distributed (under a pseudonym) to unaware radio staff who like the tunes & respond with enthusiastic support. That’s what occurred in mid-February when a Welsh band, The Alarm – who had scored a number of hits in the 1980s, but more recently had been told repeatedly by industry folk that they were just “too old” – released a new song. “45 RPM” (as credited to a fictitious group: “The Poppyfields”) immediately hit the British airwaves and popularity charts. The Alarm, understandably, wasted no time in crowing about their successful scam. But this type of ageist bigotry in the record biz is nothing new. It was in 1969 that Paul Revere & the Raiders faced a similar problem: not only had they formed way back in 1958 & been recording hits since 1961, but their Top-40 pop-rock style was anathema to the emerging psychedelic FM radio aesthetic. So, as singer Mark Lindsay told Hit Parader magazine, “To prove a point, a friend of ours who worked for Columbia [Records]…was talking to people at one of the early underground FM rock stations in LA. They asked him if there were any hot new groups. He told them about this band, Pink Puzz… The guy at the station kept pressuring our friend for an advance tape…and he finally brought [one] – no titles on it. He said ‘’Well, here it is, but don’t tell anybody.’ They liked it, and played it 3 times in 4 hours: ‘Pink Puzz – Watch for this new group!’” But then somebody tipped off the snookered DJs and those “Pink Puzz” tunes were dropped. Lindsay rued, “As one group our music was acceptable, as another it wasn’t.” Regardless, The Raiders went ahead and issued their ambitious LP as, Alias Pink Puzz, scoring a (#20) hit with "Let Me." [Sources: “Welsh band the Alarm gives new name to familiar sound, snags a hit,” Tom Moon, Knight Ridder Newspapers (3/12/04); Paul Revere & the Raiders: History Rebeats Itself, Claudia M. Doege (1985)]

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DANCE LIKE AN EGYPTIAN (OR ELSE!)
DATELINE Spring 2004: The Egyptian Musicians Association has "called a war on songs they have labeled as 'pornographic'" and begun "a legal campaign against artists who cross the line of decency." The EMA has demanded the arrest of the nation’s latest singing sensation, Ruby, for performing without proper permits. A member of the organization explained that, “anyone who attempts to practice singing without being a member of the association must be prosecuted by serving a jail sentence or paying a large fine.” Perhaps her greater infraction, though, was that Ruby has released two music videos, “which are deemed inappropriate for television viewers.” For good measure, the EMA also filed a lawsuit against the production company that filmed the songs in video form – “an illegal act.” In addition, EMA officials mentioned the “improper and shameful appearance” of Ruby in one video where she – clad in a belly dancer’s costume – dances in the streets, & another where she performs in a “very indecent red dress…which reveals most of her body,” & shows her “seductively moving her body without dancing just highlighting her most attractive features.” In response the EMA board has reportedly "formed a fact-finding team to follow Ruby’s concerts" & monitor her performances. Meanwhile, the "campaign has reached the People’s Assembly, where the Committee of Culture and Information held a special hearing to discuss ways of confronting the phenomenon and the measures to be taken. The parliamentarians issued a call to the Egyptian people to boycott these songs and a call to the owners of satellite stations to reconsider what they broadcast." [Sources: “Ruby under arrest!,” Albawaba.com (3/29/04); “A campaign to boycott Ruby takes effect in Egypt,” Albawaba.com (4/20/04)]

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DEPT. of HOMEBOY SECURITY
DATELINE March 2004: The Miami Police Department has admitted to secretly monitoring visits to Florida by hip-hop stars including Puff Daddy and DMX. When challenged to justify the hitherto secret surveillance program, the MPD referenced the violent reputation of the rap scene, and with a straight-face said they spied on the musicians in order “To protect them.” Rolling Stone magazine’s Anthony DeCurtis noted that “There's been no shortage of rock stars and other musicians” scrutinized by police, “but there has never been anything like this.” Additional details of the program reveal that since May, 2001, the cops “have photographed rappers and their entourages at Miami International Airport and staked out hotels, video shoots and nightclubs while consulting 6-inch-thick dossiers of rappers and (their) associates.” Perhaps, most disquieting was the admission that their “officers were sent to New York for a three-day training session in May, along with police from Los Angeles, Atlanta and other cities” – indicating that this practice is not an isolated incident. [Source: “Police Secretly Watching Hip-Hop Celebs,” news.yahoo.com (3/10/04)]

