Hands clapped, laughter resonated and music sounded as the First Amendment was honored during the multimedia experience, presented on behalf of the First Amendment Day Celebrations.

“Freedom Sings,” a program of the First Amendment Center, offered live music, pictures, video, and narration on Thursday night in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union in order to illuminate the importance of the First Amendment.

“This is a very special nation that too often takes its freedom for granted. The idea behind ‘Freedom Sings’ is to show that all things with flavor like music, dance, literature, portray and art are made possible by the First Amendment. We can’t afford to forget that,” said Ken Paulson, president and chief executive officer of the First Amendment Center and author of “Freedom Sings.”

Paulson gave a lecture at Iowa State on Wednesday that aimed to inspire students to positively affect the outcome of future news media. Paulson has committed his professional carer to the promotion of the First Amendment. Along with this commitment came the idea for “Freedom Sings.”

“I believed that if I took the core message and brought along a rock-and-roll band, it would enrich my message and my audience would quadruple,” Paulson said.

The band members included Joseph Wooten, a singer, songwriter and keyboard player for the Steve Miller Band; Ashley Cleveland, a three-time Grammy-award winner; and Bill Lloyd, former member of the top country duo Foster and Lloyd.

The members joined the cause because they believed it contained a message that was worthy to be heard. 

“When the show was described to me, I knew that it was right up my ally,” Wooten said. “I felt like it was tailor-made for my mindset.”

The members felt compelled to pass on Paulson’s message.

“I thought, ‘Man, I need to stand up and be counted,'” Cleveland said.

The members hope that the students of Iowa State will take away a significant lesson from their performance.

“I hope to show how important the First Amendment is and how it affects our lives on an everyday basis,” Lloyd said.

The band performed music from throughout the United States’ history that was banned, censored,or that pushed for social change.

Songs like “Puff The Magic Dragon” and “Louie, Louie” were used as examples, showing how songs that are viewed as innocent today were once thought to be dangerous and inappropriate in American society.

Paulson, however, made a point to bring a recent song into mind in order to show that censorship is not in the past.

“It’s kind of fun to make fun of a different era, but there is a pretty popular song now that MTV decided that they needed to digitally censor so as not to offend the American people,” Paulson said.

On that note, Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” began to play.

“MTV decided that [this song] was too sensitive because it conjured up images of the Columbine and violence,” Paulson said. “This censorship is more insidious.”

2012 marks the 11th year of “Freedom Sings'” national tour. As the years have passed, Paulson and the band members have seen a the changes in America’s view of the First Amendment.

“On 9/11 there was a turn against liberty. Today, 20 percent of Americans think that there is too much freedom. After 9/11, that amount jumped to 50 percent. This was an astonishing change. Literally overnight, Americans decided that their country was too free,” Paulson said.

Although Paulson believes that “Freedom Sings” has made an impact on First Amendment awareness, he acknowledges that large-scale change won’t come easily.

“We hope we have raised the conscience of tens of thousands of colleges students, but any effort to move the needle to millions is going to take more than one fine rock-and-roll band,” Paulson said.