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00:00There was a singer so beloved across America that when he refused to play one racially segregated
00:06concert, an entire state banned him from ever performing there again. There was a glamorous,
00:13world-famous singer who was frozen out of America for nearly a decade, all because of a single
00:20truth she dared to speak to, the First Lady's face inside the White House. And there was the
00:26biggest band the world had ever known, a band whose records were thrown onto blazing bonfires
00:32while the Ku Klux Klan picketed their concerts, all because of one sentence spoken by one of its
00:38members. These were not obscure troublemakers, these were some of the most famous musicians who ever
00:45lived the voices that filled your radio, and every one of them was banned, blacklisted, or silenced,
00:52sometimes for something silly, and sometimes for something that says a great deal about the
00:58country we were. Today we are counting them down, 25 music artists who were banned in the old days,
01:04and the real reason why. Number one is that biggest band in history, brought low by a single remark that
01:11set off a firestorm across America. Let's get into it. Before we start, do me one small favor,
01:18as we go, count how many of these artists you listened to back in the day, and put that number
01:24in the comments. I read every single one. And if their music was the soundtrack of your life,
01:31hit subscribe, because we do this every single week. Number 25, we start with a scandal that seems
01:38almost impossible to believe today. The Everly Brothers, those sweet-voiced, clean-cut boys with the
01:44perfect harmonies, got themselves banned. Their 1957 hit, Wake Up. Little Susie tells the story of a young
01:52couple who fall asleep at a drive-in movie and wake up at four in the morning, terrified of what
01:59their
01:59parents will think. That is the whole plot. They fell asleep. But to the nervous gatekeepers of the 1950s,
02:07the idea of an unmarried boy and girl waking up together, however innocent, was too suggestive.
02:15Several radio stations, including some in Boston, banned the song outright. It went to number one
02:21anyway, a reminder of how easily America was scandalized back then. Number 24, here is one that
02:28had nothing to do with lyrics or morals, and everything to do with a bitter business fight.
02:34The Kinks, one of the greatest British invasion bands, the group behind You Really Got Me,
02:40were effectively banned from the entire United States for four years. During their 1965 American
02:47tour, things went badly wrong. There were furious clashes with promoters, disputes over money, and
02:54rowdy behavior on stage. The American Musicians Union was so angered that it refused to grant the band
03:02work permits, and that band stretched from 1965 all the way to 1969. It came at the height of the
03:11British
03:11invasion, and many believe it cost the Kinks the American stardom their talent deserved.
03:17Number 23, now to one of the most famous musicians on earth, brought down by a run-in with customs.
03:25In 1980, Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, flew into Tokyo, Japan for a major tour with his band Wings.
03:33But as he passed through customs at the airport, officials found a significant amount of marijuana
03:38in his luggage. In Japan, this was an extremely serious offense. McCartney was arrested on the spot,
03:45and spent nine days in a Japanese jail, facing the real possibility of years behind bars. He was released
03:52and deported, banned from entering Japan for years, and the entire Wings tour was cancelled.
03:59Number 22, here is a case where a band got itself banned by the most powerful broadcaster in an entire
04:07nation, on purpose. In 1977, as England prepared to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee, the punk band
04:15released a snarling confrontational song called God Save the Queen. It was not a tribute. It was a furious
04:24attack on the monarchy and on what the band saw as a hopeless future for British youth. The BBC refused
04:31to play it, banning it from the airwaves completely, and many stores refused to even stock it. Officially,
04:39the song stalled just short of number one, and many believe it was deliberately kept off the top spot to
04:46avoid an anti-royal punk anthem topping the charts during the Queen's celebration. Being banned only made
04:53it a legend. Number 21, now to the bad boys of rock who tangled with the censors again and again.