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IT’S JUST A KISS AWAY…
DATELINE March 2004: Indonesia’s parliamentary committee on “pornography” announced that it was favoring a proposed bill that would ban kissing on the lips in public places, erotic dancing, unwed couples from cohabitating, & other criminal acts in a new “clampdown on morality” crusade. The head of that committee explained that “The bill aims to protect people from exploitation and promote morality and ethics” – furthermore: “authorities plan to start raiding neighborhoods on March 16 looking for unwed couples.” A local government official said “Our country has eastern values that are high in moral standards, not like western countries, which consent to such practices.” [Source: “Indonesia proposes ban on kissing,” Chris Brummitt, Associated Press (3/9/04)]

DOWN WITH BRITNEY’S BLUEJEANS!
DATELINE March 2004: “We must take action now” exhorts a UW freshman in her Seattle Times guest opinion essay. “It’s time to boycott CDs and artists because of objectionable content, and support the pop divas who keep their clothes on and sing about stuff that matters.” Among pop singer Britney Spears’ many offenses cataloged are, “Rumored breast implants. …Cigarettes and alcohol. …A kiss with Madonna.” And: getting married “in Las Vegas” while wearing – Heaven forfend! – “bluejeans and baseball cap.” Not to even mention Spears’ new In The Zone CD, whose songs spark feelings of “revulsion and shock.” She went on to posit that “If we stop supporting CDs with offensive lyrics…artists will be forced to change,” and “With our prompting, Britney and other artists could send motivational messages through songs….Imagine the possibilities if performers addressed moral strength.” Fine. But also try and imagine the valuable free-time our upset coed correspondent would have on her hands if she didn’t devote so many hours to obsessing over Ms. Spears’ every last move. [Source: “Cinderella turned Stripperella,” Christina Asavareungchai, Seattle Times (3/4/04)]

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THOU SHALT HAVE NO IDOLS
DATELINE Spring 2004: After all the publicity devoted to Janet Jackson’s self-serving public-exposure of her privates at the recent Super Bowl, a goodly portion of America's “heartland” were apparently so thoroughly agitated as to start seeing “indecency” everywhere they gazed. Even on that impossibly squeaky-clean Fox-TV amateur talent-show, American Idol ! Reports noted that viewers got up-in-arms after thinking they'd seen Simon Cowell flipping the 'ol one-finger salute towards one of his fellow on-air Judges. (Other eye-witnesses, it should be noted, either missed it entirely or simply recognized that Cowell habitually rests his head on one, two, three, or more fingers.) Then: the Washington Times reported that 700 complaints were registered by viewers of the Oprah Winfrey Show which had featured one of her typically polite discussions about sexual matters. Then: one FCC commissioner took to complaining about the content of daytime soap operas, saying that "just by accident" he'd seen them & ‘‘It was pretty steamy stuff for the middle of the afternoon.'' And as a result, he suggested that a serious crackdown was desirable. Obviously, these fellow citizens of ours are folks who could use a remedial course in locating the off-button on their televisions. [Sources: "Fox flips over Cowell's one-finger salute," azcentral.com (3/25/04); "FCC leader to stay tuned to racy soaps," Chris Baker, Washington Times (4/1/04); “Beware the soaps viewers,” Tom Teepen, Helena Independent Record (4/8/04)]

