My first blog, and this one I felt talking about since I've recently cleaned my backpack (seriously, it's a shithole in that thing), and discovered something I felt quite proud of making a couple years ago in my History of Rock & Roll class. In fact, I got an A for this one. So I thought I'd share it with my fellow YouChew buddies. Those of you who are music lovers, and especially metal heads will probably like this post.
Remember, though, that I wrote this in 2012, and there might be some mistakes I overlooked when I wrote this. Keep an open mind. So, here we gooooooo...
The PMRC
A controversial-yet-failed attempt from Washington wives to censor hard rock and heavy metal.
In the early-to-late 1980s, numerous parental groups made attempts to censor media in any form for the sake of "protecting their children from the evils of the world". Cartoon censorship was almost at an all-time high due to violent or repulsive content (innuendos and all) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) creates the PG-13 rating to increase awareness of content in movies that parents may find objectionable (i.e. Gremlins, Poltergeist, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). HOWEVER, the biggest target when it came to censorship in the media was the music industry, which involved the rise of synthesized pop music, hair bands, and power metal. Bands like Twisted Sister, Guns n' Roses, and Poison were popping up left and right were climbing the Billboard charts faster than a player beating the first maze on a Pac-Man arcade machine.
Back when rock n' roll was a new thing, an older generation would attempt to try and censor a newer generation's art because of frivolous reasons that anyone who has done research would either laugh like it's nothing or defend it to the end and come out the victor. Most of the time, the latter happens. Look at the video game industry and community today for example. Take Alice Cooper, a controversial musician who was raised in a Christian household. In the '60s and '70s, all of his concerts have gotten backlash from parents due to beheadings, defecation (doubt it went that far), and the killing of animals on stage, even though all of it was fake. His song Cold Ethyl from the album Welcome to My Nightmare was about a dead corpse, and when he performs the song on stage, he has an actual blow-up doll dressed as a zombie right next to him. It would be obvious that parents would complain to concert managers about showing graphic imagery in front of their kids. This is where the PRMC comes in.
The PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) was a failed controversial attempt to censor rock music and heavy metal so that the medium would cater to their standards. Not only this, but the real intention was to censor the artist and his/her music as opposed to censoring certain albums that contained offensive lyrics, whether it had to do with excessive swearing, sexual reference, promoting violent acts, or the occult. The group was founded by the wives of Washington politicians. One of these wives was Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The group went ahead and created a list of the most inappropriate songs (in their opinion) on record shelves, called the Filthy Fifteen.
The Filthy Fifteen included:
1. "Darling Nikki" by Prince (sex/masturbation)
2. "Sugar Walls" by Sheena Easton (sex)
3. "Eat Me Alive" by Judas Priest (sex)
4. "Strap on Robbie Baby" by Vanity (sex)
5. "Bastard" by Motley Crue (violence)
6. "Let Me Put My Love Into You" by AC/DC (sex)
7. "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister (violence)
8. "Dress You Up" by Madonna (sex)
9. "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast) by W.A.S.P. (sex/language)*
10. "High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)" by Def Leppard (drug/alcohol)
11. "Into the Coven" by Mercyful Fate (occult)
12. "Trashed" by Black Sabbath (drug/alcohol)
13. "In My House" by Mary Jane Girls (sex)
14. "Possessed" by Venom (occult)
15. "She Bop" by Cyndi Lauper (sex/masturbation)
*Note that W.A.S.P.'s "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast) was one of the first primary targets that prompted the PMRC to act. What a surprise (sarcasm).
The PMRC's goals were to create a rating system for all records and concerts similar to that of the MPAA's film rating system, have record companies print all of the lyrics on album booklets, establish a media-watch program to pressure broadcasters to prohibit airing "questionable talent", and reassess contracts of performers and artists who perform sexual or violent acts on stage performances. Bands such as Guns n' Roses took note of what the PMRC was up to, and retaliated by making satires of what they were planning to do. An example can be found on the vinyl records, CDs, and cassette tapes of two of their albums: Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. It read:
![Posted Image]()
"This album contains language which some listeners may find objectionable. They can FUCK OFF* and buy something from the New Age Section."
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) refused to give into the demands of the PMRC, and the issue was taken to the U.S. Senate, promoting a "Blank Tape" tax to prevent certain albums from being sold up-front in order to "protect the children". Not only did the RIAA oppose the PMRC's demands, but obviously, so did the artists themselves. Three artists were invited to protest against the PMRC: songwriter Frank Zappa, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and surprisingly, country/folk music superstar John Denver.