05:01The
05:02Rolling Stones were considered dangerous from the very start. The rebellious answer to the cleaner-cut
05:08Beatles and their battles with the TV censors were constant. Most famously, booked to play Let's Spend the
05:14Night Together, they were forced to change the words to Let's Spend Some Time Together. He complied, but
05:22rolled his eyes on live television to show exactly what he thought of it. Years earlier, when their debut
05:28caused a frenzy, a rattled Ed Sullivan had publicly vowed the band would never return. The Stones spent their early
05:37career being censored and cleaned up and turned every bit of it into rebellion. Number 20, here is a young
05:45man who chose to walk away rather than be silenced. In 1963, rising folk singer Bob Dylan was booked for
05:53the
05:53enormously popular Ed Sullivan show, the kind of exposure that could launch a career overnight. Dylan wanted to
06:00perform a sharp, satirical song poking fun at the anti-communist paranoia of the era. Sullivan himself was fine with
06:09it,
06:09but the network's own censors stepped in after rehearsal and told Dylan to sing something safer instead. Dylan refused. If
06:17he
06:18could not sing the song he believed in, he would not sing at all, and he walked straight out of
06:24the studio, turning his back on the
06:26biggest opportunity of his young life. He was never invited back. Number 19, staying with that same
06:34stage, here is the band that took defiance all the way. In 1967, the Doors were invited onto the Ed
06:42Sullivan show to play their smash hit, Light My Fire. The producers had one demand, change a lyric that
06:49mentioned getting high, fearing the drug reference. The band agreed backstage, and then, live on national
06:56television, Jim Morrison sang the original forbidden words anyway, staring right into the camera. The
07:03producers were furious. The Doors had been booked for several future appearances, and everyone was
07:09canceled on the spot. They were banned from the show for life. When told he would never be on the
07:15program
07:16again, Morrison reportedly just shrugged. They had already done exactly what they wanted, in front of the
07:22whole country. Number 18, now to the man in black, and a night of pure destruction. Johnny Cash had a
07:31complicated, stormy relationship with the Grand Ole Opry, the most sacred stage in all of country music.
07:38One night in the mid-1960s, Cash, deep in the grip of the addictions that plagued his early career,
07:46was performing when his fury boiled over. He took the microphone stand and dragged it down the front of
07:53the stage, smashing every one of the footlights and sending broken glass flying across the floor.
07:59The Opry was horrified, and Cash was banned from performing there. He would eventually clean up and
08:06become a beloved American legend, but on that night, the man in black got himself thrown off the most
08:11important stage in his world. Number 17, here is a country queen who was banned for telling the truth
08:19about women's lives. In 1975, Loretta Lynn, already one of the biggest stars in country music, released
08:27a song called The Pill. It was a frank, funny, defiant song sung from the point of view of a
08:33wife and mother,
08:34celebrating the freedom that birth control gave her. For conservative Nashville, it was a bombshell.
08:41Around 60 country radio stations banned it outright, and a preacher in Kentucky devoted an entire sermon
08:48to condemning it. The Grand Ole Opry reportedly held a three-hour meeting over whether to even let her sing
08:55it. But Loretta was unshakable, singing about real life and not caring who it upset, and the controversy
09:02backfired beautifully. The ban only made people more curious, and The Pill became the biggest crossover hit
09:09of her career. Number 16, now the mood turns more serious as we reach the artist's band not for
09:17scandal, but for their beliefs. The Weavers were one of the most popular musical groups in America,
09:23at the start of the 1950s with beloved folk hits that the whole country sang along to. But this was
09:31the
09:31era of the Red Scare, when a wave of fear about communism swept the nation and destroyed countless
09:38careers. Members of The Weavers had been involved in left-wing causes, and they were named as suspected
09:44communist sympathizers. Almost overnight, they were blacklisted, their bookings were cancelled,
09:51their records pulled from shelves, their recording contract dropped. One of the most successful groups
09:58in the country was silenced, not for anything they sang, but for what they were accused of believing.
10:05Number 15, here is a case where the target was not just banned, but hunted by the government itself.
10:13By the early 1970s, John Lennon, the former Beatle, had become one of the most outspoken voices against the
10:20war in Vietnam, using his enormous fame to promote peace. This made him a serious problem for the
10:28administration of President Richard Nixon, which feared his influence over young voters. So the
10:35government launched a campaign to get rid of him, beginning deportation proceedings to force Lenin,
10:41who was living in New York, out of the country. The FBI placed him under surveillance, compiling files on
10:48his activities. For years, he fought the deportation in the courts, under constant threat of being
10:54expelled from the country he loved. He eventually won and was allowed to stay. But it stands as a
11:01chilling example of a government trying to silence a musician for speaking his mind.
