What if They Gave a Culture War and Nobody Came?
Prospects for Free Musical Expression in The United States

By Paul D. Fischer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Recording Industry, Middle Tennessee State University, USA.
Former President of IASPM-US, the United States branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

Expression is not entirely free in the United States, and music is at risk!
This paper explores the legal and cultural limitations on music as expression in America, assessing present and future threats.

Abstract
A “culture war” has been declared in the United States on those whose expressions, often musical, don’t fit with dominant notions of propriety, decency, and mainstream American-ness. This paper attempts to construct a “thick description” of the interactions of popular music and public policy in the United States under these conditions (1985- present).

The paper details the occasions when judicial and legislative authorities have focused attention on popular music as expression. The limits of the “free speech” protection of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are explored. Recent legislative initiatives are used to elaborate on some politicians’ true desires. The future prospects for censorship of music under the recently passed USA Patriot Act of 2001 are examined, with genuine concern. Beyond this, the paper takes up non-governmental lobbyists’ opposition to free musical expression, their past successes and failures, and the threats they pose going forward. All of this will be blended into a larger discussion of America’s internal cultural conflicts and what they reveal about the society.

As a nation, the United States has an uneasy relationship with its musical heritage. Despite global recognition of the originality of its musics, mainstream America chooses not to bask in this glory. Jazz, blues, r&b, rock’n’roll and hip-hop are suspect because they draw more on African sources than European ones for their spark. Second, these musics found their way to popularity in white culture primarily through working class channels, usurping presumed elites’ role in taste-making. There are sincere, patriotic, mainstream Americans who believe the popularity of these musics signals the end of Western Civilization, not the apogee of America’s cultural output thus far. This cultural underpinning, which informs much public discussion of our popular music, goes a long way toward explaining the politicians’ and lobbyists’ actions. The antagonism between those who would regulate popular music and fundamental societal values, especially freedom of expression, is shown to lie close to America’s ongoing effort to define itself in the new millennium.

Paul D. Fischer January 2003