Frank Zappa on Free Speech

Back in the 1980s all the usual suspects were upset about music. Rock music was destroying the country. Rock music was encouraging suicide. Rock music was the bane of all evil. Of course Frank Zappa's position was that magnetic tape and decent tape recorders were the bane of the music industry. Before there was downloading music (who remembers Napster?), there was recording stuff on cassette tape. I had excellent equipment, but that was so I could listen to my music in my car. (LPs don't work too good in a car.) And you could make tapes that included songs from multiple albums, though the mix tape was a lot of work, and so didn't really exist as much as people fondly remember them.

Anyway, in 1985 Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider testified in front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on "the subject of the content of certain sound recordings and suggestions that recording packages be labeled to provide a warning to prospective purchasers of sexually explicit or other potentially offensive content." In the wake of that Frank Zappa appeared on many shows, from Johnny Carson on down.

The Senate testimony is probably best discussion about music, but it is 33 minutes, and longer than most people will listen to.

This is the CNN video Frank Zappa on Crossfire 1986, in which he argues that censorship is bad. The video quality is bad, but the subject is good. (Hat tip to Eric Alper.)