Media Censorship Revisited

By: May Anne Uy


“Nobody can take away the one thing I can depend on, which is enjoying the music.” Say’s Eric Johnson on his December, 1982 interview on “Guitar Player” magazine. On a personal level, I can really identify with him on how music affects our lives. But there’s a monster out there that refuses to die that could ruin our enjoyment of music. Censorship is back, with a vengeance. My best friend, who grew up in the 1980’s has wrestled with this beast most of his life. He’s an aspiring musician whose love for music is a zen-like transcendence. He’s been through the PMRC (Parent’s Music Resource Center) fiasco back in 1989. Back then if you are into music that’s been labeled as a degenerate art by the Catholic Church, like Heavy Metal or Wagner’s Operas, you’re just labeled weird. Then 1999 came, the Y2K Bug, and Jesus don’t like Metal (?) attitude made hip by weak willed degenerates as a fashion statement du jour. Then came 9 / 11, as the Catholic Church became “Talibanized” for five years running, this monster got a new lease on tenure to make us music lovers suffer. Today, you could get fired if your employer finds out that you’re into “degenerate art”. And they say that media piracy is killing the music industry worldwide. Is the future of media censorship painful or interesting? I just hope I can live through this.