Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics: A Case Study Of Music Censorship And Suppression In America, Nathaniel T. Belcik

Young Historians Conference

The paper talks about music censorship in the 1980s, specifically the PMRC hearings in 1985. The paper looks at the anti-Rock movement of the 1980s and the Parents Music Resource Center, an organization that wanted warning labels placed on albums. The paper examines the motives of the PMRC and opposition to their proposals from famous musicians. The thesis of the paper is that the PMRC's proposals were adopted by the RIAA because the RIAA wanted to get a tax on cassettes passed and the negative publicity over explicit music was hurting their efforts to get the tax passed.