Abstract

My topic for this paper is that Rage Against the Machine were censored after 9/11 because their songs were anti capitalism and the biggest offender of censorship, Clear Channel had close ties with the federal government and the federal government wanted to invade Iraq for their own interests. After 9/11, the broadcast company, Clear Channel who owns over a thousand of the radio stations in America, put out a list of 156 songs they suggested not being played on the radio and they put all Rage Against the Machine songs on that list. While their songs can be violent, they also put antiwar songs on the list that are not violent such as “Imagine” by John Lennon and “Peace Train” by Cat Stevens. While Clear Channel said the list, they put out was only a suggestion, most of the radio DJ’s did not want to take the chance of playing them in case of punishment from Clear Channel. I will be looking at the extent of super patriotism after 9/11,  the reasons why Clear Channel and other companies would ban songs for being anti-capitalist or antiwar, and how Rage Against the Machine expressed their beliefs though their music.