My top five most important moments in my life

1. When I did not accept to get married in new year 2004.
2. When I moved from Dom. Rep. to NY.
3. When my best friend got pregnant.
4. All time my sister birthday.
5. My first return to DR.

My top three ways that music has affected my life

1. It influences my feelings.
2. It affect my connection with my friends.
3. The music induced me to make me a tattoo.

Daiana Duran
Essay 1; Draft 3
January 27, 2009

Censorship in the Arts

Since the art, movie, music and information history have begun governments, religious authorities and self-appointed authorities of morality have tried to regulate what society can read, watch, write, listen to and believe. That regulation is called censorship. According to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, “Censorship is the suppression of speech of deletion of commutative material that may be considered objectionable, harmful, or sensitive as determined by a censor.” Many things can be censored but my interest is about the censorship in the arts and with that in mind I chose a film, a song and an album cover that were all censored. However I disagree with censorship when it stops art and freedom.
One censored film was “Scarface,” an America film directed by Howard Hawks in 1932. Scarface is based on the life of Al Capone, a gangster, and police interference over control of a city. The original version of the film was completed in September 8, 1931, but censors did not permit its released until March of 1932. Scarface was censored by the State Film Censorship including the New York State Board, because it glorified the gangster lifestyle and it showed too much violence. Many of its scenes were edited and Howard Hawks had to add the subtitle “The Shame of the Nation" to go by the censor. However, this version still did not satisfy some censors. So the director denied this edited version and released the original in the states that did not have the strict censors. The original 1932 version was finally released in the U.S. in May 22, 2005. I have not watched the movie but I think every people have to understand, regardless of the era, that one film is a film, it is no real. If the movie shows violence it is fiction, no one has to follow or believe the film message. I disagree with this censorship for the last reason.
The 1930s was an epoch when the censorship causes controversy. Not only films were censored, songs too were subject to censoring. “Love For Sale” is a song by Cole Porter. It is from the musical “The New Yorkers,” which opened on Broadway on December 8, 1930. “Love For Sale” was censored in 1930 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) because it was about prostitution, and gave the message that prostitution was acceptable. The song was originally considered scandalous that it was banned from radio airplay until 1931 but then became a hit, a guess because when something is prohibited the people tend to do it or want it. Some of its lyrics include “If you want to buy my wares, follow me and climb the stairs, love for sale." I disagree with the censors because each singer or writer has the right to express what they think. It does not mean that you have to approve the message of the song. In this case the song is about something that is real and happens. It not implies that you have to support what the song said.
Censorships were and remain common in films, songs and album covers. One of them was “Virgin Killer.” It is the fourth studio album by the Scorpions, a German heavy metal band. The original cover showed a naked ten year old girl, named Jaqueline, with crushed glass effect hiding her genitals, used as a symbol of the lyrics. The album was released in 1976 and caused controversy in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom, as a result the album could only be sold in black plastic. However, the image stirred up controversy in December 2008, when the British Internet Watch Foundation put some pages from the Wikipedia on its child-pornography blacklist. Since then, the image has been considered by the United Kingdom law “potentially illegal,” but the decision was reversed by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) after four days of blocking it. Administrators of Wikipedia have refused to remove the naked image of the girl because they said, “Wikipedia doesn't censor.” This cover was considered the worst album cover for the Cracked, a discontinued American humor magazine. I differ with censorship most of the case because something that is bad for some people is good for other, if we just censored all that we think is not correct, in the end will be nothing. But when Censorship is about children, we as an adult have to take care of them. I agree with this censorship because it tried to stop children pornography.
In conclusion, many things were censured. “Scarface,” Virgin Killer” and “Love For Sale” are only few examples of them. However many people question how or why censorship is necessary, and how a censor determines what must be censored. Some of the causes of censorship are violence, pornography and prostitution and these are why “Scarface,” Virgin Killer” and “Love For Sale” were censored. I think the censorship is a difficult process that sometimes is necessary to preserve the good of our society. But we have to be careful when we apply it.

My Top Five Music

1-) All night Love by FTV Beach house (2007)
2-) Grindhouse by y Radio Slave feat Danton Eeprom. (2008)
3-)Superman Kryptonite by 3 Doors down ( February 2, 2000,)
4-) My Immortal by Evanescence (December 8, 2003)
5) Alucinado ( hallucinated) by Tiziano Ferro ( November 7, 2003)