For as long as there has been music, there has been censorship. In fact, in western culture, it is only in the past hundred years that artists have had much autonomy at all. Eric Nuzum discusses the history of censorship, which dates all the way back to the 19th century, on his web page, A Brief History of Banned Music, "Most classical and popular music through the 1800's was created under a patronage system-where a …showed first 75 words of 1771 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1771 total…the Law and the Big Beat." Popular Music and Society 6.3 (1997): 1-6 Holden, David. "Pop go the Censors (Censorship of Pop-Music in Britain and the US)." Index on Censorship 22.5 (1993): 11-14 Simmons, Brian. "The Affect of Censorship on Attitudes toward Popular Music." Popular Music and Society 16.4 (1992): 61-66 Non-Scholarly Boehlert, Eric. "Culture Skirmishes." Rolling Stone Magazine 21 Aug. 1997: 29-30 "Meet the New Boss (Wal-Mart)." Rolling Stone Magazine 10 July 1997: 30-31 "Rock and Roll: Manson Mania." Rolling Stone Magazine 12 June 1997: 27-28