"The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to bring any benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are NOT children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforce mental problems inherent in the proposal's design", said the late and great Frank Zappa, the first of the three who entered the U.S. Senate bench to speak his mind against the PMRC's proposals to censor artists and infringe upon the rights of citizens who most likely have different tastes in music than Tipper Gore & Friends (sounds like a really bad sitcom). He continues. "No one has forced Mrs. Gore to bring Prince and Sheena Easton into their homes. Thanks to the constitution, they are free to buy other forms of music for their children. Ladies, be advised. The $8.98 purchase price does not entitle you to a kiss on the foot from the composer or performer in exchange for a spin on the family record player. Taken as a whole , the whole list of PMRC proposals reads like an instructional manual for a sinister toilet-training program to housebreak all composers and performers of lyrics of a few. Ladies, how dare you."
Zappa's speech, which lasted 13 minutes, not only pointed out the obvious stupidity of the PMRC's demands, but also points out alternatives on how to resolve parents' concerns on such albums. Zappa's resolution was to have the lyrics, which are owned by publishing companies, printed on a separate sheet of paper and inserted into the manual through government funding instead of record companies going through the painstaking process of calling every publishing company in America and paying thousands of dollars for written permission. However, as promising as his speech was, it wasn't over.
The second songwriter who graced the Senate office was the late John Denver. Denver was also the subject of censorship, something he heavily opposed, according to his written testimony that he recited on the bench. He mentions that his song Rocky Mountain High was censored by many a radio station due to the assumptions that it is a song about the usage of illegal drugs; marijuana being the main assumption. His reply was that "this was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains and also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life, or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseides meteor shower on a moonless, clueless night, when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight, and you are out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the very first time." He goes on to say that "the suppression of the people begins with the censorship of the written or spoken word of any man or woman who lives, or has lived in such a country or corrupt government, such as Nazi Germany, and any other place where those in power are afraid of the consequences of an educated people." This was the argument that revealed the PMRC's true intentions to the public and struk awes among supporters of the artists' freedoms and the first amendment of the constitution. It still wasn't over. There was one more songwriter to protest.
Dee Snider, frontman of the heavy metal group Twisted Sister and a target of the PMRC stepped up to the bench. The first thing he did was introduce himself, mention that he is married, had a son (today, he has three sons and a daughter), was born and raised a Christian, and does NOT smoke, drink, or do drugs. According to his memoir Shut Up and Give Me the Mic, he came not just to defend himself for false accusations, but to defend heavy metal in general and "kick some PMRC ass". His song "We're Not Gonna Take It" was labeled as one of the Filthy Fifteen for violent lyrics. He protests to the Senate, who had copies of the song's lyrics handed out to them prior to the hearing, that there is absolutely no violence either sung about or implied anywhere in the song. Snider's proof is that the PMRC has confused the music video for the song with the lyrics to the song and the meaning of them.
He indicated that it is no secret that many music videos often depict storylines that are unrelated to the lyrics of the songs they accompany. The video in question (shown above), was, in Snider's words, "meant to be a live-action interpretation of cartoons with the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote theme." The PMRC also attacked his band for another song, which was not listed on the Filthy Fifteen, entitled Under the Blade, claiming that the song was about sadomasochism (S&M for short) and bondage. Snider countered their arguement saying the song was written while his guitarist Eddie Ojeda was undergoing surgery getting polyps removed from his throat at the time. The song, he says, was about surgery and the fear it instills on people who are afraid to go through the medical process of being opened up to remove tumors, cancer cells, etc., hence the term "under the blade".
After the hearings, the RIAA and the PMRC finally reached a compromise and agreed to put "Parental Advisory" labels on the bottom left or right (sometimes on the top left or right), of certain studio albums, live albums, and even motion picture soundtracks that contain offensive content. The practice still exists today, and since the introduction of these labels, stores such as Wal-Mart have forbidden to sell any music album or motion picture soundtrack carring a Parental Advisory label on the front of the booklet, on the plastic casing, or even on the back cover. The whole hearing eventually inspired the creation of a VH1 TV movie called Warning: Parental Advisory, which starred Dee Snider, Mariel Hemingway, and Jason Priestley. To this day, the PMRC hearing is one of the most controversial moments in music history, and it will be forever in the minds of the artists that were affected by it.
