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Viewpoints
The Smut and Sadism of Rock
Sexual innuendo or rebellion has always been a part of rock 'n' roll,
but nowadays, sex is described explicitly, complete with moans and groans.
Moreover, sadomasochism, bondage, incest and rape are out of the closet
and into the lyrics. Whips, chains, handcuffs and leather masks are being
popularized in songs and as images in videos and on album covers.
Lyrics glorify forced sex; videos depict thrill killings.
"Eat Me Alive" from Judas Priest's double platinum album (2 million
copies sold) "Defenders of the Faith" depicts forcing oral sex at gunpoint.
Motley Crue, a heavy metal band increasingly popular with young teens,
sings this in "Live Wire":
I'll either break her face
Or consider this from "Too Young to Fall in Love" from "Shout at the Devil":
Not a woman, but a whore
Twisted Sister, a group often in the Top 40, has these lyrics on their
"Under the Blade" album:
Your hands are tied,
My 11-year-old bought Prince's 10-million-seller "Purple Rain" album because
she heard an innocuous song, "Let's Go Crazy," on the radio. But once we got
our purchase home, we were also treated to "Darling Nikki." The song describes
"Nikki" as "a sex fiend," who spends her time "in a hotel lobby, masturbating."
Another example of Prince's work comes in the song "Sister" from the
"Dirty Mind" album. The lyrics describe a 16-year old boy making love to his
"lovely and loose" sister. The song concludes that "incest is everything it's
said to be."
I feel that these songs, and others like them, are inappropriate for my
children. Yet I find it very difficult to protect them from their twisted
themes.
Studies indicate that the listening, buying and viewing audience for music
is growing younger. To those who say, "Just turn it off," I submit that it is
unrealistic to believe parents can control everything a child listens to.
It's time to remember that radio stations are licensed to broadcast "in the
public interest," using a precious natural resource that belongs to all of us.
And it isn't just radio anymore. Music videos, which are used to sell records
to kids, come into our homes via broadcast TV and via cable on MTV, a 24-hour
music channel, reaching 26 million homes.
Graphic sex, sadomasochism and violence, particularly toward women, are
rampant on MTV. Its executives need to respond to the public outcry and curb
the excesses, especially since MTV is an industry trend-setter. Jay Durbin,
a music video director, has been quoted as saying he doesn't let his young
children watch MTV because of the "incredible sadism."
Thomas Radechi of the National Coalition on Television Violence warns that
more than half of music videos are violent. For example:
* Def Leppard's video "Photograph" shows the strangling of a Marilyn Monroe
look-alike, and ends with her body wrapped in barbed wire.
* Twisted Sister's "We're Not Going to Take It Anymore" shows a son
destroying his father, smashing him with doors, dragging by the hair and
eventually blasting him through a plate-glass window.
* Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself" has a naked woman struggling in chains
behind a transparent sheet. The Jackson's "Torture" shows women whipping
skeletons and attacking men with claws and swords. Images of devil worship
abound.
* Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" features a schoolteacher doing a striptease
on top of desks while elementary schoolboys ogle at her. When my 8-year-old
asked me, "Why is the teacher taking off her clothes in school," I started
paying attention to the videos my children watch.
Children process reality differently from adults, a fact we too often forget.
These images have powerful and terrifying effects on young minds.
In another disconcerting development, some rock artists promote and
glorify suicide. Ozzy Osbourne sings "Suicide Solution"; Blue Oyster Cult
sings "Don't Fear the Reaper"; AC/DC sings "Shoot to Thrill." Every year
half a million teenagers attempt suicide. More than 6,000 succeed. Yet too many
of the executives of the rock record industry apparently don't care.
No one should want a return to Victorian hypocrisy about sex. It was
repressive at worst and unrealistic at best. But now the pendulum has swung
too far toward the hedonistic and materialistic philosophy of: If it feels
good, do it; if you want it, take it.
The time has come for concerned parents and consumers to demand a choice.
Recently, 19 record companies offered to apply a warning label to albums
containing explicit sexual material. However, each company would have its own
standard as to what lyrics warranted a label. The effect in the marketplace
would be to confuse the consumer.
The Parents Music Resource Center has asked the record executives to create
an industrywide uniform standard defining what constitutes explicit and
violent material. We of the PMRC are not trying to ban any songs, and we
oppose censorship or government regulation. Instead, we believe that the
music industry itself and its media outlets should voluntarily cut down on
violent and sexually explicit material.
We have proposed a rating system for records, tapes and videos that the
industry could administer itself.
The national PTA (National Congress of Parents and Teachers) has also been
calling for records to be rated. And some responsible voices within the
industry have called for restraint. George David Weiss, president of the
Songwriters Guild of America, called for the music industry to tone down.
"There is enough violence without glorifying it in music aimed at youngsters,"
he wrote in Billboard.
Even Sting, formerly of the rock group The Police, is on record as saying
"to write pornography is to display a lack of imagination."
On Sept. 19, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings on
pornographic rock music.
That's the good news. The bad news is that most purveyors of porno rock
think they can get by with anything by simply accusing their critics of
advocating censorship.
To market explicit sex and graphic and sadistic violence to an audience of
preteens and teens is a secondary form of child abuse. A society whose mass
media peddles these themes unchallenged is abdicating its responsibility to
an entire generation of young Americans. I believe in the First Amendment,
but freedom always involves responsibilities.
It's not easy being a parent these days, but it's even tougher being a kid.
It's about time the record industry gave us all a break.
Tipper Gore, a founder of the Parents Music Resource Center, is the mother of four, ages 2 to 11. She is married to Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.). "Live Wire" and "Too Young to Fall In Love" lyrics Newsday -- A Times Mirror Newspaper |
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