World is full of countries where musicians aren't safe, where governments and religious leaders persecute musicians and try to control the music they play and the words they sing. Islamic countries in particular don't seem to appreciate music, and in places like North Korea musicians must follow the orders from the glorious leader like anybody else.

But it's not just Afghanistan and North Korea, music is also censored in United States and France, for example. Censorship takes many forms: one says "you can't sing this, you can't play that, or we'll kill you", while the other says "sure, sing that, but we won't ever play it".

This collection of twenty articles is a good starting point for those interested in censorship of music around the world. Not the most entertaining read, no, but enlightening enough to make the time used reading it well spent. After reading this book, you can continue to Freemuse, the publisher of this book for more information about the topic. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

(Original review at my review blog) ( )