11:07Number 14, now to a glamorous star who was exiled from her own country for a single act of honesty.
11:15Eartha Kitt was a dazzling singer and actress, famous worldwide for her sultry voice and her role as
11:21Catwoman on television. In 1968, she was invited to a luncheon at the White House hosted by the First
11:27Lady. When asked about the problems facing America's young people, Kitt spoke bluntly about the war in
11:32Vietnam, saying it was why the youth were rebelling, and her remarks reportedly brought the First Lady to
11:38tears. The backlash was swift and brutal. Kitt was frozen out of the American entertainment industry,
11:43effectively blacklisted for nearly a decade, and forced to rebuild her career overseas in Europe.
11:49She had told the powerful and uncomfortable truth and paid for it with her career at home.
11:55Now is a good moment for two quick things. We are halfway through and the final artists are the most
12:00legendary and the most powerful stories of all, including a voice band from an entire state and a
12:05group whose records were burned in the streets. Tell me in the comments which of these bands surprised you
12:11the most so far. And if you are moved by these stories, tap subscribe so the next one finds you.
12:18Now, back to the countdown.
12:2013. Here is one of the most celebrated entertainers in the world, driven out of the very country of her
12:28birth. Josephine Baker was an international superstar who had conquered the stages of Paris and become a
12:35global sensation. But she was a black woman born in America, and she refused to accept the segregation
12:41she found when she returned home, demanding integrated audiences and speaking out loudly against racism.
12:49After a famous incident in the early 1950s, when she was refused service at a fashionable New York
12:56club, she feuded publicly with a powerful newspaper columnist. She was branded a troublemaker,
13:03investigated by the FBI, and effectively banned from working in the United States for years,
13:09forced to build her career an ocean away in France.
13:1312. Now to one of the true architects of rock and roll, whose career was shattered at its very peak.
13:22Chuck Berry, the man whose guitar and songwriting built the blueprint for rock music,
13:26was riding impossibly high in the early 1960s. And then it all came crashing down. He was prosecuted
13:34and convicted under an old federal law called the Mann Act, and sent to prison. Whatever the truth of
13:40the messy case, the effect was catastrophic. One of the most important musicians in American history was
13:47locked away for well over a year, right as his influence was reshaping music. When he emerged,
13:53the world had moved on, and the British invasion had arrived. That forced silence robbed the founding
13:59father of rock of his prime. 11. Here is an artist who was banned across an entire region for refusing
14:08to stay silent. Nina Simone was a supremely gifted singer and pianist who poured her fury over racial
14:16injustice directly into her music. In 1964, in response to horrific violence against black Americans,
14:24she wrote and recorded a searing song called Mississippi God Damn. It was raw, angry, and unforgettable,
14:32and across the American South, it was banned. Radio stations refused to play it, and there are accounts
14:39of promotional copies being cracked in half, and mailed straight back to her label in protest.
14:46Simone knew the cost of her honesty and paid it willingly, determined that her art would tell
14:51the truth no matter how many doors it slammed in her face. 10. Now to a song so powerful and
14:59so painful
15:00that it changed music forever, and made its singer a target. Billie Holiday, one of the greatest voices in
15:08the history of jazz, began performing strange fruit in the late 1930s. It was a haunting, devastating protest
15:16against the lynching of black Americans in the South, its beautiful melody carrying unbearable images.
15:24Her own record label was too afraid to let her record it, and radio stations across the country banned it,
15:30terrified of its subject. It also drew the federal government, where a powerful official in the
15:36Narcotics Bureau made it a personal mission to hound Holiday for years. She kept singing it anyway,
15:43every night as an act of defiance, right up until the troubles of her life brought her down far too
15:49young.
