The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was an American committee formed in 1985 by the wives of several congressmen. They included Tipper Gore (wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore); Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; and Nancy Thurmond, wife of Senator Strom Thurmond. Their mission was to educate parents about "alarming trends" in popular music. They claimed that rock music encouraged/glorified violence, drug use, suicide, criminal activity, etc. and sought the censorship and/or rating of music.
Proponents of the PMRC claimed that the change in rock music was attributable to the decay of the nuclear family in America. They said that since there was little stability in the family, children were forced to turn to outside influences, and thus were greatly vulnerable to corruption. As a method of combating these problems, the PMRC suggested labeling records that contained "explicit lyrics or content". They said that it was a method of warning parents of dangerous material before their children listened to it. They pressured the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) into requiring that labels be put on all records containing explicit content. At first, the RIAA resisted the pressure.
Opponents of the PMRC (most notably Frank Zappa, John Denver, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and Jello Biafra) said that the problem with record labeling was that it violated First Amendment rights and that there was no clear definition for "moral standards". They also argued that many of the supporters of the PMRC were not set only on labeling, but on controlling (or even banning) records with explicit content (later, other musicians also criticized the PMRC, including Megadeth and Rage Against the Machine). Critics also point out the PMRC's emphasis on black music (most hip-hop artists are black, and rock is a derivation of blues); comparatively, country music records and comedy records are often overlooked or excused.
On September 19, 1985, the US Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, under pressure from the PMRC, began an investigation into the "pornographic content of rock music". Many famous musicians were called as witnesses, including Frank Zappa, Dee Snider, and John Denver. Zappa said: "The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real 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 interpretation and enforcement problems inherent in the proposal's design... It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation."
Zappa also pointed out in media interviews that neither "comedy records" nor "country music" recordings were being subjected to the same call for warning labels in the proposal, despite the latter genre being rich with examples of references to alcohol, sex, divorce, hellfire and the devil.
The Tipper Sticker
- Main article: Parental Advisory
On November 1, 1985, before the hearing even ended, the RIAA agreed to put labels on those records containing what the PMRC saw as explicit content. Many record stores refused to sell albums containing the label (most notably Wal-Mart), and others limited the sale of those albums to minors. The label became known as the "Tipper sticker". Some politicians attempted to criminalize the sale of explicit records to minors, and others went so far as to try to ban such records. However, the power of the PMRC has greatly declined in recent years, especially with the growing popularity of rap and heavy metal (popular targets of the PMRC). Releases by independent, non-RIAA labels do not carry the sticker (often proudly). Still, the RIAA encourages the labeling of any album containing explicit lyrics.
Notable snippets of audio from the hearing found their way into Zappa's audiocollage "Porn Wars", released on the Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention album. Senators Gore, Hollings, Gorton, Hawkins, and others appeared. The album cover featured a bitingly sarcastic parody of the RIAA warning label.
The Megadeth song "Hook In Mouth" from their 1988 album So Far, So Good... So What! was highly critical of the PMRC, comparing them to the Orwellian state of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Aerosmith's song "F.I.N.E." from the 1989 Pump (album) features the line "even Tipper thinks I'm alright", suggesting the band had got away with not being censored despite their often raunchy lyrical content.
NOFX released an EP entitled "The PMRC Can Suck On This".
A minute-long track tagged onto the end of Warrant's 1990 Cherry Pie was titled "Ode to Tipper Gore" and featured nothing but various swear words recorded in rapid-fire order from past concerts.
In 1990, thrash/hardcore group Suicidal Tendencies released a song called "Lovely" on their Lights...Camera...Revolution! album, which has a mockingly clean/positive atmosphere to it and even addressess Tipper Gore by name.
The Furnaceface song "We Love You, Tipper Gore" from their 1991 album Just Buy It humourously pointed out that the attempt to suppress music of that nature made it much more appealing, suggesting that "... it only makes us want to hear it that much more." The chorus implies that smaller bands cashed in on this "peach out of reach" effect.
On July 18, 1993, Rage Against the Machine protested against the PMRC at Lollapalooza III by standing naked onstage with duct tape covering their mouths and the letters PMRC on their chests.
The sticker has been lampooned continuously since its inception, and not only by musicians. A former pro wrestling tag-team consisting of independent stars "XXXplicit" Bailey Mannix and "Delicious" Danny Scott called their team "XXXplicit Content" and their logo famously mocked the sticker, only with their misspelling of the word "explicit". Although the team broke up, Bailey Mannix continues to use the nickname "XXXplicit" from time to time.
The Filthy Fifteen list
In 1985, the PMRC published its infamous "Filthy Fifteen" list of songs that were on top of the PMRC's hit list and what they determined the songs were about.
| # |
Artist |
Song title |
Lyrical content |
| 1 |
Prince |
"Darling Nikki" |
Sex/Masturbation |
| 2 |
Sheena Easton |
"Sugar Walls" |
Sex |
| 3 |
Judas Priest |
"Eat Me Alive" |
Sex |
| 4 |
Vanity |
"Strap on Robbie Baby" |
Sex |
| 5 |
Mötley Crüe |
"Bastard" |
Violence |
| 6 |
AC/DC |
"Let Me Put My Love into You" |
Sex |
| 7 |
Twisted Sister |
"We're Not Gonna Take It" |
Violence |
| 8 |
Madonna |
"Dress You Up" |
Sex |
| 9 |
W.A.S.P. |
"Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)" |
Sex/Language |
| 10 |
Def Leppard |
"High 'N' Dry (Saturday Night)" |
Drug and Alcohol Use |
| 11 |
Mercyful Fate |
"Into the Coven" |
Occult |
| 12 |
Black Sabbath |
"Trashed" |
Drug and Alcohol Use |
| 13 |
Mary Jane Girls |
"In My House" |
Sex |
| 14 |
Venom |
"Possessed" |
Occult |
| 15 |
Cyndi Lauper |
"She Bop" |
Sex/Masturbation |
External links
- History of the PMRC by Claude Chastagner
- PMRC-inspired Senate Hearing Transcript
- A Frank Zappa appearance on "Crossfire" during the PMRC rucus
Categories: Media content ratings systems | Moral panics | Censorship
