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If you've ever spent time in a music store,
then you've definitely seen this.
This simple, little, black-and-white label,
is practically everywhere these days.
Tucked away in the bottom right corner,
on the cover of your favorite albums.
People hardly give it a second thought.
And that's because it's become synonymous with the music industry.
But that wasn't always the case.
When the Parental Advisory label was first introduced,
it completely shook the entire music industry.
With lasting effects, that stretched across the United States, and across the world.
So... where did it come from?
The year was 1985.
Ronald Reagan had been sworn in for a 2nd presidential term, having won in a landslide.
The religious right wielded incredible power,
and constantly feared, that the liberal left would somehow invade their wholesome way of life.
Enter Mary "Tipper" Gore,
then-wife of Senator Al Gore.
She bought the soundtrack to "Purple Rain"
by Prince, for her 11-year-old daughter,
clearly ignorant of Prince, and his hugely popular, rated-R film.
As they listened to the album together, Tipper was horrified,
when she heard the lyrics to the song "Darling Nikki".
"I met her in a hotel lobby,
masturbating with a magazine"
She then flipped on MTV, and saw the music video for Van Halen's song "Hot For Teacher".
Tipper Gore had no idea, that children across the nation were so easily subjected,
to what she considered vulgar and graphic material.
Later that year, she helped found the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), along with three other women:
Susan Baker, wife of Treasury secretary James Baker,
Sally Nevius, wife of Washington City council Sherman john Nevius,
and Pam Howar, wife of realtor Raymond Howar.
Known as the Washington Wives,
the women, along with other members,
used their connections to start a political battle,
against musicians and the music industry.
They released a list of songs they found particularly objectionable, called "The Filthy Fifteen".
Which included popular songs, like "Darling Nikki" by Prince,
"We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister,
"Dress You Up" by Madonna,
and "She Bop" by Cyndi Lauper.
The PMRC's message quickly swept throughout the nation,
sparking heated conversations, of what constitutes decency, and 1st Amendment rights.
Media coverage helped add fuel to the controversy, as newspapers and TV shows couldn't get enough of the coverage.
[Smokey Robinson] "It is like going to a porno movie, and um, seeing everything - only it's a porno hearing session."
Desperately wanting quick-fix resolution,
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),
announced, that record labels would put advisories on albums, moving forward.
But the PMRC wanted more. They wanted all song lyrics printed on album covers,
albums with explicit covers kept behind record store counters,
and a requirement, that labels reassess contacts with musicians,
who engaged in violent or sexually explicit behavior.
The PMRC also proposed a rating system,
similar to the Motion Picture Association of America.
Their proposed system cointained the ratings:
"X", for profane or sexually explicit lyrics,
"V" for violence, "D/A" for drug or alcohol
references, and "O" for occult content.
The RIAA rejected these demands, and continued to push for warning labels, reading "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics".
With both sides stuck at a stalemate, the fight went to the Senate, for an event that was dubbed "The Porn Rock Hearings".
Numerous witnesses gave testimony,
including members of the Washington Wives,
senators, doctors, professors,
and even three prominent musicians:
Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister.
Critics of the PMRC saw the Senate hearings as promotion of censorship, intended to enforce a moral code on the arts,
and the government overstepping into the private sphere, to limit the way artists could express themselves.
In the end, a compromise was reached.
Lyrics were to be printed on the back cover,
or albums would bear labels, that read:
"Explicit lyrics: parental advisory".
Most of the recording industry voluntarily agreed to label records, that included explicit language, and sexual content.
But on closer examination, this wasn't so voluntary.
This was the RIAA implementing self-regulation,
in order to avoid the threat of a harsher regulatory system.
This allowed the RIAA to keep control in the industry's hands.
By 1990, record companies announced a revised label.
Unlike the previous labels, this new label was to be a standard size,
black and white, and always located in the bottom right-hand corner on physical media.
And in 1994, the slightly revised label we all know now,
was released, which read "Parental advisory: explicit content".
These warning labels created major issues for particular artists, and for the music industry as a whole.
There was an on-going culture war with music retailers,
making the decision to carry, or not carry, explicit albums.
Walmart, one of the largest music retailers at the time,
refused to carry albums, that didn't align with their family-friendly image.
The "Parental Advisory" notice forced the sales
of explicit albums into specialized stores,
rather than large, multinational retailers,
limiting market access to explicit music.
This became a business decision, as well as a cultural decision, to either support explicit music or ban it.
Many artists were forced to create "clean versions", with censored lyrics, in order to get their albums into stores.
For example: in 1990, 2 Live Crew's album
"As Nasty As They Wanna Be",
an album, that was initially deemed illegal for obscenity by a Federal District judge,
created the alternate version "As Clean As They Wanna Be", with censored images on the album cover.
A far cry from the artists' original intent.
The PMRC and the Parental Advisory label became a symbol of censorship.
Several artists in the mid-80s and early 90s fired back with anti-PMRC songs, albums, and messages of their own.
Glenn Danzig released his anti-PMRC anthem "Mother",
Ice T's "The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech..."
attacked Tipper Gore and the PMRC,
NOFX released their E.P., "The PMRC Can Suck On This",
and Frank Zappa released his album
"Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers of Prevention".
The album included the song "Porn Wars", which contained a mashup of distorted audio samples from the Senate hearings.
And the album also included a warning, written by Zappa himself,
that said the album contained content "which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress".
And a guarantee, that the lyrics would not
"cause eternal torment in the place, where the guy with the horns and pointed stick conducts his business".
The PMRC was a sign of censorship, but it quickly became a symbol for rebellion as well.
Frank Zappa's "Mothers of Prevention" album contained a cover, that is basically a play on the black and white Parental Advisory label.
T-shirts with a warning label became popular in the early 90s, as a way to mock conservatives.
And artists began utilizing the Parental Advisory label to their advantage.
It became a badge of honor,
and it also became a marketing tool.
The PMRC hearings, and constant media attention about explicit, forbidden music,
made it that much more enticing to children.
Marc Weinstein, co-founder of Amoeba Music,
said this, in regards to the PMRC's agenda:
"i would say the program was mainly a failure,
based on what they were trying to achieve...
More often than not, from what I saw,
it actually became a sales tool.
It made it easier for teenagers
to identify the cool stuff."
The PMRC grew to 22 participants throughout its run,
before eventually shutting down in the late 90s.
Now, the warning label is usually embedded
into the digital artwork, for albums online;
with each individual track on the album, containing potentially objectionable content, labelled with "Explicit".
But, their presence doesn't ring as loud,
as it used to in the 80s and 90s.
The PMRC is gone, and Parental Advisory labels
are basically ineffective at this point.
But, for better or worse, their controversial legacy
still permeates the music industry to this day.
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Tell me, what was the first album you bought,
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I was nine years old, and I bought
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