For the Record: The 80s

In 1985, Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, and John Denver testified before a Senate committee to address the accusation that some music lyrics were so potentially harmful to children that a warning label was needed on CDs and cassette tapes. Fifteen specific songs, called "The Filthy 15," were specifically targeted. This episode of FTR80 examines if these songs were really so "filthy" and why, nearly 30 years after rock and roll took hold of teenage hearts, the government was getting involved in what some called outright censorship of music.

This episode discusses MTV impacted how music was made, consumed, and marketed.  Artists were forced to consider their visual brand as well as their music, while record companies poured hundreds of thousands — and later, millions — of dollars into videos. A glaring problem for MTV in its first two years was its refusal to play videos by African American artists, arguing that their music was not “rock.” Michael Jackson changed that, whether MTV wanted to change or not.

Not everyone can agree that it is an actual subgenre of rock, which may because there is no agreement on how to define it. This first episode of For the Record: The 80s examines how the culture around heartland rock limited its primary audience, but the actual themes of heartland rock are far more universal.

FTR80 is a companion podcast to For the Record: The 70s! Subscribe to make sure you do not miss any upcoming episodes!