Everything changed – including radio.
It seems unreal to think about the fact that it’s been 25 years since the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It’s hard to overstate how much things changed that day, in ways both temporary and permanent.
Of course many of those changes were immediate, like the creation of the Department of Homeland Security just months later and the PATRIOT Act, which gave the government broad – and controversial – surveillance powers to help fight the resulting “War on Terror.” Some of the changes turned out to be permanent (it’s the reason we have to go through TSA at airports today), while some unfortunately were temporary, like the fierce patriotism shared throughout the country by Americans on both sides of the political aisle.
I was only in 8th grade at the time of the attacks, so of course I didn’t fully understand what was going on or how to react. But as I’ve gotten older I realized that nobody really knew how to act at such an unprecedented time in our nation’s history. We had just lost nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans, and there wasn’t really a playbook for how to handle the days and weeks that followed.
In the wake of the attacks, country music in particular became the voice of patriotism in music, with songs like “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” by Alan Jackson, Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue” and “Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly” by Aaron Tippin setting the course for the next era of country music.
But in the aftermath of the attacks, even radio stations had to grapple with how they wanted to handle the national tragedy.
In the days that followed 9/11, Clear Channel Communications (which is now iHeart Media and the largest owner of radio stations in the country) circulated a memorandum to their stations with guidance on songs they should avoid playing in the aftermath of the attacks.
While the memo is frequently referred to as a list of “banned songs,” stations weren’t specifically prohibited from playing the songs. Rather, the list contained songs that were considered “lyrically questionable” given what had happened.
The songs on the list, as well as the reasons for their inclusion, varied widely: Some contained themes such as airplanes, bombings or fire that related to the tragedy. Some simply mentioned the month of September, or Tuesday, which is the day on which the attacks occurred. And some contained references to the Middle East or war that Clear Channel felt would be insensitive in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
But there were also celebratory songs that were included in the ban, songs like “What a Wonderful World” and “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang, that the company felt would be insensitive to play during a time of tragedy.
Taking a look at the list, some of the songs seem obvious, songs like “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra and “You Dropped a Bomb On Me” by The Gap Band. But there were also songs like “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which was included simply because the tragedy took place on a Tuesday, or “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John, simply because the word “jets” evoked the images of planes flying into buildings.
Oh, and the list also included the entire catalog from Rage Against the Machine…for obvious reasons.
Looking back now, it’s a fascinating snapshot of the reaction from every corner of the world in the days and weeks following the tragedy. Obviously the “ban” didn’t result in any of the songs permanently being pulled from the radio, but it just shows how everybody was scrambling to figure out how to move forward in a world that would never be the same.
Full List from Clear Channel Memo:
3 Doors Down – Duck and Run
311 – Down
AC/DC – Shot Down in Flames
AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill
AC/DC – Dirty Deeds
AC/DC – Highway to Hell
AC/DC – Safe in New York City
AC/DC – TNT
AC/DC – Hell’s Bells
Ad Libs – The Boy from New York City
Alanis Morissette – Ironic
Alice in Chains – Rooster
Alice in Chains – Sea of Sorrow
Alice in Chains – Down in a Hole
Alice in Chains – Them Bones
Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal
Animals – We Gotta Get Out of This Place
Arthur Brown – Fire
Bangles – Walk Like an Egyptian
Barenaked Ladies – Falling for the First Time
Barry McGuire – Eve of Destruction
Beastie Boys – Sure Shot
Beastie Boys – Sabotage
The Beatles – A Day in the Life
The Beatles – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
The Beatles – Ticket To Ride
The Beatles – Obla Di, Obla Da
