Rating: 
Summary: A Good Overall View
Review: This is a good reference book for the history of music (and video) censorship or attempted censorship. It shows the ridiculous as well as the warrented (in who's opinion?). While I'm sure that no one wants their child to listen to songs of suicide, sex and drugs when they are ten years old, this book, to me, enforces the fact that it is more a parental responsibility that anything else. To rely on others to tell you what is bad for your child is nuts. Tipper Gore started the PMRC because of her lack of parental initiative, even though she claims it was because of it. The book details the episode, when she bought an album based on her 11 year old daughter's recommendation and listened to it with her child and two younger siblings without first previewing its contents and then gets mad at the artist and the record company for releasing it. Come on! She should have previewed this album before playing it for her daughter, I would have. Relying on others to make these determinations is dangerous. For instance some wanted the Captain and Tenille banned because they endorsed vegetarianism and believe in reincarnation. The Beach Boys because they practice yoga. Carlos Santana because if you drop the first N and the last A you have a devil worshipper. The list goes on and are presented in this book as food for thought on following rather than thinking. In the 1960's some thought The Beatles music was part of a Communist plot to jam the nervous systems of young people (I know, sounds too weird). The FBI has investigated many rock and rollers throughout the 1950-1960-1970s for subversive statements and lyrics. Church groups think music promotes the Devil. Conservatives don't like the liberal message and liberals don't like the conservative message. Jesse Jackson thought Disco music was morality- damaging! The bottom line is GET A GRIP! Think for yourself and your children, within' the family unit. Did any rational person really think that "Rocky Mountain High" was about drug abuse? This book shows you why people must continue to think and make their own choices. A classic, that is a good addition to any library for a reader or a music fan I consider this book a must have.
Rating: 
Summary: Music's History
Review: This is a great reference book to learn more about the history of music. Everything you ever wanted to know about the music your parents never wanted you to hear is in this book. Read it. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Righteous book!
Review: This is a very original book (no other book like it exists) and Nuzum has done an unbelievable job. This guy is freakin' righteous. It's interesting that he is so credible and thorough, yet has such an obvious stance on these issues, that is hard to pull off. He's a great journalist too, he's fair, thorough, and everything is incredibly documented. I've read some of the other reviews, and I somewhat agree that it reads like the different chapters are autonomous from each other. You'll often find brief mentions of something in one chapter, then an incredibly detailed telling in another. I don't think it is repetitious, but you wish he'd make a call. Was Ice Cube censored for his race or his politics? Nuzum doesn't seem to decide this, so he includes it in both chapters. All in all the book has a lot to offer and is incredibly well-written. It's time someone tackles this issue, and this guy does so completely.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Page Turner
Review: This is an outstanding view written by a music lover for a music lover! This book has everything from censorship broken down into parts (drugs, politics, sex etc) to a history of it. This book in it's entirety is very informative and persuasive.
Rating:
Summary: History of music censorship is valuable
Review: Warning label: this review contains materials that champion free expression, individual choice in determining what music he/she can listen to without fear of persecution. My first musical collection was building up around the same time that the PMRC had begun hearings. Songs that contained sexually explicit lyrics, violence, and references to drugs and the occult were targeted. Remember the "Filthy FifteenÂE Remember only three musicians brave enough to come to the PMRC hearings-John Denver, Dee Snider, and Frank Zappa? I do. And lawsuits against artists/groups such as Ozzy and Judas Priest only proved that it's the listener who's at fault, not the artist, for the listener's suicide. 2 Live Crew's hard-fought and ultimately victorious court battle in Broward County, FL is also covered in the book. In the short run, the infamous warning label set an age limit, but it led to edited versions of albums, which in turn exacerbated the problem of their being returned on the sly for the complete version. The message seems to be there's always a way around things. But censorship and condemnation only boosts sales for that product, with consumers wanting to know what the big deal is, so paradoxically, the PMRC and other groups actually help the artists/group they are condemning. Makes you think, hmm? Radio stations in small-town areas have targeted inoffensive songs just because they contain a word that may be taken to have negative references, the most famous case being John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High." (They thought high meant as in a drug-induced high) Eric Nuzum's book covers a variety of subjects, such as censorship during the 1950's up to the PMRC's inception, banned album art, inconsistencies in censorship, and racism, particularly how black musicians who created a sound had their art stolen by white musicians who made it big, relegating the original artists to segregated underground clubs. The trend continued when R&B was ripped off into rock & roll. If anything, there is a tremendous debt owed to black musicians who created the music. To add insult to injury, R&B songs that might have been considered risque were redone in "nice" versions by white artists, substituting "offensive" lyrics. Fortunately, the original versions by the original artists are available, but think of the royalties the black artists were cheated out of. It's downright unjust. MTV and narrowcasting (catering to a single demographic) is touched on. I learned here how black artists broke through on MTV and its own form of censorship. MTV seems more about money than music, to paraphrase Neil Young. Marilyn Manson is also touched on in this book, as is the Columbine massacre. Manson's assertion that times have not become more violent but more televised is right to the point. At the end of the book is a chronological timeline of the absurdity that has continued to this day. Nuzum really does a bang-on job of songs, albums, and artists who have had their art condemned. Face it, censorship will rear its ugly head time and again, but times are getting more progressive. Yesterday's fingerpointing rolls today's eyes skywards. Who knows, maybe GNR's Appetite To Destruction will be reissued with its proper cover instead of being confined to the inner sleeve? Time will tell.
