The songs that America banned after 9/11
The entire trajectory of the 2000s was thrown for a loop on 9/11. As soon as the Twin Towers went down in New York City, the entire world seemed to shake as viewers looked on in stunned awe at what they had just witnessed. Although no one wanted to say the wrong thing in the wake of the terrorist disaster, some radio stations took extreme caution with censorship.
Shortly after the tragedy, the radio mogul Clear Channel came out with a specific list of songs that they deemed too offensive to be played on the airwaves. While some may have justifiably been insensitive while the dust was still in the air, others we also slightly head-scratching.
Unsurprisingly, most of the songs on the list tended to favour the heavier side of the music spectrum, with acts like Alice in Chains and Metallica notching up more than a few songs. Then again, a selection of the more tepid cuts from some of the greatest acts of all time also saw themselves getting blackballed for no good reason.
Despite not having anything to do with the tragedy, artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and even Barenaked Ladies got a flogging, with stations arguing that the songs had connotations that might be troubling for some. Although it’s within everybody’s rights not to play something offensive, banning a song like John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ may have been too much course correction.
There are also more than a few songs on the list that have nothing to do with any tragedy outside of the title. Although it might have meant something deep back when fans were listening in the ‘90s, there’s a good chance that including a track like Third Eye Blind’s ‘Jumper’ came from radio moguls just reading the title and nothing else.
There are even a few choices throughout the list that are troubling, considering where the US was going at the time. Although a song like Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ might read like a scary song about the horrors of war, its central message about knowing the consequences that come with bloodshed could have rung true as the US prepared to fight a war in Iraq.
That’s before anyone even touched the Rage Against the Machine catalogue. While some audiences might not like to hear a certain song by their favourite artist during tough times, banning RATM’s entire catalogue is certainly overkill, especially with their messages revolving around free speech.
Regardless of the banned songs, the world didn’t take long to pick itself up. Even in the aftermath of the tragedy, artists like Gerard Way found inspiration to make something positive for the world, forming My Chemical Romance after the tragedy.
The music world did end up fighting back in whatever way they could, with Paul McCartney organising a benefit gig for the lives lost that day a short time afterwards. Those wounds would take a long time to heal, though, and artists like Bruce Springsteen would detail their grief in song, with The Rising being a gripping concept album centred around the aftermath of the tragedy. While some people may have wanted to tread lightly in the wake of the buildings burning down on the news, nothing would stop the power of music from bringing people together.
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