That's pretty much it. I got an A for this report, and I consider it to be one of the best things I ever wrote about for a class assignment. Man did those writing classes pay off...
Remember, though, that I wrote this in 2012, and there might be some mistakes I overlooked when I wrote this. Keep an open mind. So, here we gooooooo...
The PMRC
A controversial-yet-failed attempt from Washington wives to censor hard rock and heavy metal.
In the early-to-late 1980s, numerous parental groups made attempts to censor media in any form for the sake of "protecting their children from the evils of the world". Cartoon censorship was almost at an all-time high due to violent or repulsive content (innuendos and all) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) creates the PG-13 rating to increase awareness of content in movies that parents may find objectionable (i.e. Gremlins, Poltergeist, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). HOWEVER, the biggest target when it came to censorship in the media was the music industry, which involved the rise of synthesized pop music, hair bands, and power metal. Bands like Twisted Sister, Guns n' Roses, and Poison were popping up left and right were climbing the Billboard charts faster than a player beating the first maze on a Pac-Man arcade machine.
Back when rock n' roll was a new thing, an older generation would attempt to try and censor a newer generation's art because of frivolous reasons that anyone who has done research would either laugh like it's nothing or defend it to the end and come out the victor. Most of the time, the latter happens. Look at the video game industry and community today for example. Take Alice Cooper, a controversial musician who was raised in a Christian household. In the '60s and '70s, all of his concerts have gotten backlash from parents due to beheadings, defecation (doubt it went that far), and the killing of animals on stage, even though all of it was fake. His song Cold Ethyl from the album Welcome to My Nightmare was about a dead corpse, and when he performs the song on stage, he has an actual blow-up doll dressed as a zombie right next to him. It would be obvious that parents would complain to concert managers about showing graphic imagery in front of their kids. This is where the PRMC comes in.
The PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) was a failed controversial attempt to censor rock music and heavy metal so that the medium would cater to their standards. Not only this, but the real intention was to censor the artist and his/her music as opposed to censoring certain albums that contained offensive lyrics, whether it had to do with excessive swearing, sexual reference, promoting violent acts, or the occult. The group was founded by the wives of Washington politicians. One of these wives was Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The group went ahead and created a list of the most inappropriate songs (in their opinion) on record shelves, called the Filthy Fifteen.
The Filthy Fifteen included:
1. "Darling Nikki" by Prince (sex/masturbation)
2. "Sugar Walls" by Sheena Easton (sex)
3. "Eat Me Alive" by Judas Priest (sex)
4. "Strap on Robbie Baby" by Vanity (sex)
5. "Bastard" by Motley Crue (violence)
6. "Let Me Put My Love Into You" by AC/DC (sex)
7. "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister (violence)
8. "Dress You Up" by Madonna (sex)
9. "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast) by W.A.S.P. (sex/language)*
10. "High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)" by Def Leppard (drug/alcohol)
11. "Into the Coven" by Mercyful Fate (occult)
12. "Trashed" by Black Sabbath (drug/alcohol)
13. "In My House" by Mary Jane Girls (sex)
14. "Possessed" by Venom (occult)
15. "She Bop" by Cyndi Lauper (sex/masturbation)
*Note that W.A.S.P.'s "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast) was one of the first primary targets that prompted the PMRC to act. What a surprise (sarcasm).
The PMRC's goals were to create a rating system for all records and concerts similar to that of the MPAA's film rating system, have record companies print all of the lyrics on album booklets, establish a media-watch program to pressure broadcasters to prohibit airing "questionable talent", and reassess contracts of performers and artists who perform sexual or violent acts on stage performances. Bands such as Guns n' Roses took note of what the PMRC was up to, and retaliated by making satires of what they were planning to do. An example can be found on the vinyl records, CDs, and cassette tapes of two of their albums: Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. It read:
"This album contains language which some listeners may find objectionable. They can FUCK OFF* and buy something from the New Age Section."
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) refused to give into the demands of the PMRC, and the issue was taken to the U.S. Senate, promoting a "Blank Tape" tax to prevent certain albums from being sold up-front in order to "protect the children". Not only did the RIAA oppose the PMRC's demands, but obviously, so did the artists themselves. Three artists were invited to protest against the PMRC: songwriter Frank Zappa, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and surprisingly, country/folk music superstar John Denver.
