Music Censorship in Australia
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Crackdowns on obscene music seem to be mooted all the time... but any enforceable system would require legislation by the states, not just tweaking of the ARIA code. (Music is not formally censored in Australia in the way films/videos, computer games, and publications are.)
Those pushing music censorship are a small minority driven by personal distaste. Consider that they only ever rant against popular music forms, not elite ones - no one ever suggests banning Shostakovich's 14th Symphony because it has "suicidal lyrics", for example, or even mentions all those classical operas that deal with incest.
For older (1996 and 1997) information about how this works, see the following documents, provided by Jason Stokes <j.stokes@bohm.anu.edu.au>.
- ARIA Code of Practice
(for Labelling Product with Explicit and Potentially Offensive Lyrics) - an extract from the ARIA newsletter
- an interview with ARIA's Emmanuel Candi
- In Music and Media Magazine - Guest Editorial
- On The Street newspaper, June 17 1996
- notes 1
- notes 2
- Extract from Senate Committee report, 1997