Music Censorship Essay

First , I want to talk about what decides if music should be censored and this includes parents and corporations. The parents started to listen to their childrens music and listened to the lyrics of the songs. Some of the parents liked the lyrics and music that their children listened to, while others did not. The parents that did not like the lyrics of the songs their children listened to decided to create a group the Parents Music Resource Center, or the PMRC for short. The PMRC was established by parents to regulate music censorship in 1984 and stated that their goal was to increase parental control over the access of access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center). The corporations were effected by the parents influences majorly. The conflicted parents demanded that the record companies put labels on their products, so their children would not be introduced to this vulgarity. The record companies and the parents fought back and forth until the parents involved legislators which stopped the record companies in their place. This was a revolution in music history and changed the music industry forever. Next, I want to talk about who regulates the censorship of music and this includes the PMRC and the Recording Industry Association of America, or the RIAA for short. The Parents Music Resource Center put heavy pressure on the RIAA with senate hearings to get them to put the Parental Advisory label, so that other parents would know what vulgarity was in the products. By doing so, the parents enforced the â€Å"Parental Advisory- Explicit Lyrics† warning label to be used by the Recording Industry Association of America on their products that was not suitable for children. The RIAA regulated the censorship of music before the PMRC started, but the did not give any kind of standards, criteria or guidelines for determining which albums should be labeled and which albums should not be labeled. Not only did the PMRC get onto the RIAA about their labels, but also many organizations were dissatisfied with the RIAA’s labels and have demanded more limits on the sale of music containing controversial lyrics (http://www.nku.edu/~issues/music_censorship/laws.htm). Through the efforts of many organizations, mainly the PMRC, stricter labels were used for albums with explicit lyrics. Then, I want to talk about what is politically correct in music, and it is either politically correct or it is not politically correct. If a song is politically correct it will be good for profit so most record companies and artiest try to direct the lyrics in the their songs as leaning toward politically correct lyrics. They’re can be a problem with politically correct songs though, sometimes when you have politically correct songs then it does not display an artists full emotion, and it can be distracting to make sure that their songs are politically correct. When you have politically incorrect songs then it, very often, offends the listeners or a group of people that the song is directed toward. Not only do you offend the listeners with politically incorrect songs, but also the listeners will stop listening which decreases sales and profit. Being politically correct is more profitable, but doesn’t allow full expression and politically incorrect songs take away from p rofit and decrease listeners.