You know what really makes people want something? Tell them they can’t have it. If your goal is to cast some reverse psychology incantation, you’re golden! But in the 1980s, when a group of concerned parents with close political affiliations (read: married to politicians) wanted musicians to put content warnings on their albums, reverse psychology was not intended. Instead, we got a big ol’ battle between a committee of “Washington Wives” and any musician publishing music with violent or explicit language and themes.

Rob teaches Ray about Tipper Gore’s vendetta against explicit music; the founding of the Parents Music Resource Center and its mission to enforce a music rating system; how musicians like Prince and Madonna (and Cyndi Lauper) found their songs on the “Filthy Fifteen”; Frank Zappa being a boss; Dee Snider being even more of a boss; and how issues of censorship continue to be debated today.

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TEAM

Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

ARTICLESEPISODE CLIPS

Prince - Let’s Pretend We’re Married

1985 Frank Zappa, Donny Osmond, and Kandy Stroud on Nightline With Ted Koppel

1986 Tipper Gore Interview

Prince - Darling Nikki

Dee Snider vs Tipper Gore 1984 - Senate Hearing PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center)

Dee Snider’s PMRC Senate Hearing Speech (Full)

ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

“Happy Bee” and "Fig Leaf Times Two"

• Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro