Parents Music Resource Center

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The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was founded in 1985 by Tipper Gore, wife of then-Senator, later-Vice President Al Gore, to save us from the menace of filthy music.

Tipper was so upset to find her daughter listening to "Darling Nikki" by Prince, with the lyrics about masturbation in a hotel lobby, that she put two and two together and decided rock & roll caused teen suicide, murder, Satanism, drug and alcohol use, and worse.

The PMRC released a "Filthy Fifteen" list of the worst songs, some of which were obscure up to that point (like "Animal: F*** Like A Beast" by W.A.S.P. and "Strap On Robbie Baby" by Vanity), ironically helping their record sales quite a bit. They then instigated an August 1985 Senate hearing on "porn rock", at which testimony in opposition to the PMRC and censorship was given by Frank Zappa, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and John Denver.[1] During the hearings, the Recording Industry Association of America voluntarily agreed to start labeling potentially naughty records with the infamous "PARENTAL ADVISORY - EXPLICIT LYRICS" sticker, which quickly became known as the "Tipper Sticker". Needless to say, more artists embraced the Tipper Sticker than rejected it, viewing its placement on one's album as a way to say "hey kids, this album's gonna be awesome!" In particular, they came to be virtually required for hip-hop albums, especially as gangsta and hardcore rappers took over the genre in the early-mid '90s — no Tipper Sticker, and your street cred could be called into question.

The PMRC and Tipper Gore remained fodder for jokes, and a target for free speech activists and musicians such as Jello Biafra and Rage Against the Machine, for many years after.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Zappa went on to use recordings of the hearings on his track "Porn Wars", lampooning the controversy.
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