All language subtitles for Cover Your Ears [2023] [1080p] ENG

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[rock music plays]

[chairman] As chairman, a--
a brief statement, if I may.

More than 2300 years ago,

Plato recognized
that music is a powerful force

in our lives.

That music forms character,

and therefore plays
an important part

in determining social
and political issues.

In Plato's words,
"When modes of music change,

the fundamental laws
of the state change with them."

Our culture powerfully affects
individual character.

When we're constantly confronted

by that which is coarse,

we become coarsened.

Repeated exposure
to song lyrics describing rape,

incest, sexual violence
and perversion

is like sandpaper to the soul.

It rubs raw one's sensibilities,

resulting in a state
of emotional numbness.

One becomes
literally demoralized.

And it demands a response
from each of us.

Not as self-appointed guardians
of the national morality,

as some would suggest,

but as concerned citizens
and leaders

of a great and lasting republic

that does not constitute
censorship.

♪

[gentle harp music]

[Kat] Music is one of
the most essential pieces

of human existence

and an art form
that crosses all borders.

It has the power
to lift your spirits,

to evoke a sense of community,

and to inspire creation
and free thought.

In contrast,
music can also be divisive,

derogatory,
or downright offensive.

Over the last century,

music has become
a multi-billion-dollar industry.

And with big business comes

corporate
and political intervention.

With new platforms and avenues
for artists to reach listeners,

the discussion of values
and art is ever-evolving

and often a sign of the times.

Music censorship is any act

that implicitly or explicitly...

suppresses music,

um, that goes against the wishes
of its creator

or its audience.

Based on the history
of censorship

and the way
in which it's been enacted,

it seems that censorship is a--

is making a political statement
that says,

"This thing
that we want to censor

and remove from the public,

it fundamentally does not belong
in our culture

or our society."

Throughout the history
of not just popular music

or recorded music,
or even sheet music,

music has always been

an incredibly effective way

to connect to people.

You can have an idea,

you can express something
to someone, uh, through music

that is heard
by millions of people,

sometimes billions of people,

and can mean
an awful lot to them,

and is probably one of
the most ubiquitous,

if not the most ubiquitous
form of art.

Almost everyone listens to music
in some way, shape, or form.

And the reason popular music
become such a target

is because it is so popular
with young people.

It's always seems like
it's about morality

and Christianity
has sort of hijacked

what constitutes morality.

And so it's often backed

by religious institutions,
religious groups.

And I believe
with all of my heart

that it is a contributing factor

to our juvenile delinquency
of today.

And why I believe that
is because I know how it feels

when you sing it.

I know what it does to you.

And I-- I know,
uh, the evil feeling

that you feel when you sing it.

But retailers have power
to also censor

based on what they offer
to sell.

Um, people who are in charge
of radio programs

cannot play certain records,

so it's kind of
all over the place,

but it depends on power.

Who has the power
to make this decision

and implement it?

[blows raspberry]
What is censorship?

It's a bummer
is what it is, really. [laughs]

I think censorship, if you wanna
just look at in general terms,

would be a limiting of...

specific kinds of speech
or expression,

really, of any kind.

I don't know, what would it be?

It'd be like a moral barrier

that you're not allowed
to cross, really.

This is who we are as Americans.
We're puritanical.

We're fighting against ourselves
at all times.

Um, and so
that's what-- that's--

that's, I think,
the core of all of this.

But that's part of art.

The thing about censorship,

and the thing
about music containing

raunchy things is--
is not a new thing.

It's not a 21st century thing.
It's not a 20th century thing.

This goes back
to the beginning of music.

Uh, if you look
at what Mozart did,

of course, we know
all the great symphonies

and the operas and--

But if you look
into his full catalog,

you'll see that he...

he wrote a lot of songs
about farting and shit.

He really did.

And that-- that freaked out
an awful lot of people.

If we fast forward,
you know, there's--

there's all kinds of folk songs
that have all kinds of, uh,

you know, innuendo
and double meanings in them.

And then
if you get to the blues, uh,

you really hear
some pretty raw stuff.

And this became
part of the foundation

for what rock and roll was.

♪ I got nipples on my titties ♪

♪ Big as the end of my thumb ♪

♪ I got something
between my legs'll make ♪

♪ A dead man come, oh... ♪

♪ You make a dead man cum ♪

♪ But I really get her goin' ♪

♪ When I take out
my big ten inch record ♪

♪ Of the band
that plays the blues ♪

♪ Liquor just make her flinch ♪

♪ Seems she don't go
for nothing ♪

♪ 'Cept for my big
ten inch record... ♪

Starting a documentary
about censorship

at the, you know,
turn of the 20th century,

it makes sense
because that is the moment

when we actually have
a music industry.

When music is actually
being made available

to the masses.

And I think that motivates the--

the decisions to censor things,

because there's a real concern

about mass communication, um,

and being able to have
influence over the masses

through culture.

Then you have
the 1927 Radio Act.

And so that's the kind of
first time where it's like,

"Oh, we can take
some more formal...

politically influenced,
government influenced steps

to say, 'Okay,

no more obscene music
on the radio station, okay?

Or you can get fined for this.'"

Until the Radio Act there--

there really wasn't a--
a government--

official government way

that they could regulate
the music.

So, I-- The fact
that that was a beginning

of acts and regulations,

and it ended up with the FCC
by the 1930s,

that-- that had stipulations

about what would be bad
for the community.

And for a lot of people,

obscenity
was directly associated

with Black dance music.

Um, so it was a way of saying,

"Okay, we need to figure out
a way to control this.

'Cause it's un--
it's uncontrolled."

So, I think that the kind of
emergence of censorship

really comes in the 1910s

and really kind of starts
to coalesce in the 1920s,

They were at the peak

of whatever media was
at the time.

And Black music was only heard
on a AM radio station

amongst Black people.

Uh, it didn't permeate,
uh, mainstream easily.

Uh, a lot of it
was already locked

into being just a--
a local cultural thing,

but it didn't spread
across the world

through mainstream channels.

It was the sound and the lyrics

and the--
and who was singing it.

If the-- if Black artists
were singing it,

oh, that was much more taboo

than if a white artist
did a cover of it.

People are using their lyrics,
they're using their platform

to bring attention
to something, you know?

But that-- I think that
that is also a very, very old

and longstanding job
of artists in general,

is to use their art to--
to bring, you know,

to-- to-- to say something
that they think is important.

I mean, Billie Holiday singing

"Strange Fruit"

and then trying
to get that recorded

became a tremendous issue.

Because "Strange Fruit"
was about lynching,

and-- and it was a--

Like a taboo thing
to talk about,

even though it was happening.

♪ Blood on the leaves ♪

♪ And blood at the root ♪

♪ Black bodies swingin' ♪

♪ In the Southern breeze ♪

♪ Strange fruit hangin' ♪

♪ From the poplar trees ♪

[Kat] Billie Holiday's label,
Columbia Records,

refused to record the song.

Holiday went around her contract
to independent label, Commodore,

who put out the record.

"Strange Fruit"
was widely banned from radio

when released in 1939,

but remains
one of Billie Holiday's

most notable works.

I'd say most of the time
when you wanna ban something

it's because, you know,

it's-- it's hidden
close to truths

that you don't wanna
acknowledge.

Um, it just might show that--

that the-- the idea

of what people say
is the American dream

is based on--
on false knowledge,

you know, and it's not true
for everyone.

So, I think,
for me, "Strange Fruit"

and the banning of it,
and Billie Holiday's struggle

and fight for that song show--

show the-- the power of it and--

and the responsibility
that artists can have

if they accept it.

So, lots of
censorship connected,

I think, with racism.

And so, with jazz,

especially in the 1920s,

you start having people fearful

of what this music was gonna do
to society.

I think about jazz

as this kind of
real paradigm shift

in terms of the music

and broader
entertainment industry,

because it was the first time

that we had a clear music genre

that was being sold
at an unprecedented rate.

And by the mid-'20s, it's just--

It's dominating the airwaves,
it's dominating records.

And that's kind of unprecedented

because you had
more of a variety of styles

prior to that time.

Jazz really takes over.

And, you know,
it defines an age.

Um, and so I think

that really motivated
a lot of fear

about this one thing

having so much cultural power

and influence over the masses.

[Rhiannon]
It does shape the music.

How things are suppressed
and what things are suppressed

then shapes the next generation

of content creators,
of-- of music makers.

So-- That's just the way--

that's just always the way
it is.

And it can create new genres
that are amazing.

It can create songs
that are classic.

It can also create a lot of,

um, it can disappear
a lot of people, you know?

And shut down
a lot of avenues of music

for certain
kind of groups, so...

[Kat] While America began
to adopt and co-op jazz

and the blues
into the mainstream,

two major shifts
in popular culture

were happening at the same time.

Television and rock and roll.

[Nuzum] Television and music
have always had

an incredibly problematic
history together.

Nail down the roof, gang,

because here's a new act
that can blow it right off.

Popular music in the 1950s,

it really was the first time
that teens had a music,

popular music that was separate
from adult popular music.

Beforehand, that really--

That distinction
really didn't exist.

Music was popular
or not popular.

And-- and a lot of
the battle lines in music

formed during that time,

during the early era
of television.

[Wes] I think, uh, the youth

always wanna do
something different.

They always wanna rebel
against the status quo.

They wanna do something
against the mainstream.

They wanna do something
that's gonna shock

and repulse their parents.

And, uh, you know,

and I think that's just
throughout history,

that's been the way it is.

I mean,
that's the whole point of it.

You have to remember
in the 1950s,

it was a very conservative time.

The Eisenhower era,
uh, you know,

it was, uh,
Leave It to Beaver time.

So, people were used
to watching entertainers

like Bing Crosby or Perry Como.

Along comes Elvis Presley,

and this guy gyrated,
he shook his hips on television.

Moms and dads were outraged
that their sons or daughters

would see this.

Television events
were literally events.

The nights that Ed Sullivan
had Elvis Presley on,

it had an 80 share.

That means that 80%
of the televisions that were on

were watching Ed Sullivan.

80%.

You know, the Super Bowl today

is lucky to get
a quarter of that.

And now, ladies and gentlemen...

yes, that's right,
Elvis Presley!

