Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins

This week in my Journalism class we learned all about copyrights and trademarks and how they affect companies and the way people are allowed to do thing and use trademarked or copy written pieces.  As we discussed these topics, the idea of censorship came into the discussion.  Censorship is a way in which a group of people attempt to censor a certain piece of media that seems obscene or offensive or that goes against the groups morals.  My blog post this week is to give an example of attempted censorship and give my opinion on it.  So here we go.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono released the album, “Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins” in 1968.  The front of the album cover showed a completely nude John Lennon alongside a completely nude Yoko Ono and the back showed both nude from the back.  When the album was released people were outraged that an album cover like this would be able to be sold in the public market.  Distributers were forced to cover all the albums with brown paper, showing only Lennon’s and Ono’s faces.  Some of the albums were even impounded as being obscene.  Over 30,000 in New Jersey alone were taken away from stores and impounded.  

There was an attempt here to censor this album just because of the the explicit nudity on the entire album cover.  Nudity especially back in the sixties was still considered somewhat sacred and so this was a huge shock for everyone who saw the cover.  John Lennon was the first male celebrity to expose himself like this in any form and so some people probably didn’t like seeing a famous male “role model” naked.  Just the idea for anyone of showing their naked body, even though we all have one, to the entire world people are uncomfortable with.  Parents don’t want to have their children exposed and they don’t want to have to look at two naked people every time they want to listen to music.  Nudity all together is a very iffy subject and something that most people are not to comfortable with.  

My personal belief on this issue of censorship is that this album cover kinda pushed the limit a little.  Nudity doesn’t bother me at all and neither does the cover, but I kinda don’t understand why Lennon and Ono wanted to do this for one and why they thought it would be okay to put this in the public eye. Another pose where they were still nude but covered up might I have been a better option and not had as much controversy?  Nudity is a very iffy subject in today’s and the 1960s society and this photo and album cover seemed a little inappropriate for the public view.  Both Lennon and Ono we not mindful of other people’s opinions and paid the price.  Normally something would be opposed by at least one person but this because of its obscene nature, most everyone found it offensive. I can see how they thought of it as art, which it is, but by putting in the public eye it was went from art to obscene.  It was was just not a good idea on their part and censoring it was the best idea for it.

This type of media would never be published in today’s society, except for private use only.  Censorship is responsible for that and in that way it is a good thing!

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