15:509. Here is a folk hero who was blacklisted for 17 long years. Pete Seeger was a giant of American
15:58folk music,
15:59the man behind songs that became anthems for the whole nation, but like his old group,
16:03the Weavers, he was swept up in the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s. When he was called before
16:09a congressional committee investigating supposedly un-American activities, Seeger refused to answer
16:14their questions about his political beliefs and associations, standing firmly on his principles.
16:19For that refusal, he was charged with contempt of Congress, and blacklisted for the better part of
16:25two decades, banned from national television, and shut out of the mainstream. It was not until the late
16:301960s that he was finally allowed back, after 17 years in the wilderness. His crime was that he would
16:37not name names. 8. Now to the most famous music band of modern times. The Dixie Chicks, later known
16:46simply as The Chicks, were the biggest selling female group in the history of country music. Then in 2003,
16:53on a stage in London just days before the Iraq War, lead singer Natalie Maines told the audience,
17:00the band was ashamed the President of the United States was from their home state of Texas. The reaction
17:07back home was explosive. Country radio dropped the band almost overnight in a sweeping ban. Their songs
17:14vanished from the airwaves, and angry crowds gathered to bulldoze their CDs in public events.
17:21Sponsors fled and death threats poured in. In a single sentence, the most successful group in country
17:27music had their career gutted. It remains the ultimate example of how quickly the industry can turn on its
17:35own biggest stars. 7. Here is one that will make you laugh because it is so wonderfully absurd. In 1963,
17:45the Kingsmen released their raw, rowdy version of a song called Louie Louie, and it became a
17:50massive hit, but the singer's words were so slurred that nobody could understand a line, and a rumor
17:56spread like wildfire that the lyrics were secretly obscene. Panicked parents complained, and the governor
18:03of Indiana banned it from the radio in his state, calling it pornographic. And incredibly, the FBI
18:09opened a formal investigation, spending more than two years studying the recording, playing it at different
18:15speeds to decode the supposedly dirty words. Their official conclusion? The lyrics were, in their words,
18:22unintelligible. They could not understand them either. One of the most beloved party songs in
18:27American history was investigated by federal agents and beat them. 6. Now to a moment of injustice so
18:35stark that it became a turning point for the entire nation. Marian Anderson was one of the greatest singers
18:42of the 20th century. A contralto with a voice so magnificent that audiences across Europe wept to
18:49hear it. But in 1939, when she was arranged to perform at Constitution Hall in the nation's capital,
18:57the organization that owned the hall refused because Anderson was black. The decision caused a national
19:04outcry, and the First Lady of the United States was so disgusted that she publicly resigned from that
19:10organization in protest. And instead of being silenced, Anderson was invited to sing on the steps of the
19:17Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. A crowd of 75,000 gathered to hear her, and millions more listened on
19:25the radio. They tried to ban her from one hall, and instead gave her the largest stage in the country.
19:325. Here is perhaps the most complete and cruel silencing on this entire list. Paul Robeson was a
19:40genuine American giant, a world-famous singer, actor, athlete, and scholar with a magnificent deep voice.
19:47But Robeson was also an outspoken activist against racism, and during the Red Scare, the government
19:52moved to destroy him for it. His concerts were shut down. In 1949, an outdoor concert in Peekskill, New York,
20:00was violently attacked by a mob, with concertgoers beaten and cars stoned. Worst of all, the government
20:07revoked his passport, trapping him inside the country, and cutting off his ability to earn a living abroad
20:12for years. One of the most gifted men America ever produced was systematically erased.
20:194. Now to a story with a rare and satisfying ending. Ray Charles, the genius who fused gospel,
20:27blues, and country into something brand new, was booked to perform in Augusta in his home state of
20:33Georgia in 1961. But when he arrived and learned that the audience would be racially segregated,
20:40with black concertgoers forced up into the balcony, he refused to play. He turned around and left rather
20:47than perform for a divided crowd. The promoter sued him, and in retaliation, Ray Charles was officially
20:55banned from ever performing in Georgia again. But history had the last word. Years later, the state
21:02formally apologized, and in 1979, it made his recording of Georgia On My Mind the official state
21:09song. The man they banned became the voice of the state itself. 3. Here is one of the true founding
21:18fathers of rock and roll, whose music was labeled too dangerous for white America. Little Richard was
21:26a wild, flamboyant, screaming genius whose records in the mid-1950s helped invent rock and roll itself.
