is a new documentary bringing together luminaries like , Chuck D, Jello Biafra, s Ian Hill and Sakis from Rotting Christ to explore how censorship has affected music over the decades. Canadian director/co-writer Sean Patrick Shaul’s original focus was the ‘dirty blues’ of the 1920s-50s, those pioneering naughty ditties that inspired ’s love of lewd innuendo. But the deeper Sean dug, the more he discovered how much censorship has shaped our favourite music.
“We realised there’s a direct correlation between the dirty blues and the Rolling Stones, and a direct correlation between the Stones and heavy metal,” he says. “So the story just kind of unravelled itself.” Among others, the film examines the concerns of the Parents’ Music Resource Centre, a 1980s pressure group headed by Tipper Gore who went to war with anything they perceived as being anti-family values.
At its peak, bands like Twisted Sister and Judas Priest were , accused of everything from promoting sexual immorality to including subliminal messages in their songs urging fans to harm themselves. Today, their fears seem very quaint in a world where Cardi B’s liquescent fanny tops charts and scoops awards. Are censors less troubled by music nowadays? “They’re still troubled, but they’re lost in the noise of everyone being troubled by everything now,” ponders Sean.
“At that time it was on the rise with MTV, these videos were broadcast into your house on cable, so parents weren’t exposed .