[audience cheers]

[Kat] In 1956,
Elvis signed the contract

to appear
on The Ed Sullivan Show

three times over the course
of only a few months.

By his third appearance
in January of 1957,

the show filmed Elvis above
the waist only

due to pressure
from conservative groups.

♪ Well, you ain't never
caught a rabbit ♪

♪ You ain't no...♪

Well, censorship
has always been an-- an issue

for artists who were trying
to push the boundaries of music,

which was sort of the point
of rock and roll.

And they were
a very mainstream...

show at a-- at a-- at a time

when rock was just starting

to break
into some new territory.

Now, Elvis wasn't
the only entertainer

that kinda got censored
on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The Stones buckled under.

They changed the words,

"spend the night together"

to "let's spend
some time together."

Sullivan asked them
to make that, and they did it.

And they-- they were on Sullivan
four or five times.

♪ Let's spend some time
together ♪

♪ Now I need you
more than ever ♪

[Bill] Jim Morrison
and The Doors,

uh, they didn't want
any drug influence,

but Morrison just went ahead
and sang it

the way he wrote it.

♪ ...to you ♪

♪ Girl, we couldn't get
much higher ♪

[Kat] The Doors
were subsequently banned

from The Ed Sullivan Show.

Bob Dylan was instructed
by Sullivan producers

to swap out another song
in place of his protest song,

"Talkin' John Birch
Paranoid Blues."

He refused the request
and walked out.

[man] Did they censor you
from singing what you wanted to

-on The Ed Sullivan Show?
-Yes.

It-- it's more to it
than just censorship there.

He said, "Can't you sing
some folk song

like, uh,
like The Clancy Brothers do?"

And-- and I didn't know
any of their songs,

and so I couldn't be
on the program.

That's what it came down to.

[Kat] Following the walkout,

Dylan was banned from the show,

and CBS-owned
Columbia Records insisted

that the track be removed

from his upcoming
Freewheelin' album.

The '60s progressed,

and platforms
like The Ed Sullivan Show

became less important

as a flood
of new ideas and art crept

into the American mainstream.

Free thinking expanded,

and major artists became open
to new ideas

about sexuality,

politics, and religion.

And, you know,
the most important thing,

all this brotherhood jazz

we've been talking about
in church, all of a sudden...

-[man] It's here.
-...you know, it's here.

It's like now.

-[man] Yeah. [indistinct].
-That's it.

[overlapping chatter]

Uh, I grew up at a time

where rock and roll
genuinely was a soundtrack

of a social revolution.

You know,
I think jazz cracked it.

You know, blues and jazz, like,

they went in
with the machetes first

and started cracking the--
the impenetrable,

you know,
forest of-- of convention.

And then rock and roll people

came fucking running through,

and it changed the world
for real.

All music is coming
out of a certain moment

in cultural time.

Um, and sometimes I think
it's more overt

and sometimes it's hidden,
but I don't--

I don't think there's ever music
that's created

that doesn't have
some sort of message

that we're getting from it.

Even if it's, you know,

could be by the book
or by the numbers,

sort of super commercial music

that's still telling us
something about, you know,

our-- our culture.

When I look back

and-- on how much more vividly
I experienced

all the cool stuff
about the '60s,

the uprisings,
and all the new ways

of thinking about things

and how we could do
things better,

I'm just so glad
I was that aware

and connected it even then
with the music.

And LSD enters a picture.

Music just exploded with ideas,

art and fashion, just with--

There was so much more there.

And we've never looked back.

And, of course, the envelopes
keep getting pushed

and keep getting pushed.

I remember
when Sgt. Pepper came out

and the BBC banned--

they wouldn't play "A Day
in the Life of Sgt. Pepper,"

because in the song Paul says,

"I got on the bus
and went upstairs

and had a smoke
and fell into a dream."

And the BBC said, "Ah,

that must be because
he's been smoking drugs."

And now I look back,
you know, 50 years later

you think, "Gosh, really?

Did they--
Did the BBC really ban that?"

It wasn't status quo

and rock and roll
has to be that,

or else it becomes
just pop music.

But rock and roll in specific

needs to be irreverent

and as a result, dangerous,

because it makes people
feel uncomfortable.

But in order to have

change and justice,

we have to feel uncomfortable.

We have to go
through that window.

I think that-- I think of music
as central to protest.

But I think protest
is central to life,

and music is part of life,

and it's all sort of
connected to one--

It's all one thing.

I think of music as something
that people gather around.

That's the way
you can connect with it.

So, music for me
is very much protest-oriented

in-- in-- in the sense
that it gives you a sense

of who else is in the room.

There is a connection there
through the lyrics.

It's the shared feelings,
shared ideas,

things like that,
that draw you to it.

Especially when you're younger,
like, that's a way to like,

find your people and like,
identify, like, who you--

who you, like,
get along with or--

or have
these shared interests with.

You have to understand
that in the 1960s,

we, of course,
didn't have the internet,

we didn't have social media,

we didn't have ways
for young people

to easily communicate
with each other

across long distances.

What we did have though
were songs

where a message
could be disseminated

to a very large number of people
very, very quickly.

The Vietnam War
was extraordinarily unpopular.

And a lot of the sentiment

that young people felt

was transmitted and reinforced

by anti-war songs of the 1960s.

[Joe] Remember,
it was peace and love.

And peace and love while, uh,
seeming kind of vague,

uh, is radical.

At that particular time,

music that was coming
outta the '60s and '70s,

whether it be Nina Simone,
Archie Shepp,

everybody had a song
where they had something to say.

Uh, they always made sure

that there was a message
in the music.

♪ Don't tell me, I'll tell you ♪

♪ Me and my people
just about due ♪

♪ I've been there, so, I know ♪

♪ They keep on saying,
"Go slow" ♪

♪ That's what they say,
"Go slow" ♪

♪ That's what they say,
"Go slow" ♪

Public Enemy and rap music
and hip-hop came in the '80s.

So, we had
a great blueprint to follow,

and thus, uh,
helped me kinda create

the turn of being a raptivist
using, uh, rap music

to be the best activist
I could as a grown person.

♪ I think it's time we stop,
children, what's that sound? ♪

♪ Everybody, look,
what's going down ♪

♪ Damn,
was it something I said? ♪

♪ Pretend you don't see
so you turn your head ♪

♪ Ray scared of his shadow,
does it matter? ♪

♪ Thought of reperations
got 'em playin' ♪

♪ With the population ♪

The culture
was moving so rapidly,

evolving so quickly, um,

and music was one of the things
that was driving it.

So, if you turn on the radio,
you had a good chance of hearing

what was happening
to people just like you.

These songs, and there are,
you know, hundreds of them...

uh, explained what was going on,

why it was bad,

how it affected you,

and what you could do about it.

Kick out the jams motherfucker!

♪ War, huh, good God y'all ♪

♪ What is it good for? ♪

♪ Absolutely nothing ♪

I saw Woodstock
when I was probably

ten or 11 years old, the movie.

And it just--
I-- I-- It was so radical.

I couldn't believe
people were doing that.

And I thought--
And it was all music.

You know, it had
a profound effect on me.

Like, thinking
that's what I thought music was.

And when Hendrix did
Star-Spangled Banner,

that was--
I couldn't even imagine

that someone would do that.

And it was so powerful.

Occasionally it broke through.

I mean, I was really lucky

on-- on--
on the [indistinct] here

and "Fixin' to Die Rag"
being included

in the Woodstock movie.

And that was only possible

because the people involved
in making the Woodstock movie

had come from social political
backgrounds as filmmakers.

♪ And it's one, two, three ♪

♪ What're we fighting for? ♪

♪ Don't ask me,
I don't give a damn ♪

♪ Next stop is Vietnam ♪

I think what's interesting
is that the-- that there was--

there were institutions
that were saying

a certain viewpoint
about Vietnam War is acceptable,

and a certain viewpoint
about the war is not.

There was a song
by Barry McGuire

called "Eve of Destruction."

It was banned by radio stations

because radio stations
really believe that, like,

"If we play this in some way,

it will like, you know,
get in the way of democracy."

♪ I can't twist the truth ♪

♪ It knows no regulation ♪

♪ Handful of senators
don't pass legislation ♪

♪ And marches alone
can't bring integration ♪

♪ When human respect
is disintegratin' ♪

♪ This whole crazy world
is just too frustratin' ♪

♪ And you tell me... ♪

[Kat] As the '60s raged on,

artists increasingly spoke out
for peace,

change and new ideas

despite pushback
from the older generations.

However, by the mid-'70s,
the war in Vietnam was over

and the hippie culture
had lost its edge.

But the groundwork laid
by those artists

created a new wave of diverse

and sometimes
controversial musicians.

Are you standing on the verge
of gettin' it on tonight, y'all?

Are you standing on the verge
of gettin' it on?

♪ Gettin' it on ♪

[Kat] Edgier genres like funk,

glam and punk

began climbing
the popular charts.

Again, stirring up concerns

of what ideas
were being portrayed

by musicians

and the effect they have
on culture.

People generally,
before punk rock came around,

didn't even swear in music
for Christ's sake.

There was some
political stuff, you know, and--

But it was all in the folk music
and stuff like that.

This was something
completely new.

It was like, uh,
putting a voice to the angst

and the anger of youth
and all of this stuff.

So, the kids were out looking
for shocking stuff

that they could horrify
their parents with

and get kicked outta school
and everything.

And, yeah,
we fit the bill pretty good

when it... [laughs]

[reporter] Ontario police
have seized two records,

deeming them obscene.

On the back cover,
the rodent has been shot.

The titles have
four letter words

we can't show you.

And the songs
are full of descriptions

of bodily functions

that many people
will find offensive.

I think, uh,
just about everything

that happens in our world

and the way
that our entire society

seems to feel that, uh,

they-- It's like they have
a holier-than-thou attitude,

and they have to parade
around the world

showing everybody else
the error of their ways.

I don't-- I try
not to take sides in my music.

I just portray the stories
from a neutral point of view.

[reporter] As for the charges,
Dayglo Abortions says

the police did them a favor.

Record sales
are expected to climb.

Sometimes
people I know who are DJs

wish I didn't, you know,

sing or use the word "fuck"
so much

in Minor Threat songs.

