June 23, 2006
News | Beijing's disco crackdown sounds familiar |
Reuters reports that:
Beijing has banned disco and other dance music in private rooms of nightclubs and karaoke bars to curb the flood of illegal drugs into the capital's entertainment venues, Chinese newspapers reported Friday.
"Because many drug takers regularly dance and go crazy to upbeat 'disco' music in private rooms, police have specially requested karaoke machines not have this music," the Beijing Times newspaper said.
Club owners were now expected to delete disco and "other forms of vulgar entertainment" from karaoke machines in private rooms, the Beijing News said, as part of a "responsibility agreement" written up by police.
What kind of totalitarian state would do something as absurd as censoring dance music in order to curb drug use? Try the United States. In my hometown of New Orleans, the Drug Enforcement Agency held a rave promoter criminally liable simply for holding a rave in 2001. He faced up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. States like Illinois followed the federal lead, proposing anti-rave laws.
Of course, by the time the old folks were getting lathered about raves, the fad was on the wane in the US.