I just got my term paper back from my Music as a Business class. As it turns out, it was the best one in the class. For those of you who care to read it, here it is in its original form (well, almost: myspace will butcher the format).

"First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought."

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy

In relevance to free speech and censorship in the music industry, one form of speech not protected by the 1^st Amendment is obscenity. The problem, however, is legally defining what is and is not obscenity. According to Wikipedia, the Supreme Court uses what is known as the Miller test, named after the 1973 Miller v. California case. The test is comprised of three parts:

1. Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

2. Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law.

3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (this last condition is also called the LAPS test: literary, artistic, political, scientific).

Note: the work must fit all of these conditions in order to be considered obscene.

The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was formed by Tipper Gore (wife of then Senator Al Gore), Susan Baker (wife of then Treasury Secretary James Baker), Pam Howar (wife of Washing realtor Raymond Howar), and Sally Nevius (wife of then Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius), with the intent "to educate and inform parents" about "the growing trend in music towards lyrics that are sexually explicit, excessively violent, or glorify the use of drugs and alcohol" (the last part is a bit odd, considering the fact that the Coors Beer corporation helped get the PMRC started), and to seek the censorship and rating of music. According to Wikipedia, the group "claimed that popular music, especially rock music, was partially responsible for the (at the time) recent increase in rape, teenage pregnancy, and teen suicide."

Music Rating System

One of the PMRC's goals was to pressure the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) into establishing a rating system for music, similar to that of the MPAA rating system for film, a move which Jello Biafra stated would "bypass constitutional law." The rating system would have included ratings like V for violent, and O for occult.

O for occult. Who is going to define what that is? In his first spoken word album, No More Cocoons, Eric Reed Boucher (who I will refer to by his stage name, Jello Biafra) notes one of the groups endorsed by the PMRC, called the Back in Control training center. This group was run by several Orange County based police officers, who among other things, published the Punk and Heavy Metal Handbook, which was sent out to police departments & parents alike. Among their list of occult related items and symbols were the following: black t-shirts, eagles (our national symbol), graffiti placed under bridges & in flood wash channels (in order to be closer to Hell and the devil), the Ozzy logo, the peace symbol (on the grounds that it is an upside down crucifix with arms broken to mock Christianity), and one of the most disturbing parts of this list, the Jewish Star of David. There is also a clip on Youtube titled "An Inconvenient Douche" from the early 90's when both Jello Biafra and Tipper Gore appeared on Oprah, where Biafra points these out as well.

On September 19, 1985 the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held congressional hearings and investigations regarding the "pornographic content of rock music." At this session, Frank Zappa, John Denver, & Dee Snider from Twisted Sister (representing musicians), Susan Baker, Pamela Howar, Sally Nevius, Tipper Gore, & the reverend Jeff Ling (representing the PMRC), and several senators testified.

Senator Paula Hawkins displayed the album covers to Def Leppard's Pyromania, Wendy O. Williams' W.O.W., and W.A.S.P.'s Animal (F**k Like a Beast), and stated, "Much has changed since Elvis' seemingly innocent times. Subtleties, suggestions, and innuendo have given way to overt expressions and descriptions of often violent sexual acts, drug taking, and flirtations with the occult. The record album covers to me are self-explanatory." She then played the music videos for Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It."

In the PMRC camp, Baker stated, "There certainly are many causes for these ills in our society, but it is our contention that the pervasive messages aimed at children which promote and glorify suicide, rape, sadomasochism, and so on have to be numbered along the contributing factors." Gore urged record companies to "place a warning label on music products inappropriate for younger children due to explicit sexual or violent lyrics."

Frank Zappa stated, "The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that in law First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation."

In April of 1986, a combined group of police officers from Los Angeles & San Francisco raided Jello Biafra's home in response to complaints made by the PMRC in regards to the Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist album, even though the album itself contained a warning, explaining that some of its contents may be offensive. Later that year in June (the day before election day, a fact that Biafra continually pointed out), the Los Angeles City Attorney, Mike Guarino, charged the band with "distributing harmful matter to minors."

The harmful matter in the album wasn't its lyrics. It was a fold-out poster that came with the album. The artwork on the poster was Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger's Landscape XX "Where are we Coming From?" (also known as the Penis Landscape), altered slightly in order to include the album name & the band's DK logo. The original art piece has appeared in galleries & museums all over the world. It's even in a book called 20^th Century Masters of Erotic Art, which is available in many public libraries & campus bookstores. According to the Miller test (see the section regarding the 1^st Amendment), nothing was obscene about this.

In the short documentary film California Über Alles (which you can find on Youtube), Jello Biafra explains why he chose this piece. He states, "I also had long discussions with other band members about the pros and cons of this piece of artwork, so I had very strong reasons for including it with this album... Unless we consciously just say 'No!' to our vicious circle of greed that the American experience is right now, we find ourselves caught up in it, even if it is just a defense mechanism. And I think that piece of artwork drove it home. It said, 'We can complain all we want, but here we are. We have met the enemy, and it is us. Here we are as a people, preoccupied with screwing each other in more ways than one. And does it bring fulfillment to the soul, or happiness? No, it does not."

The City Attorney stated, "[the trial was] a cost-effective way of sending out the message to those people who wish to profiteer of the distribution of harmful matter to minors, that we're not going to look the other way, and we will prosecute." Biafra claims the trial was politically motivated, since the band & the label were small, independently owned & operated, and therefore couldn't afford to fight back. In order to help pay for the cost of the trial, and to help other artists who have been, and would soon be arrested as an act of censorship, Biafra created the No More Censorship Defense Fund.

