ABSTRACT
Music has long been considered a way for young people to express themselves and to declare independence from their parents and other adults in positions of authority. Rock and roll has been banned more than any other kind of music in history for a variety of reasons. In 1954 the House of Representatives considered a bill that would have made it a federal crime to mail "dirty" music, punishable by a $50,000 fine. In the early days of rock and roll, black music, or rhythm and blues, was seen as "lewd and lascivious" and as a threat to the decency of white middle-class teenagers. In April 1956 the White Citizens Council of Birmingham, Alabama, banned all rock-and-roll music because the members believed it had been created by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As protests against the Vietnam War spread in the 1970s, radio stations banned large numbers of musicians for being "anti-American."
