PMRC Controversy

In society music is an extremely important form of art. It is one of the most sincere forms of expression. Music can influence people from many different backgrounds and cultures. Musicians have the same freedom of speech rights as any other United States citizen. In the mid 1980's rock musicians' rights were challenged with issues including censorship and first amendment guarantees. "The PMRC (or Parents Music Resource Center) was a committee formed in 1985 by the wives of several congressmen. They included Tipper 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" (Encyclopedia, 11/22/04.) Out of
Obscenity is not protected by the amendment and that is where a lot of controversy was caused. The line between what is obscene and what isn't obscene is hard to determine. Many proposals were made throughout the hearing, after all the debates, witnesses, and testimonials the case was finally settled. Even before the trial was complete the PMRC and RIAA had made a compromise. "Following the Hearing, on November 1 of 1985, the PMRC, and its ally the National Parents and Teachers Association, reached an agreement with the RIAA on the voluntary record label. The agreement stipulated that the printing of lyrics remained optional and, because of space limitations, cassettes were exempted, bearing only the imprint "see LP for lyrics". Since then, different record companies designed their own label containing the words "Parental Guidance - Explicit Lyrics" or some variation thereof"
However, they are not required, but suggested. There are no major consequences currently for not having labels on music. "Now the PMRC has moved into the world of video, complaining about television, home video and MTV" (Zappa,1989.) Currently there are not many mainstream organizations that have intentions like the PMRC. Most of the groups that permute censorship are a much smaller scale. It is not likely for them to gain any national status. These groups are unlikely to gain following because many musicians today make different versions of their record. These records come in a "clean" version with less obscenities and the regular version, including all obscenities. This is logical on behalf of the musicians. It is a large step forward in preventing anything like the PMRC happening again. Also, the different versions of records please the people who would be against