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. . .
in fact, I salute the ladies for bringing this to the attention of
the public as best they see fit. I think you could tell from my
testimony that I tend to agree with them.
I want to be very careful that we do not overstep our bounds and
try
It seems to me from your statement that you have no
Mr. ZAPPA. I think it would be advisable for two reasons. One, it
gives people one of the things that they have been asking for. It
gives them that type of consumer protection because, if you can
read the English language and you can see the lyrics on the back,
you have no excuse for complaning if you take the record out of
the store.
And also, I think that the record industry has been damaged and
it has been given a very bad rap by this whole situation because it
has been indicated, or people have attempted to indicate, that
there is so much of this kind of material that people object to in
the industry, that that is what the industry is.
It is not bad at all. Some of the albums that have been selected
for abuse here are obscure. Some of them are already several years
old. And I think that a lot of deep digging was done in order to
come up with the song about anal vapors or whatever it was that
they were talking about before.
Senator EXON. If I understand you, you would be in support of
printing the lyrics, but you are adamantly opposed to any kind of a
rating system?
Mr. ZAPPA. I am opposed to the rating system because, as I said,
if you put a rating on the record it goes directly to the character of
the person who made the record, whereas if you rate a film, a guy
who is in the film has been hired as an actor. He is pretending.
You rate the film, whatever it is, it does not hurt him.
But whether you like what is on the record or not, the guy who
made it, that is his art and to stigmatize him is unfair.
Senator EXON. Well, likewise, if you are primarily concerned
about the artists, is it not true that for many many years, we have
had ratings of movies with indications as to the sexual content of
movies and that has been, as near as I can tell, a voluntary action
on the part of the actors in the movies and the producers of the
movies and the distributors?
That seems to have worked reasonably well. What is wrong with
that?
Mr. ZAPPA. Well, first of all, it replaced something that was far
more restrictive, which was the Hayes Office. And as far as that
being voluntary, there are people who wish they did not have to
rate their films. They still object to rating their films, but the
reason the ratings go on is because if they are not rated they will
not get distributed or shown in theaters. So there is a little bit of
pressure involved, but still there is no stigma.
Senator EXON. The Government does not require that. The point
I am trying to make |
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