I’m also Class of '84. I’d finally stopped hearing about the “evil” rock music from church, and then the government started in on it.
Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the record companies now encourage artists to curse, even when they wouldn’t ordinarily, so they can slap the warning label on the cover. I mean when a rock/rap act like Linkin Park has to point out that that they deliberately chose to not curse on their songs …
One thing I hate about the warning labels and the “clean” versions of CDs: probably due to the generation I belong to, I’m not accustomed to specifically looking for the warning label, and that led to my accidentally buying the “clean” version of Puddle of Mudd’s Come Clean CD. I didn’t realize it until I’d gotten it home, opened it up and ripped it to my computer, which meant it was too late to take it back and exchange it.
Somebody on one of my e-mail lists pointed out that they hate the song “She Hates Me” from Come Clean. This person said, “It’s obvious that they wrote and recorded that song simply because they could.” I agree. While I like the song (my old cover band used to play it) and I find it amusing and catchy, it’s clear to me that it was written as an excuse to say “fuckin’” repeatedly. I suspect there are a lot of songs that are the same way.
How can anybody enjoy listening to a song with dozens of blank holes in the vocal line?
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So what do you think they were rallying against initially? If music was so pure at that time, what big gripe did they have that was convincing enough to prompt the RIAA to voluntarily place stickers on albums, and have Walmart not sell those albums?
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Censorship, perhaps? Read the (I know, I know) Wiki page on the PMRC.
Why was John Denver opposed to the PMRC? Because of all those naughty John Denver lyrics? Rocky Mountain High? Maybe he didn’t like censorship.
As for the “forbidden fruit” angle (I hadn’t referenced the Wiki article when I made my previous post), here’s what Ice-T said about it:
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
**Ironic aside: ** “Eat Me Alive” was held up, at the time, as an example of the misogyny rampant in heavy metal. The irony, of course, is that Halford would have been singing about a dude eating him alive. No gyny involved.
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Of course, Halford wasn’t officially “out” yet, and the song was written along with guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, who are straight
[QUOTE=xizor]
You need to show ID and prove your age to see a rated X (or NC-17) movie. To my knowledge, you don’t need to show anything but money to buy a CD.
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Funny you should mention this–a few months ago I was in Fred Meyer buying an ICP CD and a couple of kids (mid teens “kids” that is–I’m old…) were complaining that the cashier had carded them for naughty lyric CDs. I noticed that one of them had an ICP title as well, so I took their money and bought them both their music. Screw labelling–if those guys are old enough to GET a blowjob, they’re old enough to hear someone singing about getting one! Besides, ICP is educational…