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MAXIMUM INDECENCY?
DATELINE Spring 2004: With a weighty phrase like “maximum indecency” currently being invoked by powerful politicians, one might assume their outrage was being directed towards the unconscionably violent sexual-torture assaults photographed at, & reported from, the U.S. military’s prison camps in Iraq. But, no. Even though we've now learned that the Bush Administration had been receiving reports about such practices for many months prior to word of those illegal acts finally being leaked to the general public (in March and April), the above quoted phrase was actually being applied to, well, what else? Stuff like old rock ‘n’ roll songs. Yup. In the wake of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl bra-ha-ha, America’s censorious right-wingers saw their opportunity to launch yet another election-year Culture War crusade & thus the U.S. House of Representatives Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee wasted no time in proposing reactionary legislation to raise the “maximum indecency” fine (for radio and television breeches of FCC guidelines) to a whopping $500,000 per “infraction” – & the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee quickly concurred. Executives of various major entertainment media conglomerates were then “invited” to testify before these inquisitors. Intimidated, Viacom/Infinity Broadcasting panicked and instituted a new emergency “Responsible Broadcasting Initiative” that resulted in about 25 venerable radio staples – including Pink Floyd’s 1973 (No.13) hit, “Money,” Steve Miller’s 1977 (No.8) hit, “Jet Airliner,” & The Who’s 1978 (No. 14) hit, “Who Are You” – being censored or banished from their many stations. In noting that this new “indecency scare has rippled down to station playlists,” InsideRadio.com quoted one Classic Rock (format) programmer musing how “it’s odd that 25-year-old songs that have made literally billions of impressions now [suddenly] get neutered.” Similarly, just one day before an exec with the Clear Channel radio network was slated to testify, that firm preemptively suspended their veteran star “shock-jock,” Howard Stern, from a half-dozen stations. Their claim? That he’d violated their new Code of Conduct forbidding rude language. Stern’s position? That he was sacked only because he’d just begun questioning some of President Bush’s policies on-air (after years of supporting the guy). Then, when that suspension was made permanent in April, the shocked jock railed on his website that: “It is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S. It's hard to reconcile this with the ‘land of the free’ and the 'home of the brave.” [Sources: “New clampdown on indecency recalls Nixon / Agnew era,” John Gorman, Cleveland Free Times (3/3/04); “Broadcasters to hold indecency summit,” Jonathan D. Salant, Associated Press, Seattle P-I (3/21/04); “Stations are pruning their Pink Floyd and cleaning up Steve Miller’s ‘Jet Airliner,’" editor: Tom Taylor, InsideRadio.com (3/23/04); "Howard's Response To The FCC's Actions," howardstern.com (4/8/04); “Clear Channel drops Howard Stern after FCC action,” Jonathan D. Salant, Associated Press (4/9/04)]

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WHAT WOULD JC DO?
DATELINE February 2004: With the NFL all in a tizzy over the strong negative reaction to Janet Jackson’s thorough trumping of the sexpot representation traditionally reserved for the competing team’s own sex mascots, er, cheerleaders, the “indecency” paranoia-frenzy continued to escalate. The league’s reactionary execs suddenly decided to axe a previously scheduled halftime gig by JC Chasez (of 'NSync fame) slated for the following week’s Pro Bowl game. Mind you, the singer had already agreed, under pressure, to shunt his new hit, “Some Girls (Dance With Women),” in favor of the NFL’s choice, “Blowin’ Me Up (With Her Love).” But then, the skittish league demanded that he drop certain lyrical terms (“horny” & “naughty” – since when is “naughty” a naughty word?!). For his part, Chasez was most reasonable: “Under the circumstances, I understood their jitters, so I decided to accommodate their concern. I really wanted to try to help these guys out even though it is a huge compromise for me, as an artist, to go back and alter my work like that.” The NFL’s response? Let’s just have you just sing the national anthem and we’ll drop that whole halftime thing. That was the deal-buster for the singer: “The NFL’s shallow effort to portray my music as sexually indecent brings to mind another era when innocent artists were smeared with a broad brush by insecure but powerful people. That's not the America I love. Nor is this the NFL I love. I’ll sing the national anthem anytime, anywhere, but not for this NFL.” [Sources: “NFL Pulls Plug on JC Chasez,” Karen Bliss, rollingstone.com/news (2/4/04); “JC Chasez Slams NFL After Being Cut From Pro Bowl Halftime,” Corey Moss MTV.com/news, (2/5/04)]

