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[From Billboard, June 29, 1985] 
Censorship, a hydra-headed insatiable beast, is crouching in the shadows ready to
pounce upon and consume our music industry. The cause? Violent and sexually
explicit rock lyrics permeating our airwaves and invading our videos.
Some signposts:
The national office of the Parent-Teachers Assn. has requested record companies
to rate their product, as is done by the movie industry.
The National Assn. of Broadcasters has asked record companies to include lyric
sheets with records sent to stations. It has also written to more than 800 radio and
television group station owners asking each licensee to decide the manner in which
is [sic] should carry out its "programming responsibilities" under the Communications
Act.
The Parents Music Resource Center, co-chaired by Susan Baker and Tipper Gore,
the respective spouses of Treasury Secretary Jim Baker, and Sen. Albert Gore of
Tennessee, is asking the music industry to establish a rating system to both inform
and warn consumers of the content in the product they purchase. This is particularly
for the benefit of parents who are concerned about the lyrics their kids listen to.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has gone to the extreme of suggesting that record companies
accept at least some responsibility for the high rate of black teenage pregnancy.
We shouldn't adopt a head-in-the sand attitude about these developments. They
are danger signals that a storm is brewing. Before the deluge we should seed these
ominous clouds with common sense, perhaps thereby rendering them harmless.
Throughout the ages it has been acknowledged that music has the power to do
more than entertain. It can ennoble and inspire; it can form character. It saddens
one to see it so often appeal to the basest in use [sic], rather than the best. I refer here
specifically to the phenomenon that is rising so rapidly: porn-rock.
Where lyrics once used innuendo, they are now overt.
Where lyrics once were artfully suggestive, they are now blatantly explicit.
Where lyrics once extolled tenderness and love relationships, they now glorify
violence and loveless sex.
"What's the big deal?," ask some. "There are porno theatres all over the country,
aren't there?"
That's true, of course. And even a growing percentage of "legitimate" movies
provide a steady steam of four-letter words and gratuitous sex scenes.
The difference, though is that no one is breaking your arm to buy a ticket to the
movies. It's your choice. But the airwaves? That's a horse of a distinctly different
color.
The public has no control over what is beamed into its homes. Preteeners are
being exposed to a rising tide of openly libidinous suggestions they are yet
ill-equipped to deal with. And adults (even if they could decipher the lyrics) can hardly
be expected to sit by day and night monitoring what comes through speaker and
tube.
Have we forgotten that the airwaves belong to the people? The right to use these
airwaves is merely on loan, so to speak, to licensees.
Certainly, the majority of parents, if asked, would vote overwhelmingly against
their kids hearing or viewing songs that recommend masturbation, oral sex, intercourse
in elevators, violence, Satanism, sado-masochism and other such pastimes.
The trick, of course, is never to reach the point where parents are asked to vote,
or where government decides to intervene.
I submit that the only sensible course of action is industrywide self-restraint.
Songwriters, using their conscience as their guide, should tone down on explicitness.
Publishers should edit lyrics more carefully. Producers and record companies should
exercise more responsibility over what is or isn't recorded. Singers should use better
judgment in choosing their material. And finally, broadcasters should become more
aware of what they are transmitting.
I suspect there are many who disagree with some or much of the above. That's all
the more reason for a reasonable debate to take |
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