But the irony

is that at the time
when I was writing the songs,

a lot of times
I deliberately seeded the songs

with the word "fuck"
because it was a--

it was a, um,

it was a protest against radio.

Like, I didn't wanna go
on the radio, fuck the radio.

The radio belonged
to the commercial world.

So, um, once I got
involved with punk, really,

I turned the radio off,
and I was into that.

It completely changed my life.

Um, from there, I'm--
I'd-- I'd never seen,

um, or even it ne--
Had never occurred to me

that going to see a band

could be a dangerous thing,

that you are in danger,

not only from people
in the audience,

but possibly
from the band themselves.

And that really turned me on.

I don't know, there's just
a feeling, there's a frequency,

a-- a rhythm
that you connect with.

Um, but there--
there is just something--

there's something dangerous
about rock and roll

that-- that draws
people into it.

People are trying to express
their selves

through that type of music
a lot more

than the people who are trying
to make commercial pop

or-- or--
or marketable type of music.

They don't care,
they're doing it

because they love it.

They wanna make sure
that they hear the messages

or hear the type of music
they wanna hear out there.

And, uh, I do think
it's very important.

It's very important.

The Plasmatics, we're definitely
a political band.

We were making a statement,

and, uh,
Wendy always used to say

that we're gonna draw a line
in the sand

and then we're gonna
step over that line.

And we always did.

We always pushed the envelope
every chance we had.

And it definitely freaked out
the mainstream America.

They weren't used to
seeing somebody

who was so at ease
with their sexuality

and with their strength
and with their power.

And she was doing things

that the male performers
were doing,

but she was getting arrested
and beat up for it.

[man] You were, uh,
arrested in Cleveland

and Milwaukee in 1981.

Police said,
you simulated, says here, Wendy,

you simulated a sex act
and made obscene motions

during your performance.

These charges were,
uh, subsequently dropped.

You didn't even go to trial.

So, it took every penny
I made for two years

to fight that.

I mean, and the-- It was
a ridiculous trumped-up charge.

It was-- I was brutally, um,

beaten up behind the club.

They, um, police told me

they'd seen me on Fridays
the night before,

and they thought
I was an incarnate of the devil.

And they were waiting there
for me.

And they attacked me
and beat me unconscious,

beat other people.

They didn't like me
because my band was made up

of [bleep] and [bleep].

-[man] They said that?
-[Wendy] That's what they said.

And that's what they were--

that's what I was being hit
with a nightstick for.

And it took every penny I made.

In 1984, I was arrested
in Amarillo, Texas

for disorderly conduct
and abusive language.

Uh, it was a misdemeanor.

But still, to actually have
a charge and a court case

in 1980s

for cursing on stage,

uh, seemed insane.

[man] T-minus ten,
nine, eight...

[Kat] Summer 1981 brought change

that reinvented
the music industry.

MTV rocketed
to the peak of popular culture.

Music became
a much more visual medium,

and suddenly the focus
of artists, labels and censors

shifted to videos
and the image of an artist.

[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
rock and roll.

I remember MTV coming up.

I was a suburban kid
at that time...

and we couldn't believe

that something like this
existed.

It's-- it is the equivalent

of going from black and white
to color as a music fan.

This is it.

Welcome to MTV,
Music Television,

the world's first 24-hour
stereo video music channel.

And a common thing

for all different types
of censorship

is things don't get censored...

because they happen to exist
in the world

and have a lot of drugs in them,
or sex or violence.

It's the things
that are most popular with kids.

So, in some ways,

the videos become
the tipping point.

It comes
with your basic cable package.

Um, there weren't mechanisms
for kind of weeding that out

or parental controls
at that time,

and it's in your house.

And if you have a TV
in your kids' bedroom,

which I did...

how do you control that?

How do you-- you know,

this is your domestic
quote on quote "safe space."

And it's there

and there's nothing
you can do about it

except maybe, you know,

scare the shit outta your kids,
which is what my mom did.

So, I didn't watch it. [laughs]

Well, MTV was a big game changer
in television.

In the mid '80s it came along
and woke everybody up.

Prince, Boy George,

uh, Cyndi Lauper.

They became very graphic.

And suddenly you had
a new generation of artists

who were visual.

And you saw
a lot more sex and flesh

and spandex on television.

MTV were like jet packs...

strapped to your career.

A video is a great enhancement,

but you have to have
a good song to start with.

So, "We're Not Gonna Take It..."

uh, certainly stood on its own,

but damn, it did not hurt
to have those rocket boosters

strapped to our career.

[Kat] "We're Not Gonna
Take It" became

one of the most popular videos
of the 1980s.

It was the group's
crossover top 40 hit

and Twisted Sister's
only certified gold single.

As MTV became
the most popular way

for teens to consume music,

the channel also became

one of the industry's
lead censors.

And with videos driving
record sales through the roof,

having a video ban
could be costly for both labels

and their artists.

Queen's 1982 video
for "Body Language"

was officially the first video
banned from MTV,

but it wouldn't be the last.

♪ Don't talk ♪

One of the highest-selling
artists in the '80s and '90s

was Madonna,

who consistently
leaned into controversy

and used the focus
of conservative censors

to her advantage.

♪ For you to justify my love ♪

[Nuzum] I remember
I recently saw the video

for "Justify My Love,"

and I couldn't believe
that that was a problem.

And at the time,
it was like an event.

And it was like,
I think, uh, MTV showed it,

and they showed it
like one time, right?

And it became this huge thing.

With women,
I suppose, it became,

uh, a more crowded space.

And the more, um,
the more explicit,

um, the less dressed,

the more sexually available
the woman was presented,

uh, the popularity seemed to--
seemed to grow.

Madonna knew
that to get attention,

she'd have to stir
the pot a little.

She'd have to do things
that were outrageous.

She attacked
the Catholic church.

She was more sexual

than most people were in videos
at the time.

MTV was only
a couple of years old.

Uh, we were still

in Reagan's
very puritanical America.

So, she knew that
if she was a little outrageous,

it would go a long way.

That's what happened.

You know,
sexuality is something that's...

you know, constantly,

you know, a problem for people.

But you know, sex and religion

and, uh, authority

and all kinds of things
that she pushes against

were just a natural expression.

[Kat] The religious imagery

in Madonna's
"Like a Prayer" video,

sparked outrage and protests
as far as the Vatican.

Pushback even resulted

in the loss of a $5 million
ad campaign with Pepsi.

It's like religion
is the third real issue.

♪ We have confidence ♪

When Sinead O'Connor
was on Saturday Night Live,

of course, she grew up in--
in-- in Ireland,

which has
a very complicated history

with the Catholic Church.

During that performance,
she held up a--

a photo of the Pope

and started to shred it.

Fight the real enemy.

[Nuzum] That literally destroyed
her career.

She became toxic.

If you look at any archive
of Saturday Night Live,

um, that episode
is been destroyed

from the face of the Earth.

It's not in a box set,

it's not available for purchase,
it's not in the download.

You can't question religion

or question religion's,

uh, totality,

um, a little bit.

[Kat] While questioning religion
and tradition

seemed new in pop music,

it had been happening
more and more overtly

in the heavy metal
and hard rock genres,

culminating in what was deemed
the Satanic panic.

Today's heavy metal music
is categorically different

from previous forms
of popular music.

The extreme violence,
extreme rebellion,

substance abuse,

sexual promiscuity
and perversion

and Satanism.

I know personally of no form
of popular music before,

which is had
as one of its central elements

the element of hatred.

Satan, Satan, Satan,
he is God, he is God.

And then the laughter.

I'm not saying
that if you listen

to heavy metal music,

the devil will make you
kill your mom.

His primary goal is to take you
to hell with him.

If Satan can get you
to kill for him, great.

That's icing on the cake.

I was a hippie and I was living
in a utility closet,

if you can believe it.

And all I really had was a ch--
couple changes of clothes,

a bedroll
and a bunch of records.

And I tell people,
my first pastors

were Jim Morrison
and Jimi Hendrix.

I just knew
without anybody telling me

that what I was listening to

really had taken me
in a very bad direction.

And-- and the sexual immorality,
the occultism,

the rebellion, the nihilism,
all that kinda stuff,

just I looked at it and thought,

"How in the world
can I have ever imbibed

this type of stuff?

But I heard
a still small voice say,

"Well, you know, you know
a lot about the culture,

why don't you--
And you've been impacted by it.

Why don't you put
something together?"

So, I did, and it gradually grew
and grew and grew.

And-- and I can't tell you
the number of--

number of people
that have walked up to me

at a conference
and said, "Your--

My parents made me listen
to your stuff when I was a kid,

and I just hated your guts."

Shrill sounds
at sufficient volume

can congeal proteins
in the liquid media.

So, a soft egg
placed in front of a speaker,

at some of
the louder rock concerts,

can midway through the concert

become a hard-boiled snack

for the weary headbanger.

Does anybody have any salt here?

[Kat] Videos
like the ones produced

by Reel to Real Ministries

were distributed to churches
and religious groups

around the country,

and were viewed by many parents
as legitimate warnings

of the dangers
of certain popular music.

[narrator] Are you ready
for truth about rock?

[thunder rumbles]

1984 was the height

of the Reagan era.

And Reagan,

uh, in the United States,
he brought in

a conservative sort of movement

and mentality.

It is the American sound.

It is hopeful,
big hearted, idealistic,

daring, decent and fair.

That's our heritage,
that's our song.

And I've always found,
if you look throughout history,

whenever there's been
a very strong conservative,

um, presence, uh, in the world,

you will see a reaction to that

in a very non-conservative way.

At the time,
let's also remember that 1985

is the beginning bubbling boil

of the Satanic panic movement,

of concerns that there was
satanic messaging

hidden inside of music,

concerns that there are artists,
or actually occultists

trying to recruit children

into being occultists as well.

And that was considered
a like real thing.

Art is a very evocative medium

of communication.

Lots of rock and roll artists,

lots of musicians
have acknowledged this,

that it just goes in
and changes you.

So, there are some artists,
no question about it,

that epistemologically,
self-consciously satanic,

they have embraced
a satanic philosophy worldview.

[Sakis] They want, uh,
wanna destroy everything, yeah.

