On the edge of rock: state censorship and the Portuguese folk song

Abstract

This article presents a fragment of an investigation on state censorship on songs and musicals during the last two decades of Portuguese dictatorship. The research is based on a review and analysis of archive materials from Pide/DGS (Polícia Internacional de Defesa do Estado/ Direcção-Geral de Segurança – International Police for State Defense / General Security Directorate), as well as on the unpublished censorial processes available in the archives of the Secretariado Nacional de Informação (SNI) (National Information Office), both based in Torre do Tombo, Lisbon. The analyses of these documents revealed the main banned topics, based, particularly, on the legal principles these songs had to abide by, as well as on the censor’s justifications. One aditional reason for choosing to study songs in this paper is theis strong social insertion through the media and the phonographic and publishing industries.

Keywords: censorship, song, rock.