Billy Joel – Only the Good Die Young
Black Sabbath – War Pigs
Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Blood Sweat and Tears – And When I Die
Blue Oyster Cult – Burnin’ For You
Bob Dylan / Guns N’ Roses – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Bobby Darin – Mack the Knife
Boston – Smokin’
Brooklyn Bridge – Worst That Could Happen
Bruce Springsteen – I’m On Fire
Bruce Springsteen – Goin’ Down
Bruce Springstein – War
Buddy Holly and the Crickets – That’ll Be the Day
Bush – Speed Kills
Carole King – I Feel the Earth Move
Cat Stevens – Peace Train
Cat Stevens – Morning Has Broken
Chi-Lites – Have You Seen Her
The Clash – Rock the Casbah
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Travelin’ Band
The Cult – Fire Woman
Dave Clark Five – Bits and Pieces
Dave Matthews Band – Crash Into Me
Dio – Holy Diver
Don McLean – American Pie
The Doors – The End
Drifters – On Broadway
Drowning Pool – Bodies
Edwin Starr – War
Elton John – Benny & The Jets
Elton John – Daniel
Elton John – Rocket Man
Elvis – (You’re the) Devil in Disguise
Everclear – Santa Monica
Filter – Hey Man, Nice Shot
Fontella Bass – Rescue Me
Foo Fighters – Learn to Fly
Frank Sinatra – New York, New York
Fuel – Bad Day
The Gap Band – You Dropped a Bomb On Me
Godsmack – Bad Religion
Green Day – Brain Stew
Happenings – See You in September
Herman’s Hermits – Wonderful World
Hollies – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother
J. Frank Wilson – Last Kiss
Jackson Brown – Doctor My Eyes
James Taylor – Fire and Rain
Jan and Dean – Dead Man’s Curve
Jerry Lee Lewis – Great Balls of Fire
Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe
John Lennon – Imagine
John Mellencamp – Crumbling Down
John Mellencamp – I’m On Fire
John Parr – St. Elmo’s Fire
Judas Priest – Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
Kansas – Dust in the Wind
Korn – Falling Away From Me
Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
Lenny Kravitz – Fly Away
Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff
Local H – Bound for the Floor
Los Bravos – Black is Black
Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Tuesday’s Gone
Martha & the Vandellas – Nowhere to Run
Martha & the Vandellas – Dancing in the Streets
Megadeth – Dread and the Fugitive
Megadeth – Sweating Bullets
Metallica – Seek and Destroy
Metallica – Harvester or Sorrow
Metallica – Enter Sandman
Metallica – Fade to Black
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels – Devil with the Blue Dress
Mudvayne – Death Blooms
Neil Diamond – America
Nina – 99 Luft Balloons/99 Red Balloons
Nine Inch Nails – Head Like a Hole
Norman Greenbaum – Spirit in the Sky
Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party
Ozzy Osbourne – Suicide Solution
Paper Lace – The Night Chicago Died
Pat Benatar – Hit Me with Your Best Shot
Pat Benatar – Love is a Battlefield
Paul McCartney and Wings – Live and Let Die
Peter Gabriel – When You’re Falling
Peter and Gordon – I Go To Pieces
Peter and Gordon – A World Without Love
Peter Paul and Mary – Blowin’ in the Wind
Peter Paul and Mary – Leavin’ on a Jet Plane
Petula Clark – A Sign of the Times
Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight
Pink Floyd – Run Like Hell
Pink Floyd – Mother
P.O.D. – Boom
Pretenders – My City Was Gone
Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
Queen – Killer Queen
All Rage Against The Machine songs
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Aeroplane
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Rickey Nelson – Travelin’ Man
Rolling Stones – Ruby Tuesday
Saliva – Click Click Boom
Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
Santana – Evil Ways
Savage Garden – Crash and Burn
Shelly Fabares – Johnny Angel
Simon And Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
Skeeter Davis – End of the World
Slipknot – Left Behind
Slipknot – Wait and Bleed
Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Soundgarden – Blow Up the Outside World
Soundgarden – Fell on Black Days
Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
Steam – Na Na Na Na Hey Hey
Steve Miller – Jet Airliner
Stone Temple Pilots – Big Bang Baby
Stone Temple Pilots – Dead and Bloated
Sugar Ray – Fly
Surfaris – Wipeou
System Of A Down – Chop Suey!
Talking Heads – Burning Down the House
Temple of the Dog – Say Hello to Heaven
Third Eye Blind – Jumper
Three Degrees – When Will I See You Again
Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
Tool – Intolerance
Tramps – Disco Inferno
U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
Van Halen – Dancing In The Street
Van Halen – Jump
Yager and Evans – In the Year 2525
Youngbloods – Get Together
Zombies – She’s Not There
