1700s til today. Mexico. Son jarocho The Catholic Church banned son jarocho – one of Mexico’s most politically charged musical genres – during the 18th century on the grounds it was immoral, and first the Spanish, then the Mexican authorities tried to isolate and suppress the genre. The most famous …

Trinidad. 1938-1940. Calypso Some of the calypsos that appear in the fabulous music collection ‘West Indian Rhythm’, a 316-page LP-size book with 10 CDs containing 267 music tracks, had never been published or heard before it was published in 2007. Trinidad’s British colonial masters felt the need to censor calypsos …

Presented at the 1st World Conference on Music and Censorship, Copenhagen 20-22 November, 1998 By Mr. Mattias Gardell, Ph.D., Theology, University of Uppsala, Sweden  More from the conference Read article as PDF

“…Anything for the public that is not about how beautyful our country or people are, is not acceptable”, says Chinese opera director Chen Shi-Zhen. His long awaited staging of the 400-year-old classical opera “Mu Dan Ting” (Peony Pavillion) was not only banned inside the borders of China; the Shanghai Bureau …

“My torturers were in the habit of telling me: ‘We know that you are not a member of the guerrilla but you are worst, because with your piano, your ‘charisma’, you can put the “negrada” working class into your pocket. Over here, we are the Gods and we are wagging …

Manu Chao cancels shows over political flap Manu Chao refuses to exclude Basque band member with alleged ‘ETA roots’. The American music magazine Billboard writes: “World music star Manu Chao canceled concerts last night (Sept. 3) in Malaga, Spain, and tonight in Murcia after controversy over the inclusion in his …

DJ Jerry Bonham (US) was interviewed by Jacob Valdemar/Freemuse at Roskilde Festival, July 2001.

THE USA GOVERNMENT: ARBITER OR CATALYST FOR THE ARTS? By Ms. Cynthia Tse Kimberlin, Ph.D. Executive Director, Music Research Institute & Publisher, MRI Press Point Richmond, CA USA An investigation of how music politics is formed in a country without a Ministry of Arts, but with lots of powerful interest …

KNOWLEDGE BASE | Articles | Speeches | Radio programmes |   | Music albums | Books | Films | Video clips |   | Freemusepedia – ‘open source encyclopedia’ and timeline  | The ‘Knowledge Base’ is a kind of ‘Study Room’ where you can find links to Freemuse’s in-depth articles and radio programmes, lists of and references to useful publications and research material about music censorship — recommended reading, listening and …

NON-ARTISTS ON MUSIC CENSORSHIP Audio and video interviews on freemuse.org with researchers, experts, scholars and others Most recent Jeroen de Kloet – Dutch researcher, about China Mario Masvidal – professor from Cuba Maxwell Sibanda – journalist from Zimbabwe Maya Medich & Lemez Lovas – UK researchers, about Belarus Mirwaiss Sidiqi – director, about Afghanistan Introduction video – about Freemuse’s …