Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:26:05.484Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Parents' Music Resource Center: from information to censorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2008

Claude Chastagner
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

My purpose in this paper is to recount the history of the Parents' Music Resource Center, an American organisation founded in 1985 whose main concern has been to denounce the obscenity and violence of rock music on the grounds that it is partly responsible for the numerous ills that plague the United States. The PMRC claimed that it only wished to inform the public but my suggestion here is that the actions of the organisation resulted in a de facto censorship of popular music. I shall accordingly describe the various steps of the process that led from information to censorship as well as probe the deeper reasons that may have motivated the action of the Center.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , May 1999 , pp. 179 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, S. 1985. Washington Post, n.d. p. 20Google Scholar
Baker, S. et al. 1987. ‘First Page of Crusades’, The Album Network, 3 07, p. 1Google Scholar
Demac, Donna A. 1990. Liberty Denied: The Current Rise of Censorship in America (London)Google Scholar
Falwell, J. 1980. Listen, America! (New York)Google Scholar
Girard, R. 1972. La violence et le sacré (Paris)Google Scholar
Girard, R. 1983. Le bouc émissaire (Paris)Google Scholar
Gore, T. 1987. Raising PG Kids in a X-Rated Society (Abingdon)Google Scholar
Gore, T. 1988. ‘Tipper Gore Widens War on Rock’, New York Times, 4 01Google Scholar
Gore, T. 1990. ‘Hate, Rape and Rap’, Washington PostGoogle Scholar
Grossberg, L. 1992. We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture (London)Google Scholar
Heins, M. 1993. Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy, a Guide to America's Censorship Wars (New York)Google Scholar
Hill, T. 1992. ‘The enemy within: censorship in rock music in the 1950s’, in Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture, ed. DeCurtis, Anthony (Durham)Google Scholar
Kahan, J. 1993. ‘Bach, Beethoven and the (home)boys: censoring violent rap music in America’, Southern California Law Review, 66, pp. 28, 83, 2610Google Scholar
Kennedy, D. 1985. ‘Frankenchrist versus the State: the new right, rock music and the case of Jello Biafra’, Popular Culture, 1, pp. 131–47Google Scholar
Krauthammer, Charles. 1985. ‘X-Ratings for rock?’ Washington Post, 20 09Google Scholar
Lemeunier, Yves. 1988. ‘Du bon usage de la morale’, in Listen, America!, Morales et moralités aux Etats-Unis (Aix en Provence)Google Scholar
Martin, L. and Segrave, K. 1988. Anti-Rock: The Opposition of Rock & Roll (New York)Google Scholar
PMRC. 1985. Statement of Susan Baker and Tipper Gore [of the] PMRC before the Senate Commerce Committee 1991. NewsletterGoogle Scholar
RIAA. 1994. Annual Report of the Recording Industry Association of AmericaGoogle Scholar
Walser, R. 1993. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender & Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Hanover)Google Scholar