We were 16 years old,
17 years old.

We listened the bands
that, um, praise Satan.

[laughs] Venom, Bathory,

[indistinct], Hellhammer.

You know, we grow up
with all those bands.

To be a metalhead
was a really big thing.

We were arrested many times
for the police.

We were stopped [indistinct]
to have problems everywhere.

We tried to be in the USA
many times,

we didn't--
We couldn't, uh, go there.

Okay, you can--
You want to believe,

you can believe.

But let me say
that this is bullshit.

Okay?
I have the right to say that.

The thing about rock and hip-hop

is that it's controversial
by nature.

Hip hop artists
or rock artists

tend to be pushing
the boundaries

in terms
of content and sound,

attitude, what they wear.

All these things are--
are dangerous to some people.

We're talking
about illegal acts.

Do you have any evidence--
evidence that any teenager

has ever listened
to these albums

and gone out and practiced
sex with an animal

or sex with a dead person?

Do you have any evidence
that they haven't?

Why is the evidence necessary?

I think the evidence is that
we have statistics today

that show that our teenagers
in America are in trouble.

[Kat]
Parents and censors feared

that the growing popularity
of darker theme music

was beginning
to negatively influence

a generation of teenagers.

Some of the biggest names
in heavy metal like Metallica,

Ozzy Osborne, and Slayer

were blamed
for murders or suicides

committed by their fans.

[reporter] Heavy metal mania,
it's sweeping the world.

Music has never been
more violent,

and critics say
kids are killing themselves

and each other because of...

[Lars] Come on.
Let's be realistic. All right?

You have a kid who listens
to, like, some music

by some band
who writes some lyrics.

I mean, if,
at the end of the day,

they unfortunately
would end up, you know,

either killing themselves
or whatever,

then you would ex--

suspect that the--
that the sort of--

the source
of the problem is something

that should hopefully be
a lot larger than,

you know,
some rock band, you know,

playing some, you know,
open chords on a guitar.

[reporter] John McCollum
shot himself in the head

the night
of October 26th, 1984,

while listening
to the music of Ozzy Osborne.

The police photo
shows the headphones

were still on
when he died.

[Ozzy] The boy must
have been pretty messed up

before he ever heard
an Ozzy record.

I mean-- I mean,
I can't help that, you know.

I feel very sad
for the boy,

and I felt terribly sad
for the parents

because as a parent myself,
I would be--

I'd be pretty devastated
if something like that happened.

But no if-- and I--
and I had thought about this,

if it was-- if the boot
was on the other foot,

I-- I couldn't blame
the artist.

Uh, but then
you look at the numbers.

So, Ozzy Osborne is heard by
how many tens of million by now?

Hundred million,
200 million people.

They didn't all go
hurt anybody or themselves.

And even the one person
who allegedly committed suicide

because of the song
"Suicide Solution,"

we at Spin
proved that was wrong

because we found out that
he actually killed himself

before the song was released.

So, he couldn't
have heard the song.

When something bad happens,

people want to be
able to blame somebody.

They want to be able
to point to something and say,

this is why this bad,
horrible, random thing happened.

[officer talking
on police radio]

[Kat] No case grabbed
the public's attention

more than the infamous
Judas Priest's

subliminal message trial,

which claimed hidden messages
were in the song

"Better by You,
Better Than Me."

[reporter] The suit claimed
that subliminal messages

in the Stained Class album
drove Raymond Belknap

and James Vance
to shoot themselves

with a sawed off shotgun

in a Nevada playground
in December of 1985.

["Better by You, Better Than Me"
by Judas Priest playing]

♪ I can't find the words,
my mind is dead ♪

♪ It's better by you,
better than me ♪

[man] What was
your kind of music?

Um, Western,
the old '50s,

I was, um, used
to some of the music.

My dad used
to play classicals...

like The Singing Nun,
the Grand Canyon,

um, Around the World
in 80 Days.

The court case
we run through in 1990...

was pretty much...

a-- a--
a stitch up, really.

No, they couldn't
really attack us on...

lyrical content.

So, somebody
came up with the idea

of a subliminal message,
which is very, very clever.

And I think this is
how they got it to court,

because
their argument was this,

uh, "There's a subliminal
message on that record."

And somebody will say,
"Well, I can't hear anything."

And they will say, "That's
because it's subliminal."

And that's
how it got to court.

You see,
they convinced people in power

that that was good enough
for a hearing.

And then it was
up to us, you see...

to prove that something
you couldn't hear wasn't there.

[Ian chuckles]

[Rob] It's the whole business
of free speech in it,

in its widest spectrum.

The whole media, uh,
the worlds of com--

media communications,
books, uh,

filmmaking, everything you can
conceivably think of

in the art world
is at stake here,

and we are here
to defend it.

You can't prove

that a person
takes the message--

The sender sends a message
and it does something.

You can't really prove that.

There are other
contributing factors.

No one
is an empty vessel.

Not even a baby
is an empty vessel.

You bring into the world,
into any situation

what you think
and experience and believe.

And you surround yourself
with things that reflect that.

So isn't that,
Ozzy Osborne or Judas Priest

made my child commit suicide.

It's that my child had so many
feelings inside of them that--

that the music
of AC/DC or Judas Priest

or-- or whom--
or Black Sabbath,

is how they felt
they had to express themselves.

And that's a really different--
different perspective.

♪ Better by you,
better than me, uh ♪

♪ You can say
what I only can see, uh ♪

[woman] Thank you.

The "uh"
is the exhalation of breath?

-Yes.
-[woman] Okay.

Uh, is that
a normal part of your singing?

That's the way
I've always sung.

That's just my style.

[Ian] The only thing
they found, you see,

was a combination of sounds.

It was basically
an exhalation of breath.

Rob was singing "Better by you,
better than me, uh."

And the closing
of a hi-hat cymbal. [tuts]

And after about 100 times
of listening to this,

you might be able
to convince yourself

that it did sound something
like the words "Do it."

But, uh,
it didn't in reality.

It was nonsense,
absolute nonsense.

So, it-- In essence,
it was a huge waste

of time, effort,
and resources.

[woman]
Are there subliminal "Do its"

on the "Better by You,
Better Than Me" song?

Absolutely not.

[Kat] The case against
Judas Priest was dismissed.

But to understand how music
and the law began to intertwine,

we have to go back
a few years to the mid-1980s

and the start of the most
influential non-government group

who monitored music content,

The Parents Music
Resource Center.

It was 1984,

and Twisted Sister was
at the height of their career.

And, uh,
we were on the road

and we started hearing,
uh, people talking,

'cause we certainly
didn't watch the news,

that there was this group,

The Parents Music
Resource Center,

made up, comprised of
some Washington Insiders' wives,

uh, that was,

uh, talking
about censoring rock music.

And we kinda
just laughed it off.

Why-- why--
How can radio stations

broadcasting across the country

be scared of a bunch of assholes
like the PMRC?

I hate to say that England
is ever better than America

'cause usually it isn't,
you know,

but in that case, it is.

These people
would get laughed off

the face of
the fucking Earth in England.

I-- I just don't believe
that anybody could attach

any importance to what
a bunch of shitheads like that

have to say
about anything.

Glorifying incest,
there are songs about rape,

thrill killing,
uh, sadomasochism.

There's a song that goes,
"Not a woman, but a whore,

I can taste the hate,
well, now I'm killing you,

watch your face turning blue"

by a group that has sold
two million copies

of that particular album.

They're very popular
with young kids.

[interviewer] You said that,
"The more records we sell,

the more drugs we get,
and the--

and the drugs
are fantastic."

[all laugh]

We already cleared
that one.

The PMRC was a group
of Washington wives

who apparently had nothing
better to do

than to listen
to their kids' records

and get offended by them.

Uh, the lead person
was Tipper Gore,

wife of Al Gore,

and, uh, she was
absolutely outraged

by what she heard
her kids listening to.

I bought
the Purple Rain album

for our 11-year-old.

And, uh, I didn't know
that "Darling Nikki" was on it,

and I felt that
it was inappropriate for her

and her eight
and six-year-old sister

to hear a song describing
a girl masturbating

in a hotel lobby
with a magazine.

Uh, I had no warning.

In fact, all I knew
was from the me--

that Prince
was the new creative,

uh, teen idol
on the scene

and had just received
a Grammy award.

So, I would've appreciated it

if I had known
that before purchase.

♪ I knew a girl named Nikki ♪

♪ I guess you could say
she was a sex fiend ♪

♪ I met her in a hotel lobby ♪

♪ Masturbating with a magazine ♪

[Steve] Now, the movie is
an R-rated movie, first of all.

So maybe that should
have tipped her off

that there might be
some content

not appropriate
for her 11-year-old.

But she heard
the song "Darling Nikki,"

which has, you know,

lyrics that
include masturbation

and-- and just
highly sexualized content.

And she got very upset
and she started this movement

of other politically connected
wives in Washington DC,

and they had
the connections

that made it possible
for them to actually

get news media attention,
to get congressional hearings.

Has rock and roll
finally gone too far?

A growing number
of people think so.

Today they took their case
to a US Senate hearing.

Their complaint,
that rock lyrics and videos

are crossing the line
into trash and smack.

[Senator Danforth] Next, um...

witness or witnesses,
Susan Baker

and the Parents Music
Resource Center.

Mrs. Baker, thank you
very much for being with us.

Please proceed.

The Parents Music
Resource Center

was organized in May
of this year

by mothers of young children.

The outrageous edge
of rock and roll

has shifted its focus
from Elvis's pelvis

to the saw protruding
from Blackie Lawless' codpiece

on a W.A.S.P. album.

Rock lyric have turned from,
"I can't get no satisfaction"

to "I'm going to force you
at gunpoint to eat me alive."

Now that more and more
elementary school children

are becoming consumers
of rock music,

we think it's imperative
to discuss this question.

What can be done
to help parents

who want to protect their
children from these messages

if they want to?

I think anyone
who objectively looked

at the proposals
of the PMRC...

uh, could immediately say
that the...

impact of what
they were doing

was so much more
negative and dangerous...

than any potential benefit
if there was any.

Now, they weren't
censoring anything.

They were simply asking,
you know,

for parents who have
young kids buying records,

can you place a sticker
on the records

that might be considered,

uh, a little too intense
for young years?

