Offended by lyrics they deemed too sexual and violent, Tipper Gore and Susan Baker campaigned to put warning labels on albums in 1985. Years later, warning labels have ended up in some unexpected places.
Share
Free Speech VS Censorship: Warnings From Explicit Lyrics to Trigger Warnings
Producer: Joshua Fisher
Editor: John MacGibbon
When Tipper Gore and Susan Baker founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), their campaign to put warning labels on albums sparked a debate over censorship and resulted in a dramatic Capitol Hill showdown with musicians like Frank Zappa. Ultimately, the record industry agreed to put parental advisory stickers on explicit albums, and today warning labels are commonly found on everything from music to television to video games. Which leads us to explore some age-old questions when it comes to kids and pop culture: how do we define harm? And who gets to decide?
Transcript
More Like This

How the Cold War Arms Race Fueled a Sprint to the Moon
After the Soviet Union sent the first human safely into orbit, the U.S. government doubled down on its effort to win the race to the moon.

Shamed by Sex, Survivors of the Purity Movement Confront the Past
A “purity” movement in the 90s led by evangelical Christians promoted a strict view of abstinence before marriage. Today, followers are grappling with unforeseen aftershocks.

American Samoa Dodged a Pandemic in 1918. Here’s What We Learned
Two territories, two wildly different outcomes as a pandemic terrorized the world.

Coronavirus Has a Playlist. Songs About Disease Go Way Back.
Coronavirus songwriting has gone as global as the pandemic itself, creating a new genre called pandemic pop. It’s a tradition with a long history.