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MAJOR FALLOUT FROM JANET JACKSON’S BRA
DATELINE Spring 2004: That fleeting two-second February 1st flash of Janet Jackson’s right mammary gland before the very eyes of God (well, yes, and the entire worldwide Super Bowl TV audience) has seemingly had repercussions that few could have foreseen. Reports claimed that 500,000 traumatized viewers complained after that now-infamous halftime performance, & thus our current “decency debate" was instantly unleashed. Almost before the singer’s bouncy little song & dance routine was even over, FCC Chairman Michael Powell opted for direct revenge. He reportedly pressured the head of Disney to get Jackson axed from a pending movie deal. We now see that Jackson’s premeditated publicity stunt [Trust me: your humble Editor has dutifully scrutinized digital close-up stills and is quite satisfied that this incident was hardly the “wardrobe malfunction” that the brand-new-CD-promoting singer would feebly attempt to excuse it as – her bra actually appears to be of a unique (?) one-cup design whose functional purpose, other than that as demonstrated, remains rather elusive] did far more than expose innocent eyes to a solitary teat: it effectively provided a perfect angle-of-attack to America's right-wing for launching their by-now-traditional election-year Culture War against many other artists. Good work, Janet! For some perspective on the wishes of the aggrieved "Super Bowl 500,000" (& their conceivably majoritarian sympathizers), the Associated Press quoted the Chairman of the Department of Communications and Media Studies at Fordham University explaining: “The First Amendment was designed to protect minority rights, meaning that even if a majority of Americans find something objectionable, that does not mean that the media should just go ahead and do whatever that majority wants.” Yes, but try telling that to the National Association of Broadcasters who on March 31st hosted a hush-hush "closed-door" (read: PUBLIC NOT WELCOME!) “indecency summit” with various media bigwigs (& that same "angry" FCC Commissioner) where they all presumably brainstormed how to impose a new puritanical era on America. So when does the actual debating part of this "debate" begin? Looks like never if the GOP has their un-democratic way: recent news reports reveal that at the same time that efforts are being made to quickly ram through the "House Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004," over in the Senate, GOP leader, Bill Frist, “is attempting to work out a deal with Democrats to limit debate on legislation that would increase the fines people pay for broadcasting smut.” [Sources: “New clampdown on indecency recalls Nixon / Agnew era,” John Gorman, Cleveland Free Times (3/3/04); “Top Senate Republican pushes quick indecency vote,” Reuters/ Hollywood Reporter (4/7/04)]

POWER OF TOWER
DATELINE: January 28, 2004: Echoing the ’92 election-year dustup over Ice-T & Body Count’s musical protest against police brutality (“Cop Killer”) that had been recorded in the wake of the LAPD’s infamous 1991 beating of Rodney King – this season it’s an Arizona-based rapper named G Rival whose music has been targeted. News reports inform that Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, contacted Tower Records and successfully requested that they desist from selling a “locally produced rap CD that contains anti-police lyrics and a raunchy drawing of the sheriff.” Both objections are absolutely true. But still: as a local attorney with an expertise in First Amendment free speech issues explained, “if the drawing is an obvious parody, it’s constitutionally protected. But the lyrics are a stickier issue…general anti-police statements are protected, but statements that are likely to lead to 'immediate violent action' may cross the line.” So, even though plenty of the CD's lyrics are abhorrent – and G Rival is certainly no angel (he reportedly has had a long & negative relationship with his local cop-shop, even stating in one rap that, “They started the war, arresting me as a kid / I don't think they know just what they did”) – the rapper was interrogated by sheriff's deputies “to determine whether he is a threat,” but “there was no legal action” that was possible. Hence the Sheriff's extra-legal pressuring of the retailer whose spokesperson insisted on insisting: “We really believe in the First Amendment, but in this case, we had to recognize responsibility to the community. It's been taken care of.” Translation? The CD, while perfectly legal, has been banned by Tower. [Source: “Anti-police rap CD has sheriff riled,” Christina Leonard, azcentral.com/arizonarepublic (1/29/04)]