Uh, this created a whole bunch
of debate about censorship.

It created a whole bunch of
debate about artistic freedom.

We were
on the "Filthy Fifteen."

They had a list of 15 bands
they were targeting,

and we were,
you know, we were in--

there was metal bands there,
like Priest and AC/DC,

but it was also
Cyndi Lauper and Prince.

So, it was sort of--
it was--

I didn't perceive it as, like,

a personal attack
in the beginning.

[Tipper] We are asking
the recording industry

to voluntarily assist parents
who are concerned

by placing a warning label
on music products

inappropriate
for younger children

due to explicit
sexual or violent lyrics.

We now propose
one generic warning label

to inform consumers
in the marketplace

about lyric content.

The labels
would apply to all music.

Now it's important
to clearly state

what our proposal is not.

A voluntary labeling
is not censorship.

Censorship implies
restricting access

or suppressing content.

This proposal does neither.

Labeling is little more
than truth in packaging.

By now, a time-honored principle
in our free enterprise system.

And without labeling,

parental guidance
is virtually impossible.

Well, PMRC came out
and in fact, at the hearings,

they held up Wendy's solo album,
the WOW album

as something that, uh, you know,
children shouldn't see.

That just fueled
the fire for the youth

who wanted
to go buy these records.

They wanted to say, hey,
"If I'm not supposed to be

listening to this, I'm not
supposed to be seeing this.

That's what I wanna get."

And then let's not forget
W.A.S.P. with the chainsaw blade

coming out
of the guy's crotch.

They really
didn't like that either.

[Pastor Jeff]
Violence permeates the album

as well as their stage show,

which has included
chopping up

and throwing raw meat
into the audience,

drinking blood from a skull,

and until recently,
the simulated rape

and murder
of a half nude woman.

This single is available

in record stores
across the country.

The cover features
the crotch piece

that lead singer
Blackie Lawless wears on stage.

In this picture, there's
blood dripping down his stomach,

hands and off of the blade
between his legs.

The song
that accompanies this photo

is "(Animal) Fuck Like a Beast."

The Rolling Stones
on their album Undercover

also sang
a sadomasochistic activity

in the song
"Tie You Up (The Pain of Love)."

"You dream of it, passionate,
you even get a rise from it.

Feel the hot cum
dripping on your thigh from it."

[Steve]
It was really disappointing

that the only major artist

to come and speak
to the hearing

was Dee Snider
and Frank Zappa.

And you didn't see
Bruce Springsteen,

you didn't see
all the other artists

that were important
at that time.

Madonna, they weren't there.
They didn't show up.

If they had shown up,
it would've had an impact.

You know, honestly,
if they didn't invite me

to participate at those
Senate hearings,

I wouldn't have cared.

I wasn't political at all.

But to me,
I saw the opportunity

to carry the flag
into battle.

That's how I saw it
in my mind.

It was a maelstrom
of media attention.

It was for that moment,

the center of the world.

That's where everybody
was watching.

All over the world
they were watching.

And, uh, I'm in the back
and I meet Frank Zappa.

The one thing
I remember is

we were both concerned

of what John Denver's
stance would be.

He was not the rocker.

Uh, at that point
in his career, he was as a--

as America as apple pie,
as they say.

I'm here to address the issue
of a possible rating system

in the recording industry.

These hearings have been called
to determine whether or not

the government should intervene
to enforce this practice.

May I be very clear that
I'm strongly opposed

to censorship of any kind

in our society
or anywhere else in the world.

We do have
some authorities.

We do have
some responsibilities here.

And, uh, they're not
all clean-cut John Denvers.

The only thing we have to fear,
as President Roosevelt said,

is fear itself.

I'm not afraid of anything.

I'm not afraid
of what my children might see--

But most respectfully,
President Roosevelt

never heard these records.

[all laugh]

You know,
I see a video of me

walking into those--
to that testimony.

I am mystified... [laughs]

...at the cockiness
and the confidence

that I had
rolling in there.

I'm-- I'm proud of myself
watching it, but wow.

You know, it's--
I guess it takes...

being too young and stupid

to get how serious
the situation is.

But there
was just a moment

where that little child
in me was just like,

"Whoa, this is serious."

Next, we have,
uh, Mr. Dee Snider,

the Twisted Sister
Freefall Talent Group.

[man] What?

-[indistinct] Twisted Sister.
-Yep.

That's the group.

[Dee] You know,
they were looking at my picture.

They were looking at,
you know, all these--

this imagery

and figuring,
"Oh, this is the guy we want.

This is the poster boy
for heavy metal.

Everything that's wrong with it.

And, uh, we're gonna
make a fool out of this guy."

And whoever decided
to bring me

in had not vetted
Dee Snider,

they would've known
that the picture that they saw

was not representative
of the man...

behind the makeup.

I'm 30 years old.

I'm married.
I have a three-year-old son.

I was born
and raised a Christian,

and I still adhere
to those principles.

Believe it or not,
I do not drink,

I do not smoke,
and I do not do drugs.

Ms. Gore claimed that one
of my songs, "Under the Blade"

had lyrics encouraging
sadomasochism,

bondage and rape.

I can say categorically
that the only sadomasochism,

bondage and rape in this song
is in the mind of Ms. Gore.

Parents can thank
the PMRC for reminding them

that there is no substitute
for parental guidance,

but that is where
the PMRC's job ends.

There is no authority
who has the right

or the necessary insight
to make these judgements.

Not myself,
not the federal government,

not some recording
industry committee,

not the PTA,
not the RIAA

and certainly
not the PMRC.

[Kat] Following
the Senate hearings in 1985,

the PMRC
and the Recording Industry

Association of America

agreed to implement
a labeling system.

And in 1987,
Ice-T's Rhyme Pays

became the first album
to be labeled

with a PMRC warning sticker.

But even after
reaching the agreement,

this warning wasn't widely
seen until years later

and left a lot
of legal gray area to consider.

[chuckles] I guess
it wouldn't be any surprise

that sooner or later

punk rock
would get in the rifle scope

of the Parents
Music Resource Center

and Tipper and her pals.

When the Dead Kennedys
released their latest album,

Frankenchrist,
it bore the following label.

The poster is a graphic
depiction of genitalia

that has been on display
in some European museums.

You see,
a woman charged

Jello Biafra
and the Dead Kennedys

with distributing harmful
material to a minor

when her 14-year-old
daughter bought the album.

This case was considered
precedent setting

by many in
the entertainment industry

and it finally
went to court last week.

[Jello] They thought
I'd just pay a fine

and then
they could go after Ozzy

and Prince
and Madonna and the rest.

You know, looked a year,
year and a half in jail,

a $1,500 fine.

But, um,

even if I was only fined
ten bucks and a plea bargain,

I wasn't gonna plea bargain.

And so, what they hope
to accomplish

is to set the kind of
ugly chain of precedence.

Or even if you walk out
and get coffee

for the director of a movie

that someone else puts
an X rating on

later on,

you could be prosecuted
for the whole movie.

[woman]
Guilty by association, you mean?

Yes, in other words,

guilt by association
to the point

where people won't wanna
associate to create good art,

they'll be scared
and for good reason.

And anytime anybody
is afraid to say

or create what they believe,

that in itself
is censorship.

The poster one was really--
That was incredible

that they got in
so much trouble over that.

But...

I think in some ways they--
they're, you know...

The Dead Kennedys
were provocateurs.

You know, Biafra was--

He was itching
for a fight.

This is censorship,

even if it's not
what Mrs. Gore says

she is advocating.

All people want to know,
where music is concerned,

is some information,
the same kind that's available

in the other entertainment media
so they can make decisions

about their younger children,
and protect them

from explicit sex and violence
in the media.

Because young kids
can't handle it.

Your poster is so obscene

that you can't even
put it on television,

but it's available to kids

in-- At any age
in the record store.

So maybe kids
can make up their own minds,

instead of having you
make up their minds for them.

-Parents should--
-We will be right back.

[Bob] You know,

no other rock journalist editor

wanted any part of it.

And they found Spin,
and thought,

"Well, we'll ask this guy."
And I went, "Yes.

When? How do I get there?

Send a car now."

You know, saying
something isn't censorship.

Unfortunately,
doesn't make it not censorship,

unfortunately, and I think
you're a very charming

and very lovely lady,
and I believe

you're very well intentioned,

but I think
that what you're doing

is potentially
very, very dangerous.

I don't think anybody
is enough of a surgeon

that they can precisely cut off

that which
is dangerous to society

and protect everything that, uh,

potentially makes society grow.

And I actually
out argued to Gore politely

rather than--
I didn't call her a Nazi,

which Jello Biafra did,
I kept saying to him in the--

the commercial break,
"Stop doing that," you know.

And-- Because
that's what they wanted.

Because then they say, "Oh,
look at this terrible person,

this rock star,
his name's Jello Biafra,

his band's called
the Dead Kennedys.

That's what we're up against."

And at the end
when the show was over,

Tipper Gore came up to me,
she was literally trembling.

She said, "I don't know
why we're fighting.

I-- I'm against nuclear war."

I said, "Well, on that point
we agree." [laughs]

[Kat] Jello Biafra's trial was

eventually thrown out of court.

But this trial
further opened the door

to legally
ruling art to be obscene.

In 1989,
Miami hip hop group 2 Live Crew

would find themselves
on the front lines in the battle

for controversial
artistic expression.

Well, my name is Jack Thompson.

I live in Miami, Florida,
and have since 1976.

Some would call me the, uh,

uh, chief censor

in the United States
when it comes to music.

So, what I did was,

I sent the transcribed lyrics

of the As Nasty
as They Wanna Be album

to all 67 sheriffs
in the state of Florida.

And in doing so, I said,

"Here is an album

being sold in your jurisdiction.

It's being sold,

uh, we know, to kids under
the age of the age rating."

So that's how--
That-- that's what lit the fuse.

We-- we gonna pave the way
for everybody else

like we always do,
going into court,

and fight everybody,
and, you know--

But right is right, you know.

We're opposed
not against the group,

we're opposed against
the lyrics, the obscenity.

In America
should be freedom of speech.

But then at the same time,
they say, "Watch what you say."

