Basic polling question for all.
Who likes punk rock?
I find I liberating, it harnesses politcal aspects and stays away from the boo hoo hugginess of Barney and his Funtime hour.
Also, is there any sane person who actually believes what the PMRC has to say and their whole mentality about everything?
What’s the PMRC?
The PMRC stands for the
Parents Music Resource Center
Bascially it’s run the be religous right and they hate any music that strays from “wholesome family values”
They were at their biggest in the 80’s and they successfuly got the “Parental Advisory” sticker placed on album covers and got many liberal record stores shut down and many bands’ contracts cancelled and albums they considered offensive off shelves
What!! That’s horrible!! (I HAVE heard of them, I just didn’t know that was their official name.)
Tipper Gore was their…spokesperson, I take it, then?
Anyway I don’t listen to punk but I don’t agree with musical censorship in any way shape or form.
I’m not sure I get the connection. The PMRC didn’t go after punk specifically. Well, I guess you could count the Mentors as punk. But a lot of it was metal, more than anything else. (Oh, and the Dead Kennedys. Didn’t they go after a DK penis poster a one point?)
And does Tipper really count as the religous right? Ok, she got into bed with them (tee hee). The most annoying religious part of the stickering thing was you can get stickered for “Occult Content”.
Well…the whole thing was stupid and vile, but really it didn’t amount to a whole lot of censorship- even if that’s what they had in mind. These days most record wear there parental warning with pride.
Oh, and I really like punk rock.
It did amount to a lot of censorship
If they scared chain stores into not holding certain bands through threats and picketing and they picketed and shut down the liberal stores run by people and not corporations than the music is not getting out there.
They shut down everything that carried the music
The stores
The radio stations
The labels in some cases, much like the biafra/giger poster case.
I have enjoyed a lot of Jello Biafra’s spoken-word, particularly the account of the trial. I even managed to see him speak live at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.
Hmm…well maybe I was being too cavailer (sp?). A lot of censorship goes on silently. That is the worst kind. Good point.
Gene Simmons, Ice-T, and a lot of others would disagree. For them, the sticker increased sales. Nowadays, people will consider buying because of the sticker. But the PMRC is full of it.
That said, I love punk. Southern California is a punk rock Mecca.
Ah, very much into the Punk Rock scene myself.
I still currently work with some old faves and current faves.
Always loved, and still do love, DK and Missing Foundation, loved the SubHumans, saw Darby play once, Loved Rollins and Jello Biafra’s spoken words as well, but took them with a grain of salt. Got to meet Iggy Pop downtown once and thought he was a trip (or maybe he was tripping…)
…all in all, I do believe that censorship really won’t stop the scene from being what it is, it wont affect sales at this point anymore, and where there is silence caused by it there really isn’t a need to worry about it.
If a small town in middle of nowhere USA of the bible belt decides to censor it, it’s not stopping anyone from finding it somewhere else.
Censorship doesn’t last long, there’s usually a fight or small revolt of somekind that offsets it and makes what was censored more popular than it would have been otherwise.
Tipper wasn’t entirely off her rocker. She had a good point.
Parents really ought to be aware of what their children are doing and involving themselves with. Doesn’t mean that should stop them from letting their kids listen to the music, but at least they can be aware of what is going through their kids minds better now. I grew up listening to Punk Rock, was a punk rocker, had the mohawk, the leather, the chains, the spikes, the tattoos, did the drugs, joined the army, worked and toured with bands, and grew out of it. I’ve realized that it’s smart for adults to know what kids are listening to. Not to censor their taste in music, but to be a part of their lives. Tipper may not have fully realized the full effects of her stand on censorship, but it’s an advisory, not a complete ban on the stuff.
Advisorys don’t censor, they make aware.
I don’t know…in some cases, I’d rather not have my parents be a part of what I listen to. Its a private experience.
In other cases i don’t, like if they happen to have the same taste. I don’t think, for the most part, that listening to a few bad words (or a song full!) is all that bad. And I too am proud when I see a CD that i own with a warning label. Makes me feel satanic. 
Though they are pretty erratic. I have CDs with one or two “profane” words with the label, but others with lots that don’t garner it. Weird.
DK are the only band I really remember having a major problem with PMRC and that had more to do with the poster that came with their Frankenchrist album… not really with the music itself. Most of what I heard about the PMRC came from the band or MRR. I grew up/live in a small city which had a pretty big punk/skinhead scene in the 80s. A lot of people are home for the holidays and it’s interesting to see where people are now. My crowd is just reaching the age (mid-late 20s) where directions seem to be emerging in life. I don’t think our music had any real negative effect on us and considering that a lot of us were more interested in hanging out than going to school we seem to be doing pretty well. Then again, if I had a kid who not only listened to but defined him/herself in terms of an association with aggressive music I wasn’t familiar with (gangster rap maybe) I might get a bit worried. Of course worrying parents is what kids do. I guess the music creates a culture and in that culture some do better than others.