GOOD MORNING: FALLUJAH!
DATELINE January 2004: In the Bush Administration’s avowed efforts to force an alien form of government – “democracy” – on Iraq, some real bone-headed techniques are being employed. Among them has been the "U.S. forces plan to put up posters" depicting the country's deposed leader, Saddam Hussein, "dolled up as a slinky Zsa Zsa Gabor,...a busty Rita Hayworth...a grooving Elvis...[and] even Saddam in the guise of British-born rocker Billy Idol." All this "in an attempt to enrage his followers and draw them out" of hiding. Then too, there's the Pentagon's media campaign aimed at changing that country’s culture. According to reports, that would include “flood[ing] the nation’s airwaves with harmless Western and Arab pop tunes.” In reaction, a form of musical resistance has emerged: the revival of the ancient Iraqi song-style called “praising,” by which singers offer words of inspiration to their anti-imperial resistance fighters. Sadly, among the best-selling-albeit-illegal cassettes available in the markets of Fallujah, reportedly, are such jihad-supportive song lyrics as: “America has come and occupied Baghdad,” & that “the people have…paralyzed America with rocket-propelled grenades.” New tunes, perhaps, but the strategy is time-tested: “During the early 1920s, when Iraqi clerics called for jihad against British occupiers, praisers took the lead in coming up with creative resistance songs,” & explained a musician (the grandson of an earlier praiser), “within a couple of years…the British fled Iraq.” [Sources: "'Zsa Zsa Saddam' to Taunt Iraqi Regime Loyalists," Luke Baker, news.yahoo.com (8/18/03); “Anti-U.S. tunes big hits in Iraq,” Borzou Daragahi, Washington Times (1/26/04)]

SAYONARA KARAOKE
DATELINE January 20, 2004: The City Council of San Mateo, California, placed a ban on the trendy new nightclub and restaurant phenomenon of offering sound-proofed karaoke rooms where shy people would be able to practice singing to recorded backing tracks in total privacy, or in the presence of only select companions. Although it’s clear that plenty of amateur vocalists who aren’t at all shy about singing at karaoke bars might well do with a bit more of such rehearsal before sharing their “talents” publicly, the council “worried about possible criminal activity that these private booths might bring” & hastily enacted the ban – which no doubt pleased at least one other person: the sole local businessman whose current karaoke venue does not feature such rooms. [Source: “San Mateo banning private-room karaoke,” Charlie Goodyear, SFGate.com (1/21/04)]

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BAD REPUTATION
DATELINE January 17, 2004: At a Howard Dean presidential campaign rally on Des Moines, Iowa’s Drake University campus, the musical entertainment, Joan Jett, was introduced by comedian, Janeane Garofalo, as “a true patriot.” Jett’s band kicked off their set to the crowd’s delight – and then reportedly offered a mild criticism of Bush’s Iraq War along with a statement in support of U.S. troops – but halfway into their second tune, “an angry contingent of College Republicans stormed the event in protest,” waving red, white, & blue banners and chanting loudly. Dean’s supporters quickly faced off with the uninvited invaders, but one had already grabbed a microphone and called Jett a “communist.” Jett then “calmly walked over to the protesters and belted out the song’s chorus, ‘I don’t give a damn ’bout my bad reputation.’” The two factions proceeded to argue, with the Bush Youth demanding of the Dean contingent, “Where’s your American flag, you Dean communist?” Again Jett responded – this time by playing an impromptu rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” “Dazed and without meaningful response,” one GOP agitator only mustered a pathetic bit of illogical (“fucking fag!”) name-calling, though another reached out & actually struck Jett’s instrument which earned him a swift kick by the rocker. Garofalo, however, nailed the business-suited & ill-mannered thugs as “paranoid, racist, sexist, homophobic neo-fascists.” [Source: “Jett set,” Andy Crouch, bostonphoenix.com (1/23/04)]