I heard the album, I was--

And I went inside,
and I-- I cried.

[crowd chanting]
2 Live Crew! 2 Live Crew!

And I received word

that a judge in Fort Myers

had issued a ruling in response

to the sheriff receiving
these transcribed lyrics

that As Nasty as They Wanna Be

was probably obscene,
there was probable cause,

uh, to find that it was obscene.

This obscenity approach
is, on one hand, kind of genius

because it avoids all
the First Amendment protections

of a piece of expression.

So, it's a genius attack
of going after it for obscenity

rather than saying
it's too sexually explicit

or it's inappropriate
for children or whatever.

Take it all the way,
and say it is the worst thing

it could possibly be,
which is obscene.

And the weirdest part
of the whole thing

is that such an audacious claim
about a piece of music,

and it actually worked.

A judge actually ruled
that it was obscene.

And as a result, all these
other things could happen.

And if you look at performing
the music in public,

they were arrested for it.

There was someone
who was charged

with distributing
obscene materials

to minors for selling a copy
of a 2 Live Crew album.

It is treated basically
the same as pornography.

If it's freedom of speech,

it should be truly
freedom of speech.

It shouldn't be because
this group deems it unfit.

It shouldn't be that way.

Those are the fucking rules.

Those are the rules
that everybody agreed on.

I think there's a limit on
what warrants protected speech.

And I think speech that--

that harms,
that incite violence,

that revels
in extreme depictions

of violence against women,

uh, is not worthy
of free speech protection.

I-- I don't think it's artistic.

It contributes
to a broader cultural narrative

that is harmful to women.

This is our national anthem.

Okay, can we have
a moment of silence

for our national anthem?

♪ Somebody say, "Hey ♪

♪ We want some pussy" ♪

♪ Somebody, somebody ♪

♪ Somebody say ♪

♪ "Hey, we want some pussy" ♪

♪ Hey, we want some pussy ♪

[Betty] Uh,
I think the sexuality or, uh--

That is depicted
in music or any expression,

at least it-- it causes
people to talk about it.

And I think
maybe that's healthy,

you know,
to at least talk about it.

♪ 'Cause I won't say please ♪

♪ Just nibble on my dick
like a rat does cheese ♪

You know, there are
people out there that say

that all the-- the arrests
and the hoop on all that

are the best things that ever
could have happened to you guys.

And that's why y'all
are, uh-- Are making money.

It is actually helping us,
and we're selling more records.

I mean, we're
on a totally different level now

than we were
last year this time.

And, you know.

[Alan] That they were
more famous for being in court

than, uh,
for any of their music.

Um, so we did have
a period of time

where there was
a lot of discussion

about what should
and should not be put on record,

uh, and-- and-- and put on sale.

Every year is a different thing.

I mean, last year
it was, uh, Public Enemy.

And the year before that,
they would say,

"If you go
to a rap concert, your--

your kid
might get killed," you know.

And now it's this year,
it's 2 Live Crew.

Next year
it'll be somebody else.

The PMRC
sticker was an admission

that it
shouldn't be sold to kids.

It was an adult album
with an adult sticker on it

sold despite promises
by the industry

and by 2 Live Crew, uh,
to other people's children.

When people
talk about 2 Live Crew,

they often focus on the--
At the end of the day,

the obscenity ruling
was overruled.

Goodness wins.

And when I look at that,

I think, at first,

it pretty much
destroyed their career.

It affected
mainstream views towards rap.

Um, it required them

to shell out
an enormous amount of money

to defend themselves.

And was disruptive
for years of their life.

How is that a win?

[interviewer]
Has it been expensive?

Oh, yeah. Cost a lot of money.

I mean, made a lot of
lawyer's wealthy.

It blew open the door.

Um, which led
to the parental advisory sticker

of that rap is something

that needs
to be controlled and regulated.

It mainstreamed that idea,

and gave it root

in a way that
has never become unrooted since.

It wasn't NWA,
it wasn't Public Enemy,

it was 2 Live Crew.

[Kat] 2 Live Crew's
follow up album,

Banned in the USA

was the first album to receive
the now common

black and white
parental advisory label,

which has become
industry standard

on any music deemed offensive.

The-- They did get
the warning sticker through,

and that was fine,

but there were
some consequences of that.

For example, Walmart
refused to carry any records

with a, uh,
parental advisory sticker on it.

That hurt sales
of artists who were

into the raunchy sort of stuff.

And at the time,
Walmart was one of the biggest

sellers of CDs
and records in America,

in the world.

And the industry
is not anybody's fucking friend,

especially music's friend,
doesn't give a shit about music.

It's into commodities,
and it's into investing

in a fucking specific commodity.

Doesn't care about the people
that made it or anything.

Certain stores
would not carry sticker records.

And then
it went one step further.

I never even imagined this one,

but it wasn't until I did
my movie Strangeland in 1997,

and I found out
that the soundtrack

for my album had a Kid Rock song

called "Fuck Off"
that was removed.

And then there was
other songs, uh, on there

that words, like--
Did the censorship,

where they flipped the tapes.

It goes...
[imitates tape screeching]

...in the middle of the song.

And I got a lot of
pushback from people

who were on the soundtrack,
these metal bands going,

"Hey, what the fuck?
What did you do?"

And it wasn't us.

It was the record labels

bowing down to the major stores,

because they wanted
that Best Buy sale.

It's all about sort of
controlling youth culture,

controlling
what they have access to.

Um, and I-- It was
an effective form of censorship.

It was probably
one of the most effective forms

of censorship that I've seen.

Those labels,
that-- that was it.

You go
into the music store, you--

There's a label
on that CD or tape,

I'm not going home with it.

So, it was incredibly effective.

I-- I wasn't doing album art

that necessitated
having those stickers on.

But, uh, what I found is
very interesting was,

I remember talking
to somebody at a record label

and he was-- he was--
I said, "What do you think

about all
these stickers and, you know,

is it doing any good?"

And he said,
"Oh, it's doing the opposite."

He said, "Kids
are now thinking, "Oh, great.

I don't have to go, and look for

these records
with [indistinct] lyrics

'cause they're
already telling me

with a sticker on the front.'"

So, it has--
had an adverse effect, you know.

Well, those things
sold 10 times.

Literally,
I heard this from executives,

10 times
what they expected to sell.

So they sold a million copies
instead of a hundred thousand.

They were selling
through the roof, every label.

Britney Spears had one on her.

I mean, everybody
was trying to get a sticker.

Well, it's, you know,
you know, you tell a kid

not to do something,
and he's gonna do it.

It's, um, yeah.

I think-- I think that
the PMRC did sort of backfire

because I think
that, to a degree, um,

putting
a warning label on a record

saying "This has
cuss words on it,"

is like a candy to a baby.

You know, like all
the teenagers are going,

"Well, fuck yeah, man,

I-- I wanna
listen to that then."

I wasn't opposed to the sticker,

that Fear of a Black Planet
got in 1990,

the first year
they distributed the sticker.

But also,
I was very clear on saying

that they didn't do
their homework enough to realize

that within that album
of Fear of a Black Planet,

there wasn't anything derogatory

or overused, cursing.

It was just theory.

Matter of fact, took a smack
at racism in the United States,

Fear of a Black Planet
and also Around the World.

And-- and to get
a sticker for that,

I thought was just lazy.
For what?

Because the group
is named Public Enemy?

That's just laziness.

I'm saying, we didn't mind
getting a sticker anyway.

We wore it like a badge.

[Kat] The rise
of the parental advisory label

coincided
with the rise of gangster rap,

a controversial
sub-genre of hip hop,

which began appearing
on the top 40 charts

by the early '90s.

We are not against rap,

we're not against rappers,

but we are against those thugs
who disgrace

our community, our women,

who disgrace our culture,

and who have absolutely nothing

of redemptive value to offer,

except the legacy of violence
and sexual assault

and foul language.

[audience applauding]

Anyone will tell you
or show you examples

in their life
when they have not been heard,

and they've had to
make a louder noise.

People describe something

almost with a journalistic

level of authenticity,

and yet,
what they're talking about,

about being worried
about walking down the street

and being shot,

that's the expression of reality

that makes some people
very uncomfortable.

There's ignorance.
Ignorance is dangerous.

Race, uh, has been
at the core, the foundation

and the institutionalized
platform

of, uh--
Of the United States of America,

and therefore, out the world--
Throughout the world.

So, yeah,
there's a lot of situations

that people
don't think is race-based,

but it sprouts out of that.

And, you know, people
don't holler until they hit.

"It's gonna go away. It's a fad.

We don't have to
worry about it."

And then it doesn't, right?

And then-- then it's like,
"Well, we have to take steps

to censor this then."

Hip hop, or is it art
or is it poisonous?

[announcer]
Coming up next on Geraldo,

is rap music killing your kids?

I think it was
a real signal to parents

and, you know,
to conservative religious groups

that this is--
This is happening.

"Like, buckle up."

You don't--
You don't understand it.

You're not a part of it,
so how can you, like,

make a judgment on it,
you know what I mean?

It's-- it's like--

It's non-relatable to you.

So, of course,
like, if you don't understand it

and then you-- All you see is

negative aspects surrounding it,

you are going to have
a-- a negative opinion about it.

But it has seemed
to have continued to get

more aggressive, more hardcore.

And often, the gangster
rap depicts women, you know,

that they--
they like to be violated.

They like,
you know, big penises.

They're always
sexually voracious.

They can't be satisfied.

Um, they wanna be
treated like this.

You know, sure,
a lot of those lyrics

about gang violence and murders

and even attacks on women
and everything else,

they're very explicit.

But it was all

an attempt to paint a picture,

for people outside,

"This is what we
have to go through every day."

All of these things
go into rage.

Now, like, look, does--
Do I think it's, you know--

[laughs] Do I think
it's a good thing for people

to be hearing this stuff?

No, but like, obviously,
there's a reason for it.

And again, I'm like,
"Why don't we look

at the underlying reason
for this rage, you know,

and stop talking
about the-- the piece of music?"

You know, and stop
glorifying it too, you know?

'Cause when you-- you try to--

You try
to take it away or censor it,

then people just want it more.

