We often talk about the importance of music’s expressive qualities or how we want our students to be able to expressive themselves with and through music. Sometimes we forget, however the role that censorship plays in people expressing themselves through music across the world. For many students the first thing that comes to mind when discussing censorship is the prevention of a word being sung or rapped on the radio but we often forget about other forms of censorship such as the policies the Apartheid government of South Africa enforced in order to prevent certain types of music from being performed or heard.
On March 3rd this year many people around the world addressed issues of censorship in music during Music Freedom Day . This was one project resulting from the 3rd World Conference on Music & Censorship that took place in November of 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey. The conference website has some very interesting video clips of interviews with artists who have have dealt with issues of censorship. The site is hosted by the organization Freemuse. Besides keeping a running track on music censorship news items from around the world the Freemuse website has a wealth of information in the form of articles publications, interviews and other types of media. Whether or not you agree with all of the information and points of view presented it is a wonderful resource to have if you plan on discussing issues of censorship with your students. National standards 8 and 9 often get left out of our music programs. This topic could lead in many directions covering both standards that with careful and sensitive planning, guidance and facilitation could be very meaningful to our students.