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HAWKS & DOVES
DATELINE November 12, 2003: New Jersey’s Classic Rock station, 105.7 The Hawk (WCHR-FM) reacted to various comments (on 11/9) by touring British progressive rock veteran, Ian Anderson, by slapping a ban on further airplay of recordings by his band, Jethro Tull. Lamenting the omnipresent display of American flags everywhere, Anderson had noted in an interview his concern that “It’s easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism.” In an effort to distance themselves from the dreaded “C-word” – no, not “Classic Rock” silly: “censorship” – The Hawk’s confused Program Director (after displaying textbook jingoism by declaring “Americans have made him millions of dollars. He ought to kiss our feet.”) passed the buck to his listenership, invoking their constitutional “right to ask us not to play his music.” On the following day Anderson penned a thoughtful response to express his regrets for the “tone” of his criticisms, saying “I was out of line on the flag thing and I am sorry for it.” But he also clarified his position, adding the points that: “Patriotism is the good guy: fraternal, supportive, the paying of respects particularly in the face of adversity. Space shuttle disasters. 9/11. Commemorative anniversaries. Flags are great.” But, “Nationalism is the bad guy: protectionist, isolationist, triumphalist, buccaneering. Flags seen in this context are, I maintain, likely to be resented. Sometimes, I suggest, we should perhaps just venture out into the world waving a smile and a handshake...and let our character and dignity do the talking.” [Sources: “The interactive Ian Anderson,” Mark Voger, Asbury Park Press (11/09/03); “Radio station urges boycott of Jethro Tull,” Michael Riley, Asbury Park Press (11/12/03); “Band Banned Over Flag Criticism,” cbsnews.com (1/13/03); “Stars, Stripes, and Union Jacks,” Ian Anderson, 1057thehawkfm.com (11/14/03)]

FAMILY VALUES ALERT!
DATELINE October 3, 2003: The GOP First Lady of Maryland, Kendel Ehrlich, articulated splendidly one increasingly common aspect of the conservative crowd's current "'yer-with-us-or-agin'-us" shoot-'em-up mindset. While speaking at a recent domestic violence prevention conference at a local college, she voiced her violent disdain for pop culture by stating that: “If I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would.” Her spokesperson, in a hurried attempt to excuse the rhetorical excess, only dug the hole deeper saying that “As a working mother raising a 4-year-old son,” Ehrlich “has concerns about the negative influences that the entertainment industry can have on young children and teenagers.” Right. But without a temperate Mom as a decent role model, what’s a kid to do? [Sources: "Md. First Lady: She Would 'Shoot Britney Spears,'" local6.com (10/7/03); "Maryland's First Lady Rues Spears Remark," Reuters, news.yahoo.com (10/7/03)]

CALIFORNIA ÜBER ALLES
DATELINE September 2003: “Your gall is never ending / we don't want nothin’ / not a thing from you…” Those lyrics from Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” describe precisely how many Democratic Californians feel about Arnold “Conan The Republican” Schwarzenegger & his unseemly grab for the governorship in his Total Recall 2003 campaign. Isn’t just a bit ironic, though, that he adopts as his Official Campaign Theme Song a tune that was, not so very long ago, one of Tipper Gore & her PMRC’s so-called "Filthy 15" targets? But then again, had anyone with a similar track record (of starring in ultra-violent movies, & reportedly: smoking pot, posing nude, engaging in locker-room group sex, & being the center of a long series of sexual assault complaints) tried to run for office as a Democratic candidate, the Republican/radical-Right would have erupted in self-righteous indignation. Instead – while one-of-theirs runs a questionable takeover campaign against a Democratic incumbent – all those nasty personal details are studiously overlooked. [Source: "Schwarzenegger Campaign Names 'We're Not Gonna take It' Official Campaign Anthem," joinarnold.com (9/30/03); et ectera]