And you had,
you know, NWA and Ice-T

and, um, the Geto Boys

and a bunch of others
who were, uh, singing about--

Rapping about life
in the streets.

And that was pretty intense,
because life in the streets,

you know, is pretty intense.

Uh, especially, when it comes

to the relationship
with the police.

["Sound od da Police"
by KRS One playing]

♪ Woop-woop,
that's the sound of da beast ♪

♪ Woop-woop ♪

["Crooked Officer"
by Geto Boys playing]

♪ I wanna put your ass
in a coffin, sir ♪

["No Surrender"
by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony playing]

♪ Let me catch you slippin' ♪

[Alan] And, uh, that
created an awful lot of issues

for some people,

especially
the broadcast industry,

but also in record stores.

Uh, you know,
Ice-T, for example,

had his song
called "Cop Killer."

And that created
all kinds of issues.

Um, you know,
with-- with-- with, uh,

police departments
and others demanding

that the record
be withdrawn from sale,

which is a form of censorship.

[Ice-T] For every one
of those fucking police,

I'd like to take a pig
out here in this parking lot,

and shoot 'em in their
motherfucking face.

["Cop Killer"
by Body Count playing]

♪ I'm 'bout
to bust some shots off ♪

♪ I'm 'bout
to dust some cops off ♪

[gunshots popping]

♪ I'm a cop killer ♪

♪ I know your mama's grievin' ♪

♪ Fuck 'em! ♪

♪ Cop killer ♪

♪ But tonight we get even ♪

The Body Count album

had a number of calls

for people to kill the police.

Uh, the issue was
whether or not Time Warner...

should be,
uh, selling that album.

You know, "Cop Killer"
didn't lead to the death

of a single police officer,
I'm pretty sure,

any more than the Terminator
led to a-- a police station

full of cops getting murdered.

It's the same thing.

It's-- it's-- it's entertaining.
It's not all actual facts.

I don't fucking have
two Bentleys,

but in my rap, I might say,
I have two Bentleys.

I don't have fucking
$15 million,

but in this fucking rap,
I got $15 million.

You understand what I'm saying?

It's like you gotta understand,
you gotta know,

and be able to decipher out
what's real and fake.

And if you can't,
stay the fuck away from it.

Leave it alone, like,
let us be, let us be great.

If you are
a distributor of music,

you have a certain
amount of liability.

You are the target,
because you are the one

that is the conduit of--
of the music to the consumer.

So, you have a responsibility

to your
shareholders and ownership

to make sure
that you're not doing anything

that is against the law.

The-- the fact that that alone,

like, a-- a song,

a set of lyrics provokes
so much backlash that it gets...

recalled.

That, you know--
That really says something

about America and race.

And we address the Time Warner
shareholders meeting

and, uh, I spoke along
with Charlton Heston,

which was
an interesting experience.

"Die, die, die, pig, die.

Police, I know your family's
grieving, [bleep] them."

Catchy little number, isn't it?

That effort
wound up being successful

in that Time Warner,

uh, pulled the album Body Count,

uh, from store shelves worldwide
because of the clear advocacy

that police officers,

whether Black or white,
be killed.

[reporter] Sales of the album
Body Count surged

following Tuesday's announcement
by artist Ice-T.

He is dropping the controversial
track "Cop Killer"

from all new copies
of his record.

[Ice-T] I'm gonna pull the song
off the record.

What I'm saying is, song's off
the record, shut up.

All right? That's what
I'm saying.

I'm not apologizing to 'em.

[reporter] But one
senior record industry executive

told the Associated Press
that Ice-T's decision

sets a dangerous precedent,

which will
encourage future protests

to limit free speech.

So, this is always--
My question is, you know,

okay, you wanna
get rid of something?

Well, what is it?

And a lot of people
are just knee-jerking,

and they're just like,
"Oh, well, that's the bad thing.

That's the bugaboo."

You know,
you can't advocate banning

something that you
don't even know what it is.

You know, 'cause then--
then-- then I start going,

"Well, you're not
actually talking about--

We're not talking about
music anymore then, you know."

[Kat] Cop Killer has
still never been re-released,

and the song is unavailable
on most streaming sites,

though Body Count
continued to perform it live.

Hip hop
and the police have often

had a tenuous relationship.

But gangster rap
and "Cop Killer"

pushed it
further than ever before.

Police began to look at rappers
and labels as criminal entities.

Leaked documents revealed
the FBI had open files beginning

in the early '90s
on the Wu Tang Clan,

Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella Records,

Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records,

and numerous
other popular artists.

Furthering
the criminal pursuit of rappers,

in 2000 California
passed Penal Code 182.5,

a criminal
conspiracy law that states

that active gang members
can be charged with crimes

committed by other members,

even if they weren't
involved in the crime.

What we were seeing now

is some singers,

some rappers
who are accused of a crime,

are hauled in front of a judge,

and their lyrics
are held up as a...

uh, mirror or an example

of the character of the accused.

Can s-- Because
you write these lyrics,

can they be used against you

if you are, in fact,
charged with a crime?

Uh, it's-- it's
a real slippery slope.

Um, June, yeah,
I believe it was June--

Juneteenth 2014.

I'm at home, sleep.

I woke up, like,
"Man," I just heard a gang,

like a-- a, like,
kinda like little voices.

I could hear-- [hissing]
Like, almost like whispering.

I jumped up
and I opened the door,

and as soon
as I opened the door,

it was AR-15
and just big guns in my face.

"Get down, get down,
get down, get down."

I'm like, "What's going on?"

Like, they got the whole
entire block is blocked off

with tanks, many tanks,

and on the side of the tanks,

it's dudes in black gear,
full riot gear.

In my mind, I'm like,
I-- I-- I asked my girlfriend,

I said, "Did you do something?"

I had to ask her because I knew
I hadn't done anything.

So, I'm like,
"Did you do something?"

Like, this is like some--

you're coming
to get some bank robbers

that just robbed three banks,

full shootout and everything,
you know what I mean?

So, I'm like, "It has nothing
to do with me, for sure."

Get downtown.

The detectives
walk up to the car

after, like,
three hours of me sitting

and say, uh, um,
"Do you want to talk to us?"

I said, "I have nothing
to talk to you about.

Like, I don't know
what you're talking about."

He was like, "Well,
if you don't want to talk to us,

we gonna take you to jail
right now for murder."

I was like, "I talk-- now
I know-- I-- I know I ain't--

I know I ain't killed nobody.

So, I'm like, "All right,
I'll talk to you, whatever."

So, we go upstairs.

First thing he says to me is,
"Look, Brandon, we know

that you don't have anything
to do with these murders

or anything to do
with these shootings,

but because of the stuff

that you talk
about in your music,

we can charge you
with these nine murders."

I start laughing.

I say, "Yeah, bro,
these nine shootings."

I'm like, "Yeah, right.

There's no way in the world
you could charge me

with some shootings
based off of something

that I was talking about
on my music."

I said, "Was I--" I said,
"I definitely wasn't talking

about the shootings
that you guys have on paper.

Like, I'll be out
before you know it.

Like, I'll-- for sure
I'll get bailed out tomorrow."

He's like, "No, bro,
you have a million-dollar bill."

I was like, "There's no way.
I haven't done anything."

I mean, like--

like, I'm saying it,
and it sounds crazy.

It was even crazier sitting,
going through this shit.

You're like, "Like,
listen to yourself right now.

You are telling me I don't know
anything about this,

but you wanna charge me
with conspiracy on some shit

that you're telling me
I don't know--

you are telling me
I don't know about 'em,

so how the hell you gonna
charge me with this shit?"

But they said, "Based off
of, uh, Penal Code 182.5,

hey, you could be
held liable, bro."

It's crazy.

Except I have became
a documented gang member

at, like,
the age of 12-- 11 or 12.

My man, my-- my-- my man--

um, you know,
that's the-- you know,

the, uh, guy that's filming,

um, has on green pants
right now.

So, him being with me,
we-- we're in my neighborhood

in Lincoln Park,
Southeast San Diego.

We're walking to the store.

He could be--
he could be, you know,

uh, labeled a gang member
because of the color pants--

color pants he has on,
and he's with me.

An associate they could tie you

basically to the same stuff
that they're--

or-- or charge you

like they're charging me
as a gang member

with the same stuff,
you know what I mean?

Just based off
of him walking with me,

talking to me and wearing
the color that he's wearing.

You know,
coming to the Black community,

charge you for--
basically charge you

with being who you are.

I can't help that.
This is what I seen every day.

If I grew up in La Jolla,

maybe I might be rapping
about doctors and lawyers.

They basically told me
I can go home, man.

Like, "You can go home
right now today with probation.

Just-- just sign probation.

You can go home now after being
in jail for eight months,

facing life in prison,
still facing life in prison."

I-- I can't do it
because my sons like to rap.

So, if I say,
"Okay, I'll take this time,

or I'll take this probation,

then you gonna do
the same thing to my son.

And I just
couldn't let that happen.

So, I said, "You know what?
Nah, man, I'm not taking it.

I'm gonna go to the box

because I know
I haven't done anything wrong.

I know I haven't
done anything wrong,

so come on, let's go," you know?

[Kat] Tiny Doo
and his co-defendant

were released in 2015.

Upon the release,
the two men successfully sued

the state of California
for $1.5 million.

But Penal Code 182.5
is still being used today.

And in May of 2022,

a 56-count indictment
in the state of Georgia

named rappers Young Thug,

Gunna and more
than two dozen other artists

from their label, YSL,

as alleged conspirators
in a criminal organization.

Many of the charges
quote lyrics from the artist

as evidence
of criminal conspiracy.

As of this production,

many of the artists
are still awaiting trial.

But a new bill

called the Restoring
Artistic Protection Act,

or RAP Act,

has been recently
introduced to Congress

that seeks to limit
the use of lyrics as evidence,

which could vastly
affect this in future trials.

With all the mechanisms
in place to label, rate,

silence or deplatform music

deemed defensive or dangerous,

it raises the question,

to what extent
are people actually influenced

by darker suggestive music?

I think art as a concept
or entertainment is neutral,

depends on what you do with it.

Uh, but I believe
stuff like that

does degrade our society

because culture
has an effect on people.

If Beethoven's works
can uplift the human spirit,

then the other...

musical art
can degrade the spirit.

