Music Censors

Revolutionary Worker #1120, September 30, 2001, posted at http://rwor.org

On September 19, the New York Times reported that: "Clear Channel Communications, the Texas-based company that owns about 1,170 stations nationwide, has circulated a list of 150 songs and asked its stations to avoid playing them because of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

The no-play list is supposedly voluntary. But DJ's have informed the RW that many DJ's around the country follow the guidelines of Clear Channel.

The list is wide ranging--including "Imagine" by John Lennon; "Bridge Over Troubled Water," by Paul Simon, and "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens,

Every song ever done by Rage Against the Machine is on this list. And if ever there were a time when the people needed to hear the music of Rage, this is it!

Tom Morello, lead guitarist for Rage, told the Times, "If our songs are 'questionable' in any way, it is that they encourage people to question the kind of ignorance that breeds intolerance--intolerance that can lead to the kind of violence we witnessed last week."

*****

Boots Riley and his Oakland-based rap group The Coup are under attack. Overnight the cover art on their new album "Party Music"--which featured a computer generated pic of Boots with a detonator in front the World Trade Center--became all too real, and Boots found himself in the midst of heated controversy.

On the "Hard Knock Radio" show hosted by Davey D., Boots, explained: "I wanna say that off that bat, that last Tuesday's tragic act is not something The Coup endorses." "When we originally made that picture, it was in May and June. It was supposed to be a metaphor to symbolize us destroying capitalism. What The Coup talks about is what I think it takes to make a revolution... My way in which I think this is going to happen is through hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of people moving, organizing and making something happen. I do think in the end it will be a violent revolution, but I don't think it's something that will happen by the act of a few people."


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