Cover Your Ears – Documentary by Sean Patrick Shaul

Punk rock has always had an interesting and fraught relationship with censorship. From the more overt events like Vivienne Westwood’s SEX Shop and the Sex Pistols, police riots at Whiskey A-Go-Go in LA or the Dead Kennedy’s HR Giger artwork scandal; to the simple act of bleeping out certain swear words for radio friendly playback – the punk scene has been under the microscope of angry censors since the style was invented.

Despite the large foot print the style has placed in the censorship concourse, the punk scene is more like the pinky toe when compared to the full history of good meaning folks attempting to save the youth from the profane.

Sean Patrick Shaul’s upcoming documentary, Cover Your Ears, attempts to cover a 100 years of censorship history into a tight hour and 40 minutes and does, quite frankly, an exceptional job.

Narrated by Scowl‘s Kat Moss, Cover Your Ears intertwines in-depth interviews with archival footage, news reports and pop-art imagery. While there are small flashbacks to 18th century music “horrors” (who knew Mozart wrote a song called “Lick Me in the Arse”? Not me!), the documentary’s main focus is that of the 21st century starting from the 1927 Radio Act and the creation of the FCC.

Shaul carefully details the important elements of racism and religion fanaticism that played a role in the early ages of censorship with interviews from researchers, authors, historians and musicians such as Chuck D and Rhiannon Giddens. As the film progresses, we see that nothing much has changed as outside forces continually put pressure on musicians to change their performance – be it lyrics, style, clothing or dance moves – to better suit the more delicate viewer.

It’s quite sad, and mildly infuriating, to see the power that corporations and government entities have to alter what people can listen to. Cover Your Ears becomes more in-depth as it details the sixties and seventies protest songs movements, the creation of MTV and eventually – the horror that is the PMRC.

Now, despite the obvious anti-censorship stance Cover Your Ears clearly has – they never truly bombard you over the head with their personal opinions. The documentary is well balanced, sticking with facts, dates, lawsuits, laws and recorded history; and features numerous interviews with “pro-censorship” individuals and activists.  This level of nuanced reporting helps balance  the tone of the film, as  they choose to detail the opposing view point in a respectful and articulate manner, allowing the audience member to come to their own conclusions.  So while even though I, personally, believe Tipper Gore has done immeasurable damage to entertainment through the creation of the Parents Music Resource Center, you can almost understand where she’s coming from when her arguments in front of the senate are presented here.

Briefly speaking to Shaul after viewing the movie, he said that having those alternative view points were important to him and he was careful in depicting those arguments in a fair light rather than using them in a mocking tone. This is, for once, the proper use of the “both side” argument and helps succeeds in making the film more accurate. Because while I’ve relatively well versed in 2 Live Crew‘s defense arguments, Cover Your Ears was the first time I’ve heard from Jack Thompson, the activist and lawyer who spear headed the lawsuit against the Florida rap band; and deviating from a never ending echo chamber of agreeing viewpoints helps broaden one’s understanding of a complex, multi-faceted topic such as censorship.

And it is multi-faceted. Music has always been plagued by censorship and blamed for all of society’s woes. From the gyrating pelvis of Elvis to the satanic panic of Judas Priest, the political protest of the Dixie Chicks and Sinead O’Connor or Marilyn Manson “inspiring” the Columbine massacre – those in power always find a way to blame and silence music they dislike. Cover Your Ears touches all of these topics and more, some in passing and some in detail. They do it in a way that is funny (Dee Snider‘s self reflection upon watching footage of himself at the senate trials definitely caused a burst of laughter from the entire audience), sincere and accurate.

There were topics and stories you wish they went into more detail on, but with a century of history told in less than two hours, Cover Your Ears lays the groundwork to get you thinking about the consequences of censorship and the way it can be wielded in the law. Hell, the documentary – after detailing the arrest and lawsuit of Tiny Doo, a San Diego rapper arrested under Rico law in 2015 due to lyrics in his song – ends on the sober note that even as recently as January 2023, Young Thug‘s lyrics were still being entered into evidence against him in yet another RICO case.

With cancel culture and the banning of books becoming so common place, it’s clear that censorship shows no signs of slowing down as people blame entertainment for people’s actions. Cover Your Ears gets you up the date with the complex history of music censorship and prepares the audience to better understand the arguments that are sure to be repeated again, and again, and again. Only this time, we’re hopefully going to be better prepared when they come for our music.