Having said that, I still love punk rock but I don’t listen to too many bands now that I didn’t listen to in my teens. I guess I can’t keep up anymore. My preferences are Oi! (Business, Cockney Rejects, 4 Skins etc) and 80s hardcore (Bad Religion, Youth Brigade, Asexuals etc). I must say I have recently developed quite a fondness for the Supersuckers as well.
Really? Cool! What happened? I met him once at a Swans show at CB’s but I just said something stupid so I don’t like to think about it.
(I have a picture of him naked, hung (so to speak) on the wall of this very room. Speaking of penis posters and the evils of censorship.)
socpro69 said
“DK are the only band I really remember having a major problem with PMRC and that had more to do with the poster that came with their Frankenchrist album… not really with the music itself.”
In the trial itself, it became painfully clear that the band’s lyrics and legacy was on trial more than anything. The prosecution kept referring to the song names and album names and names of bands and albums under thier record label.
they even had a blow up of the lyrics insert displayed in court with the lyrics being pointed out.
I was more than just the poster.
I wonder if they will start putting “Occult Content” stickers on Harry Potter books?
I wonder how many soccer moms actively campaign against occult subjects in their teen’s music, and are setting their younger children on the road to hell by promoting magic, wizards, spells, and potions?
[hijack] Besides, anybody else think Joanne Rowling is a babe? I’d like to play “connect the dots” with her freckles anytime. [/hijack]
Oh, but that’s different; that is helping to teach kids to read. We all know that “looking” is more important than “listening”.
Right.
Punk rock is good. I like to listen to punk rock.
The PMRC, IMHO, is a little iffy on the labels. Powerman 5000 got a warning sticker on the “tonight the stars revolt album” which has no cursing, nor no exactly explicit or violent lyrics. but offsprings “ixnay on the hombre” doesn’t and they say f*** at least twice in every song.
I also see people selling “Clean” and “Eplixict” versions of CDs. A “clean” A Perfect Circle “Mer de Noms”?? What was “dirty” in the first place???
You know…i’ve always sort of wondered.
(By the way weird coincidence…I just ordered “Mers de Noms”, hope it comes soon!)
Who buys these “edited” versions? Conservative parents? Because, if you like the band enough to want one of their albums, would you really want to buy a version someone’s tampered with? And if you listen to “that kind” of music, wouldn’t you not be offended by the explicit language? I just wondered.
The most interesting thing about punk is that, in the beginning, American punk was largely considered by its own practitioners to be kind of a joke. Aside from the notably political bands like the MC5, bands like the Stooges, the Ramones and the Voidoids had no particular politics except maybe drugs and homosexuality (Richard Hell was bi, and Dee Dee Ramone spent time as a hustler, as did Jim Carroll). The Ramones and their audience especially viewed what they were doing as really silly, playing this two-minute, loud, poorly performed and hopelessly retro rock songs. The Dead Boys, Television and the Heartbreakers likewise were not dealing in a political vein.
It took British punks, who somehow managed to take this energetic new music seriously, to inject the politics. They took this new musical form which could be played by anyone, which made it inherently populist if not a little Marxist, and made it into a statement on the UK and the world in that era, as well as commenting on sexual and racial politics. (Sex Pistols, Clash, Mekons, etc.)
Only then did West Coast punk begin to pick up on the political and social commentary possibilities. Punk rock has a rich history, well worth studying. Unfortunately, too many bands today who are considered (or consider themselves) punk are little more than power-pop bands with louder guitars and singers who are punk stylists. The Offspring are not punk; Rancid are somewhat more punk; Bad Religion are still pretty punk; Bad Brains are and always were punk.
Just IMO.
Black Flag at the Rising Sun in Montreal was my first Concert. Ahhhh. I remember parts of it well. 15yrs later and I still love the stuff, although my preference is for some of the neo-punk melodic stuff: Blink 182, OldBad Religion, Strung Out, etc…
As for the Parental Advisory stickers, why the heck not. My kids listen to my punk music from time to time, swear words and all, but I still monitor the tunes and make sure that the subjects of the songs don’t cross certain lines. Eminem, for example is not welcome on my speakers whilst there are children about. Stickers are a good way to alert parents to potentially damaging lyrical content.
On a punk side note:
My youngest (4yrs old) insisted his hair be dyed blue this summer. I was pretty proud. (And looked really cool, too)
For the “Really REALLY bad” california punk… anyone remember the Germs?
Germ Burns?
I’ve found myself singing their songs on occasion, and I have no idea why. They’re 'orrid.