China Bans "Threatening" Musicians Following Bjork's Tibet Outburst

China has banned all overseas performers that "threaten national sovereignty" following a performance by Bjork in Shanghai earlier this year. At that concert, the Icelandic singer led the crowd in a chant of "Tibet, Tibet!" after performing her song "Declare Independence." The ban will also fall on artists who "threaten national unity", "whip up ethnic hatred", "violate religious policy or cultural norms" or "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition." Plus, all performances must be approved beforehand, right down to what encores will be played. The move was made as China's Ministry of Culture gears up for this year's Olympic Games, which is expected to attract protesters and unruly crowds that don't need to be exacerbated by musicians.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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