"The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to bring any benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are NOT children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforce mental problems inherent in the proposal's design", said the late and great Frank Zappa, the first of the three who entered the U.S. Senate bench to speak his mind against the PMRC's proposals to censor artists and infringe upon the rights of citizens who most likely have different tastes in music than Tipper Gore & Friends (sounds like a really bad sitcom). He continues. "No one has forced Mrs. Gore to bring Prince and Sheena Easton into their homes. Thanks to the constitution, they are free to buy other forms of music for their children. Ladies, be advised. The $8.98 purchase price does not entitle you to a kiss on the foot from the composer or performer in exchange for a spin on the family record player. Taken as a whole , the whole list of PMRC proposals reads like an instructional manual for a sinister toilet-training program to housebreak all composers and performers of lyrics of a few. Ladies, how dare you."
Zappa's speech, which lasted 13 minutes, not only pointed out the obvious stupidity of the PMRC's demands, but also points out alternatives on how to resolve parents' concerns on such albums. Zappa's resolution was to have the lyrics, which are owned by publishing companies, printed on a separate sheet of paper and inserted into the manual through government funding instead of record companies going through the painstaking process of calling every publishing company in America and paying thousands of dollars for written permission. However, as promising as his speech was, it wasn't over.
The second songwriter who graced the Senate office was the late John Denver. Denver was also the subject of censorship, something he heavily opposed, according to his written testimony that he recited on the bench. He mentions that his song Rocky Mountain High was censored by many a radio station due to the assumptions that it is a song about the usage of illegal drugs; marijuana being the main assumption. His reply was that "this was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains and also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life, or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseides meteor shower on a moonless, clueless night, when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight, and you are out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the very first time." He goes on to say that "the suppression of the people begins with the censorship of the written or spoken word of any man or woman who lives, or has lived in such a country or corrupt government, such as Nazi Germany, and any other place where those in power are afraid of the consequences of an educated people." This was the argument that revealed the PMRC's true intentions to the public and struk awes among supporters of the artists' freedoms and the first amendment of the constitution. It still wasn't over. There was one more songwriter to protest.
Dee Snider, frontman of the heavy metal group Twisted Sister and a target of the PMRC stepped up to the bench. The first thing he did was introduce himself, mention that he is married, had a son (today, he has three sons and a daughter), was born and raised a Christian, and does NOT smoke, drink, or do drugs. According to his memoir Shut Up and Give Me the Mic, he came not just to defend himself for false accusations, but to defend heavy metal in general and "kick some PMRC ass". His song "We're Not Gonna Take It" was labeled as one of the Filthy Fifteen for violent lyrics. He protests to the Senate, who had copies of the song's lyrics handed out to them prior to the hearing, that there is absolutely no violence either sung about or implied anywhere in the song. Snider's proof is that the PMRC has confused the music video for the song with the lyrics to the song and the meaning of them.
He indicated that it is no secret that many music videos often depict storylines that are unrelated to the lyrics of the songs they accompany. The video in question (shown above), was, in Snider's words, "meant to be a live-action interpretation of cartoons with the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote theme." The PMRC also attacked his band for another song, which was not listed on the Filthy Fifteen, entitled Under the Blade, claiming that the song was about sadomasochism (S&M for short) and bondage. Snider countered their arguement saying the song was written while his guitarist Eddie Ojeda was undergoing surgery getting polyps removed from his throat at the time. The song, he says, was about surgery and the fear it instills on people who are afraid to go through the medical process of being opened up to remove tumors, cancer cells, etc., hence the term "under the blade".
After the hearings, the RIAA and the PMRC finally reached a compromise and agreed to put "Parental Advisory" labels on the bottom left or right (sometimes on the top left or right), of certain studio albums, live albums, and even motion picture soundtracks that contain offensive content. The practice still exists today, and since the introduction of these labels, stores such as Wal-Mart have forbidden to sell any music album or motion picture soundtrack carring a Parental Advisory label on the front of the booklet, on the plastic casing, or even on the back cover. The whole hearing eventually inspired the creation of a VH1 TV movie called Warning: Parental Advisory, which starred Dee Snider, Mariel Hemingway, and Jason Priestley. To this day, the PMRC hearing is one of the most controversial moments in music history, and it will be forever in the minds of the artists that were affected by it.
That's pretty much it. I got an A for this report, and I consider it to be one of the best things I ever wrote about for a class assignment. Man did those writing classes pay off...