Rating:
Summary: Parental Advisory (by Eric Nuzum) [2001]
Review: Welcome to America: A place where people are known to blame everyone else but themselves for their shortcomings, failures and rejections! Music Censorship has always been a big deal in America. Censorship, period (going for any form of art, speech, human nature, etc...). In the 1950s with Elvis Presley, Little Richard, parents were afraid that this music had a high impact on the new generation (the young). That history is repeating itself although it may seem that more young people listen to music that talks about anything! One person has said before that if art cannot express the way we live and teach us how to deal with circumstances before they hit us, then we are in deep trouble! Even as of now amid the airwaves coated with Eminem, 50 Cent, Blink 182, and so many more... censorship always has a tone of morality to it. And yet, stupidity! This book brings up fine examples of how people thought music has influenced people to perform crazy or violent rituals, how songs like "Suicide Solution" has influenced depressed teenagers who were considered 'weird' to kill themselves and how parents (who had no sense of offering the gifts of value and parental guidance and love to their children and themselves, even) has sued and tried to sue particular artists and how Tipper Gore formed the PMRC. Politicians like Tipper Gore, Al Gore, George Bush, Bill O'Reilly and even Jesse Jackson had come down hard on many songs, be it dance, rap, rock, country songs that talk about sensuality, dance forms, racism, sexism, classism and unfairness. To say that these songs are "damaging to morality". As rap music formed in the late 1980s with groups like N.W.A., rappers like Ice-T, the situation has got a bit more sour. Even though before, there was Prince, Dean Martin, Kiss, The Rolling Stones and the cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland", the topic has never blemished. Even now as artists are not talking about any/everything and they're just only exploring their sexualities/humanities in the public eye amid exploring their abilities to attract people all over the world like Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, that's even a bigger deal! Record store owners have been threatened, arrested and have been told to not sell particular albums to 'under-18s' and even people of 'age'. To many people, it's okay to see Sly Stallone or Schwarznegger kill a whole police force in a movie, but as soon as Ice-T & Body Count speaks about killing some police officers who has [urinated] on a person's parade, the record is banned or if someone listens to it in their car, they are harrassed! Many people think censorship deals with racism. Many others feel it deals with sexism. Mannerisms, morality, the 'embetterment' of our youth, to 'protect' the public, you name it! Some of these issues are addressed in this book while some many not be address explicitly enough. This is still a very powerful book! Teenagers who wore ICP or Marilyn Manson shirts have been harrassed and has their shirts torn off by the police and administrators in the crooked, contradictive public school systems, Britney Spears CDs have been revoked at skating rinks, in Texas, students have been suspended from schools for attending Backstreet Boys concerts, in 1999 after the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, parents and administrators have blamed every form of the entertainment industry for this tragic event, teachers forbid gothic apparel and even rock t-shirts being worn in schools. Politicians, parents, administrators, even educators in colleges and in the philosophy-morality department... These people will argue endlessly and find pointless evidence that hinders individuality that life immitates art when it's honestly the other way around! These people are all a part of the blame culture that, unfortunately, has the smarter people with characteristics and style outnumbered! When I was in elementary school, middle school and some of high school, I've listened to rap music. I don't anymore because I've always knew what real music was about. Not to say that rap/hip-hop lacks style, but I have my own style, horizons, audacity and preferences. I've listened to Stevie Wonder when I was in the 3rd grade and "Innervisions" was the first CD to enter my music library. Even though I despise some rap lyrics about guns, death, listing of materialistic things spoken by people who aren't used to having anything and the disrecpetful social commentary about females, I'd be less than human to blame this genre of music for the stupidity of myself others, 'disrespectful' or 'corrupt children' and why many members of low-class neighborhoods will stay stuck in these situations. Anything can be taken the wrong way by people. Most importantly, words are taken the wrong way by people. Isn't this what freedom of speech is about? Even as we say whatever's on our minds, people still are offended and we have to, to some extent, draw the line due to respect. I can understand that much! However, shouldn't we have some decency and even some desire to have some responsibility for our own actions and shameful moments about our idiocies to help us evolve as individuals? Entertainment and even books that display dark sides of human nature and sexuality aren't suitable for children? NEWSFLASH: Life itself isn't suitable for children. How will they react when something comes their way that is tempting or intimidating? It disturbs me to learn that so many ignorant people are making it in this big world. How can they go about their daily routines?! Whatever happened to learning the differenct between fantasy and reality? Individuality and face value? This book is a masterpiece that tells every event of the battles of censorship that were won and lost. This book gives you a decent amount of information about one of the top five things that is wrong with the world today!
Rating: 
Summary: Save Our Children from Devil Music!
Review: Whether it be hardcore punk bands like Green Day or Good Charlotte, or death metal acts like Creed, America needs to wake up and BAN devil music. Rock and Roll is the cause of abortion, rape and unwed mothers, and this book promotes all of that. The PMRC was right (except for that left wing loony Tipper Gore), and so was the Back In Control Center! My cousin was sent there because he was caught drawing the Jewish star of David (a satanic symbol) on his notebook, and now he is a good Christian Conservative who doesn't listen to pornographic Rock and Roll (a black term for sexual intercourse). John Lennon shared his views on Jesus and was shot dead. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! Save yourself from this evil, evil form of music.
Rating:
Summary: Mainly trying to put yourself through sanity
Review: Yup, about censorship it is. Mainly in all the musical stuff. Like in November 1985 when they came up with the Parental Advisory code. Before that Tipper Gore had gotten a Prince album for her daughter and was uncomfortable with the lyrics, and it was kinda funny. Also, there are parts about pure psychopathic people. Actually, I can't describe things real well, so just read the book rather than my review. Anyways, there's also parts about the album covers. Kinda like how the back cover for Nirvana's "In Utero" had a completely different back cover on the regular compared to censored version. Also it shows some of the photo contrasts between censored and uncensored. Also, some videos you'd be surprised had to get edits for MTV. There's even quotes from the people who made censorship a big deal, political deals, and parts that make you think. Mainly about the future and past. But read it anyways. Recommended.
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