How Not to Ban Music

Teenagers are stereotypically rebellious. They push boundaries, make bad decisions, and are frequently ornery enough to do things precisely because they were told not to.

In retrospect, banning rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t an effective strategy if the goal was to encourage teenagers to pick a different kind of music to jam to. (READ MORE from Aubrey Gulick: The Mother of Invention)

It all started at a weekend dance in the town’s Civic Auditorium. Lieutenant Richard Overton of the Santa Cruz Police Force was assigned to the event and clearly did not enjoy the assignment. At 12:20 a.m. on Sunday — a full 40 minutes before the dance was supposed to end — Overton decided to send the band packing and the teenagers home to bed (which, it should be noted, they did so obediently and quietly).

The issue? Overton determined that the music “excited the crowd to passion at times, and it was feared the crowd might become uncontrollable.” There doesn’t seem to have been alcohol present or even any kind of disturbance; it was simply that Overton thought a few of the teenage couples were engaging in what he considered objectionable dancing.

The following Monday, the Santa Cruz Sentinel-News reported that authorities had decided on June 3, 1956, to ban rock ‘n’ roll “and other frenzied forms of terpsichore” (which is the kind of word we should use far more frequently to spice up news reports).

On June 3, 1956, the City of Santa Cruz, California, imposed a ban on rock and roll music, as a result of ‘obscene & highly suggestive dancing’ by teenagers pic.twitter.com/EgKUH50vnD

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) June 3, 2019

And Santa Cruz wasn’t the only town to ban rock ‘n’ roll. In Boston, a police commissioner shut down a planned concert because he was concerned that the event could result in riots. San Antonio, Texas banned the music in dance halls, and in Jersey City, New Jersey, Mayor Bernard Berry banned both rock ‘n’ roll and blues concerts. (READ MORE: Hunter S. Thompson: American Idiot)

Rather than suppress the teenage urge to listen to rock ‘n’ roll, the bans helped the music grow in popularity. Now the music wasn’t just cool, it had become associated with rebelling against cultural norms. Santa Cruz’s ban lasted for just a few weeks that summer. Not only did the community itself complain about it, but the media picked up the story and the Santa Cruz Police Department’s phones didn’t stop ringing for weeks with eager calls from reporters around the country.

The City Council quickly clarified that they hadn’t really banned rock ‘n’ roll, just “what some people do while listening to it” and gave the Civic Auditorium’s manager permission to end any dance he deemed immoral. The issue with that resolution, however, was that the council hadn’t exactly defined what it meant by “immoral” dance. Besides, as some parents noted in letters to the city newspaper, rock ‘n’ roll was “dead” compared to “the Modern and Jazz dances during and since” their youth. (READ MORE: Defeating China’s ‘Great Game’ in Cold War II)

Just a year later, Santa Cruz youth were back, happily jamming away to rock ‘n’ roll, undisturbed by Lieutenant Overton.

This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way on June 3, 2024.

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