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WORDS OF WISDOM FROM, LIKE, THE MOUTH OF A BABE
DATELINE September 3, 2003: It was reported that pop star Britney Spears shared some of her learned political advice with the world, stating that: “Honestly, I think that we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.” And so, there you have it, friends: no need to concern our pretty little heads over complicated current events & things like, you know, hyped WMD threats or the potential excesses of the USA Patriot Act. Faith-based citizenship…cool! [Source: “Britney Comes Out Swinging For Bush,” Drudge Report (9/3/03)]

IMAGINE THERE’S NO RELIGIOUS FANATICS
DATELINE August 29, 2003: Nearly two full years after 9/11, the culprits still remain a bit of a mystery. At first, terrorism experts like the good reverends Jerry Falwell & Pat Robertson leaked that it was American sinners – including “pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians…[and] the ACLU, People for the American Way…I point the finger in their face and say ‘You helped this happen!’” – who caused God to allow the disaster to occur. But right-wing radio host, Rush Limbaugh has now narrowed the field of suspects even further: “We had Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera open-mouth kissing Madonna [on a recent televised awards show]. Imagine you are a militant Islamist, imagine that you are Al-Qaeda. One of the theories that has been bandied about by some to explain why we are targeted by the terrorists is our decadence, right? They don’t like our culture, and they especially don’t like the exportation of our culture. Do you think that it’s possible that this kind of thing could further fuel the fires of hatred that the militant Islamists have for us?” Well, sure Rush, it’s possible – but, in point of fact, the terrorists chose to attack symbols of our capitalism & military, not our music or dance scenes. And what is certain is that it is Rush & his radical-Right associates who harbor a deep hatred for American pop culture. [Sources: “Robertson and Falwell’s comments are nuts,” Marianne Means, syndicated column (9/20/01); rushlimbaugh.com (8/29/03)]

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MUSIC TO HUNT GUNMEN BY...
DATELINE June 2003: Sad to learn that the U. S. military has reprised the use of highly questionable music as part of their techniques to prepare our soldiers for “crashing into Iraqi homes to hunt gunmen.” While we can’t really suggest any particular musical selections that would be less disconcerting given the bleak circumstances over there, just exactly what "message" is the Pentagon sending by choosing the one song – “Ride of the Valkyries” by Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer, Richard Wagner (a man whose early racist scribblings had also inspired der Füehrer) – that is so deeply associated with both the Vietnam debacle, & the Nazi Era in Germany? [Source: “‘Apocalypse Now’ Music Fires Up U.S. Troops for Raid,” Alistair Lyon, reuters.com (6/21/03)]

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INDIA INC.
DATELINE June 2003: News from India informs that concerns over certain songs having “a bad influence on children and teenagers" have led to a proposal to “set up a special censor board to control the vulgarity” of music & pop culture there. [Source: “Special censor board to control vulgarity," screenindia.com (6/20/03)]

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HE'S MAKING A LIST, & CHECKING IT TWICE...
DATELINE June 2003: Just when the controversies over the Dixie Chicks’ differences with President G.W. Bush were ebbing away – the Clear Channel radio network ban failed to stop the gals’ album from hitting #1 on the national popularity charts, & the group’s concert tour (despite gleeful predictions of doom by the Vast Right-Wing Media Conspiracy) became a roaring SRO success – Poppy Bush managed to revive the tempest with an imprudent quip to an interviewer with the Texas Monthly. Although the storm had abated a good bit, the Bush Dynasty has a long memory & the former Pre