The idea that music
can make you do things

that you are not, uh,
otherwise inclined to do,

is a very convenient idea

and is absent
of any actual evidence.

Despite being researched
literally thousands of times,

no one has ever given
an iota of proof

behind the idea
that music makes you do things

that you weren't
otherwise inclined to do.

You know, this is the--
the timeless question.

Does violent

imagery music words

lead to violent actions?

Yes, there is the case,

there is the case
of the tormented teenager

who do-- who goes out

and shoots somebody
or shoots himself

or takes his own life
or her own life

because of something they heard.

But they could have
also read a book.

They could have read
Alice in Wonderland

and found that somehow.

Uh, anybody that's going
to commit a violent act,

uh, is gonna do that

regardless if they're listening
to a song

that's promoting that or not.

Does it inspire that idea

with somebody, like a listener?

Possibly.

So yeah, music does make
people feel a certain way.

But at the end of the day,
I don't--

I'm not gonna sit here and say,

"It's the music that
makes you do what you wanna do."

A feeling is something different

from me going out
committing a crime.

Now, I'm not gonna say
the song made me do it.

Nah, nigga,
you wanted to do that shit

because you wanted
to do that shit.

Period.

Uh, you know,
people are different

and they create music
for different reasons,

but I think
they should always be aware

of what they're saying with it.

You know, I don't know
that people always are.

'Cause, you know,
it's like, great--

with great power
comes great responsibility.

We do have a lot of power.

You know, as entertainers,

like, we can touch everybody
in that audience.

You know, everybody
who's listening to the radio.

Uh, the band
is responsible for transmission.

Can't control the reception.

It-- I think I had this idea

that it was a-- of an effective
form of communication.

It is not
an effective form of co--

it is a powerful form
of communication,

but it's not an effective one.

And do I think
I have responsibility?

I do. Yeah, I do.

But not everyone does.

And I'm not saying
everyone should.

I'm just saying that I do.

And I think if-- if people
are gonna send a message,

you know, they need to be
really clear on what that is.

Of course, once it's made,
people will react to it

as-- as they react to it.

And they may--
they may get a message

that the people
didn't intend at all.

But I think it--
you can at least start with...

knowing
what you're trying to say.

You know,
for better or for worse.

The media likes to focus in

if they can find
a musical connection

that works for them.

We have no idea what music
Jeffrey Dahmer listened to.

I hear it was Barry Manilow,

and I really think Barry Manilow
should have been banned,

and his records burned

because of what Dahmer did.

No, I don't know
who Dahmer listened to.

The point is,
we don't hear about it

unless it's some, you know,
the evil rock and roll.

When it's evil rock and roll,
or now, you know, hip hop

or something like that,

they-- they're--
the media is so fast

to focus in that-- on that
as a reason that it happened.

[TV show theme song playing]

[reporter] Authorities
in Littleton, Colorado

are securing the scene
of a deadly school shooting

so they can make
a final body count

as the community
and the nation struggles

to come to grips
with the carnage.

[Nuzum] Columbine is--
is a really interesting

and unfortunate chapter in...

how you look at music
and music expression

and the attempts
of people to control that.

You see
that following the shooting,

you know,
as-- as is often the case,

people start acting like,
"What was the motivation?

What inspired this?"

And these kids,
um, all wore trench coats

and wore dark clothing.

And so,

it was immediately assumed

that they had been inspired
by popular culture

to dress this way,
to act this way.

You know, the guys
that-- that did that,

um, sort of fit that profile.

You know, when something like
that happens, it's so tragic

and that you can't wrap
your head around it.

But people want an answer
and they want somebody to blame.

So, they just-- I think--
think that's--

unfortunately that's
what they did,

is they just picked heavy metal
or Marilyn Manson

and said, "This is the problem.

And, you know,
we've said it before.

And-- and here's the proof."

The famous mass murder

at the high school there
in-- in Colorado,

they were deeply

into a lot of,
uh, dark nihilistic music.

And to suggest that
that did not provide a-- a mood,

uh, in which the seeds

of whatever dark seeds
was growing inside of them,

uh, is naive.

And someone decided...

that these two
were fans of Marilyn Manson.

And there were calls to action

from the local level
to the national level,

internationally

that Marilyn Manson
should be punished,

should he be culpable
in this crime.

And it was later established

that even after he had
a number of concerts canceled,

had to-- had to defend himself,

that the two young men

who were responsible
for the Columbine shootings

actually thought
he was a goofball

and didn't really think
very much of him at all.

In that moment,

it was so horrific
what they had done

that it was, so-- it--

I think it makes
people feel calm and safe

if they can point to something

and say, "Okay,
that's what it-- it is.

We just need
to get rid of that."

And Marilyn Manson
looked terrifying.

And so, I think
it was an easy scapegoat.

And if we can blame it
on music and video games,

then we don't have
to take actual responsibility

for our culture of violence

or the-- you know, the lack
of mental health support

and how easy it is to get a gun.

[chuckles]

[Kat]
The internet and social media

have changed the landscape
of the music industry

and given rise to the importance
of public opinion.

And more than the law,
the church or the PMRC,

public opinion
always wield the most power.

And this has been happening

long before we have
the term "cancel culture."

[reporter] Some teenagers
have said--

uh, have repeated
your statements that,

"The Beatles, I like the Beatles
more than Jesus Christ."

What do you think about that?

Well, originally, I was--
I was pointing out that fact,

in reference to England,

that we meant more to kids
than Jesus did,

all religion at that time.

I wasn't knocking it
or putting it down,

I was just saying it as a fact.

It doesn't matter about
people not liking our records

or not liking
the way we look or what we say,

you know, they're entitled
to not like us,

and we're entitled not to have
anything to do with them

if we don't want to
or not to regard them.

This is Doug Layton
and Tommy Charles.

We're reminding you

that our fantastic Beatle
boycott is still in effect.

We have not forgotten
what the Beatles said.

[Kat] As artists increasingly

put their personal lives
in the public eye...

their fans
are more often confronted

with the separation of art...

and artist.

There's the music
and then there's the person.

Can you separate the two?

I mean,
Michael Jackson, for example,

uh, you know, unproven,

but, you know, highly suspected
of being a child molester,

you know, but at the same time,

one of the greatest artists
of all time.

So, what do you do
with his music?

A lot of censorship has come
in the form of public opinion.

[audience cheering]

[Bush] They can say
what they wanna say,

and just because they shouldn't
have their feelings hurt,

just because some people
don't wanna buy their records

when they speak out.

I mean, it-- it's, you know,
freedom is a two-way street.

And now that looks completely
different in the 21st century

because of the internet,
because of social media,

um, that it is very easy

to get people
on board for something,

like something, share something

without them really fully
thinking about it critically.

I think it's easier from afar

when you're sitting
on your phone at home

to tell someone
they're canceled,

to tell someone
that what they did is wrong

and they don't deserve
to do their thing anymore,

or just be.

I think when you're
in front of that person,

that's different.

And that mediation,
that online mediation

has made us, you know,
a-- just a little more judgy.

And, you know,
as-- as a feminist myself,

I absolutely advocate
for conversation,

for allowing people
to create change.

Because if all we do
is cancel them,

we're not actually
creating change.

We're just telling them
to have the same feelings,

to do the same thing,
but be quiet about it.

And to cultivate change,

you need to have
nuanced critical conversations

that is beyond
the like button on Facebook.

It's definitely
a different landscape now, um...

because everybody's able
to voice an opinion

and-- and-- and put
their-- their, uh, opinion

on what is and is not acceptable
in a-- in a public way.

Uh, it's a dangerous time
to be an artist,

I think, in that regard.

Yeah, if you-- when you--
when you apply censorship

to any art form,

specifically music or lyrics,

it's like-- it's like, uh...

trying to write with a--

you know, a gag in your mouth.

Uh, free speech
is-- is-- is utterly,

absolutely, completely important

to any art form.

During history,

people that went extreme

changed the world, okay?

Not the people
that go-- go with the flow.

If you go with the flow,
just live there.

You know, we only come once here

in this life, in this planet.

So, we have to live--
we have to move forward

for the next generation.

You can't worry about, um...

turning anybody off
when you're making the art.

The business of music

and-- and the creation
of music and art,

it's two different worlds.

If we fight for the right
of free expression,

we fight
for the opponent's right

every bit as much as ours.

And we have to.

And it means nothing
if we don't.

You can't talk
about freedom of speech

if really all you want
is freedom of your speech.

It's all or nothing.

You can't--
you can't, like, draw a line.

You could--
you decide for yourself

who you're gonna listen to,

but you can't say they don't
have a right to be there.

I mean, that--
I-- I feel like that's part

of, uh, the music--

the musicians
and artists' mission statement,

because you have to be able
to, uh, have that freedom.

If you can't,
then you can't explore

all the-- the depth of humanity.

You just can't.

You can't expect
music to be different

from what else
is happening in society,

whether it's war,
whether it's drugs,

whether it's youth culture.

What-- whatever else
is happening,

the music's gonna reflect that

by-- by the mere nature
of what music is.

You know, which is why
we should be really careful

of, you know,
what that message could be.

We-- I think we should
just be really, um, intentional

about what
we're putting out there.

I don't think
we're always intentional...

as musicians.

I am the things I am

because I learned...

from the past

and I've seen
the mistakes of the past,

and I'm better for them
and educated by them.

Just ignoring them,
blocking them out,

removing them from history...

is gonna remove
an important educational tool

to young people.

And that-- that's it.

♪

Defendant Jeffrey Williams
and associate of YSL

released a song on YouTube

titled "Slime Shit,"

where the lyrics state,

"Hey, this is
that slime shit, hey.

YSL shit, hey.

Killing 12 shit, hey.

Fuck a jail shit, hey.

Cooking white brick.

I'm in the VIP

and I got that pistol on my hip.

Hey, this that slime shit.

Fuck, fuck the police.

Fuck 'em in a high-speed.

Hundred rounds in a Tahoe.

I'm prepared to take 'em down.

Got banana clips for all
these niggas acting monkey.

This that slime shit.

This that mob shit.

Fuck the judge, YSL,
this that mob life."

An overt act in furtherance
of the conspiracy.

Act 61--