Beenie Man this year agreed to renounce homophobia. Photograph: Gino Domenico/AP
On Monday, justice secretary Jack Straw announced that the government intends to create a new crime of "incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation". It's something that gay pressure groups Stonewall and OutRage are in rare agreement on. According to one survey, 89% of the population support it. I don't.
I recently asked Ben Summerskill, head of Stonewall, if he could give me some examples of what he believed would be covered by the law. He said some extremist religious literature and - you guessed! - anti-gay records by Jamaican dancehall singers.
The plan to ban "Murder Music" has been one of the most effective gay campaigns of recent years. We've seen Beenie Man hauled in for questioning by the Metropolitan police. The Crown Prosecution Service has also poured over lyrics by Buju Banton and Sizzla. The Home Office denied Sizzla a visa. And Buju Banton had concerts cancelled in Manchester, Bournemouth and Brighton. The proposed new law is seen as the campaign's final victory. It will also be a great defeat for anyone interested in freedom of speech and artistic expression.
When I first started writing about music about 15 years ago, music censorship was a hot topic. The most controversial record was Cop Killer by Ice-T's band Body Count. Gun-lovin' Charlton Heston protested to the record company, Time-Warner. President Bush Snr publicly denounced it. Police officers picketed Ice-T's concerts and boycotted Time-Warner products. The company promptly caved in, recalling all copies of the album and dropping Ice-T. I thought that campaign was wrong. Just as I think the campaign to ban "Murder Music" is wrong.
To paraphrase George Orwell, when I see an actual flesh-and-blood pop star in conflict with his natural enemy, a police officer or a politician, I don't have to ask myself which side I'm on. It's also the legal equivalent of your mum saying she's going to go down your school to have a word with the bullies; all very nice and well-meaning, but totally counterproductive. A quick read of Eric D Nuzum's history of music censorship, Parental Advisory, should remind you how anyone who tries to ban a record ends up giving their target a cachet of rebel cool quicker than you can say "Relax, don't do it".
The whole point about freedom of speech is that if you're in favour of it, you're in favour of it for views you don't like. I'm certain that "Murder Music" records don't make life for lesbians and gay men any better - but the Sun and the Daily Mail have an infinitely more negative impact, and I don't think they should be banned either.
Yes, a line needs to be drawn somewhere. If, say, Buju Banton was onstage and told his audience to follow him down to the nearest gay bar and beat up some battyboys, he should be arrested - but this is already illegal under the existing UK law of incitement to imminent violence. Unless you're in favour of banning anything that someone finds offensive or abhorrent, no new law is needed.
By the way, if you want to check out the records that would be banned, the lyrics of the worst offenders are reprinted verbatim on the Outrage website. Will Outrage be turning themselves into the police soon?
