Ongoing History Daily: Seriously weird music censorship

Governments and various authorities have tried to censor music for centuries, something which almost never works. The moment you make something illegal, people will want it even more.

Take the case of Chechnya, the Russian Asian republic. The government has imposed new beats-per-minute limitations on music. Anything slower than 80 BPM and anything faster than 116 BPM is illegal. This eliminated everything from ambient music and waltzes to a big chunk of rock music, dance music, and techno. It had the side effect of making funeral dirges and the Russian national anthem illegal.

Why would Chechnya do this? The culture minister had this statement: “We must bring to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people. This includes the entire spectrum of moral and ethical standards of life for Chechens.”