After a lengthy show trial which destroyed the band, Biafra's marriage, and nearly sent his record label, Alternative Tentacles, into bankruptcy, the jury voted 7-5 in favor of acquittal, and all charges were dropped despite the City Attorney's attempt to have a retrial.

In 1990, after years of pressure from the PMRC, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) required all of its member labels to place a "Parental Advisory" sticker (sometimes referred to as a "Tipper Sticker" on all audio and video recordings with explicit content. Unlike the proposed MPAA-like rating system the PMRC initially campaigned for, the parental advisory sticker only warns of explicit content.

Many stores, like Wal-Mart, that carry records have refused to carry albums with the generic Tipper Sticker altogether, rather than keep them under the counter like the PMRC initially wanted. Critics, like Jello Biafra, have seen events like this as not just mere censorship, but total blackballing of artists who refuse to change their work in order to conform with the standards of the PMRC. In his first spoken word album, Biafra pointed out that the Beastie Boys had to remove songs & rewrite others in order to avoid having a parental advisory warning placed on their License to Ill album. The fact that the warning has no set rules to its use makes it a very poor tool to use when deciding what to carry, yet many stores use it anyway.

Wikipedia even has a list of strange uses of the Tipper Sticker. For example, Frank Zappa's entirely instrumental album Jazz from Hell received a "parental advisory: explicit content" warning due to the title of one of the tracks, "G-Spot Tornado", and not because of the album's musical content. They also point out the fact that this occurred right after Zappa testified against the PMRC in front of congress. Wikipedia also notes the selective use of the Tipper Sticker. For example, albums like My Chemical Romance's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and Bloc Party's Silent Alarm have received the Tipper Sticker due to one instance of profanity, yet Green Day's Insomniac, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' One Hot Minute, and many other albums which contain multiple uses of profanity do not carry the parental advisory warning.

Since the beginning of the PMRC movement to today, there has been a constant criticism of the censorship movement, both through public proclamations, and through music. Wikipedia has compiled a list of criticisms against the PMRC and censorship.

After speaking against the PMRC in front of congress, Frank Zappa released his "Porn Wars" album entitled Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, which consists of audio from the hearings, along with a parody of the RIAA's warning label. In 1987, the punk rock band NOFX released an EP called The P.M.R.C. Can Suck on This! The band Pistol Grip released a song in 2001 called "Fuck the P.M.R.C." On their So Far, So Good... So What! Album, Megadeth has a song called "Hook In Mouth" which compares the PMRC to the events in George Orwell's 1984. At the 3^rd Lollapalooza, Rage Against the Machine used their entire set time to protest the PMRC by standing naked on stage with duct tape over their mouths, and the letters "P.M.R.C." painted on their chests (see the front cover for the picture). On Warrant's Cherry Pie album, the final track, called "Ode to Tipper Gore" consists of profanities spliced together, recorded from the band's previous concerts. At the congressional hearings, folk artist John Denver, whose song "Rocky Mountain High" was misinterpreted by censors & received an RIAA warning sticker, stated, "That which is denied becomes that which is most desired, and that which is hidden becomes that which is most interesting. Consequently, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get at what is being kept from you." He also went on to say "the whole presentation by the PMRC comes from in my experience a foundation of fear... The small percentage of records that we are discussing here today compared to the 125,000 songs that are released every year is minuscule and it is not going to affect our children to a degree that we need to be fearful of."

What Does the Future Hold?

In his latest spoken word album, Jello Biafra touches on an issue that has the potential drastically change the media in this country. There is a bill that has been presented to congress multiple times, known as the "Media Marketing Accountability Act." He describes it as "a federally mandated rating system, one-size-fits-all for music, movies, DVD's, videos, and games. And much, much stricter than 'explicit lyrics: parental advisory.' enforced by this law, which says 'anyone who refuses to adopt this rating code & refuses to go back and rate every single thing they've released, their products will become illegal.'" He goes on to say, "'Anyone who uses the rating system improperly,' not enough to satisfy some southern sheriff who wants to put his name in the paper, 'will be fined $11,000 per unit sold, per day.'"

While a uniform rating system sounds like a good idea in theory, it could mean the end of all independent music labels (and every independent media outlet for that matter), because the committee in charge or rating everything won't have time to deal with independent media: they would be too busy rating things from all major media outlets. Due to the gargantuan amount of tv shows, DVD's, films, songs, albums, games, etc... coming out every year & every day, no independent artist would be able to legally distribute their work. If someone catches them, or if someone doesn't think it was rated properly, the fines would be massive. Just imagine how scary things would get if owning an unrated product counted as "possession."

Obscenity & the 1^st Amendment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Amendment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center

Jello Biafra's No More Cocoons. "Talk on Censorship/Letter to Tipper Gore"

Jello Biafra's No More Cocoons. "May all your Dreams be Wonderful"

Jello Biafra's No More Cocoons. "Talk on Censorship/Letter to Tipper Gore"

"An Inconvenient Douche" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fzJEqcHvNs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center

Jello Biafra's No More Cocoons "Soundbite-Jaw One/The Prosecutor Speaks"

Jello Biafra's No More Cocoons "Talk on Censorship/Letter to Tipper Gore"

Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist

California Über Alles documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViJNRlIMGeg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jello_Biafra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_Advisory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center

Jello Biafra's No More Cocoons. "Talk on Censorship/Letter to Tipper Gore"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center

Jello Biafra's In the Grip of Official Treason-Psalm I "Brown Lipstick Voodoo Ritual"