21:34His pounding piano and raw energy were like nothing the country had ever heard. But that same power
21:41terrified the conservative establishment, who denounced his music as vulgar, even as the devil's music,
21:48and many white radio stations flatly refused to play his original recordings. So the industry
21:54found a shameful way around him. Record companies had clean-cut white singers record tame, watered-down
22:01cover versions of his songs, and those bland copies got the radio play, the chart positions, and the
22:08fortune that should have been his. It was a quiet but devastating kind of ban, robbing a black genius of
22:15the credit he had earned. He spent the rest of his life rightfully demanding to be called what he was,
22:21the architect of rock and roll. 2. And now, the king himself.
22:28By the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley had exploded onto the scene, and his swiveling hips and raw energy sent
22:36conservative America into a full-blown panic. Preachers denounced him from the pulpit as a corrupting
22:43influence on the youth, and newspapers called his act obscene, and the censorship followed. Most famously,
22:51on his last Ed Sullivan appearance, the cameras were ordered to film him only from the waist up,
22:56so the millions watching at home could not see the dancing that had scandalized the country.
23:02Across America, his music was pulled from some stations, and his performances restricted,
23:08all to contain the phenomenon. They tried to cover up the king, but it was far too late. Rock and
23:15roll had
23:15arrived, and there was no putting it back in the box. 1. And the number one band artist of all
23:22time,
23:23the biggest band the world has ever known, the Beatles. At the absolute peak of Beatlemania in 1966,
23:30an interview surfaced in America in which John Lennon had casually remarked that the Beatles had become
23:35more popular than Jesus. In England, the comment had passed with little notice, but in the American
23:41South, in the heart of the Bible Belt, it detonated like a bomb. The outrage was ferocious. Radio stations
23:48across the region announced they would ban the Beatles entirely, refusing to play a single song.
23:54And it went further. Furious crowds gathered to burn their records and merchandise in giant bonfires,
24:00and the Ku Klux Klan picketed their concerts and issued threats. A shaken Lennon apologized at a
24:05series of tense press conferences, but the damage was done. The backlash was so frightening and
24:10exhausting that it became one of the main reasons the Beatles stopped touring altogether that very year,
24:16retreating forever into the recording studio. The most beloved band on earth had been met with bonfires
24:22and threats, and it changed them for good. So step back and look at all 25 and three clear patterns
24:31rise to
24:31the surface. First, the line of what was forbidden kept moving and moving fast. Look at how the reasons
24:39change as you go up the list. At the bottom, artists were banned for a couple falling asleep at the
24:45movies,
24:45for a suggestive lyric, for a marijuana charge. Those fears look almost charming now, but climb higher
24:54and the reasons turn deadly serious. Race, politics, war, and conscience. These bans are a map of exactly
25:03what America was afraid of in each passing decade. Second, the ban almost never worked. Over and over,
25:11trying to silence an artist only made the world want them more. The pill became Loretta Lynn's biggest
25:17hit. The Sex Pistols became legends. Marian Anderson sang to 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
25:26Trying to bury a great artist has a way of building them a bigger stage. And third, and most important,
25:33so many of these artists were not banned for doing something wrong. They were banned for being right
25:39too soon. The ones who spoke against war, against segregation, against injustice, were punished in
25:47their own time and vindicated by history. What got them silenced then is exactly what we honor them for
25:54now. The bravest voices are so often the ones the world tries hardest to quiet. So tell me down in
26:01the
26:01comments. Which of these artists did you love? Which band shocked you the most? And who is the artist I
26:09did not mention? The one you remember being silenced or censored back in the day? I read every single
26:15comment and the best ones become future videos. If these stories moved you, hit subscribe because we
26:23keep this history alive together one story at a time. And next time we are staying with the things they
26:30tried to keep off the air. But we are turning on the television. Next time it is 25 television shows
26:38that were banned or pulled off the air. And the number one caused a national uproar the whole country
26:44was talking about. Until next time.
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