Growing up in the early 90's as a early teen, it seemed that the albums I always wanted had a parental advisory sticker on them. I remember going to thel Local Tower Records and trying to buy the New Guns N roses double albums back in 1991 and I was denied by Tower Records. They told me that I had to be 18 If I wanted to buy these albums, because the albums cointained graphic language. Another option was to have a parent with me when I purchase the albums. Back then it seemed like the Parental Advisory sticker was a HUGE DEAL! Only a selected number of albums had the sticker on them like Naughty By Nature, Ice T, and a lot of the rap albums. Today it seems like every album has a parental advisory sticker. I was at best Buy today and noticed that Gwen Staffoni's new album has a parental Advisory sticker on it. Im wondering if Kids under 18 can purchase the albums with no problems, because again, it seems like most albums coming out today have the stickers on them. Im guessing that a lot of record companies are forcing their artsits to use more graphic language on their albums to sell more Records. What do you think?? Are the stickers no big deal for young kids wanting to buy the albums?
Should young kids not be able to listen to their favorite bands because of a sticker?

Ahhh yes, Tipper Gore and her crusade to "save the children". I had only been 18 a few months before the Use Your Illusion albums came out Justin, and it was around that time that the Parental Advisory label came out (mostly because of the rap group 2 Live Crew and an album they came out with - parents everywhere were OUTRAGED that their little Johnnys could go out and get it!)

The level that some people will take to parent our children instead of us parenting our OWN children as to what is right and wrong is insane. It also speaks volumes to the (lack of) parenting all too many parents do in the first place.

I'm not sure of the guidelines as far as what gets the label and what doesn't. I personally don't find anything on the Use Your Illusion albums offensive, and I have no problem with my kids listening to them. So there's a couple of swear words, big deal. I'm not going to shell my youngest two in a bubble because of an F-bomb. Call me a bad parent, but it ain't going to happen. That said, my kids know NOT to listen to my Eminem CDs or any of my comedy stuff, when they reach the age of reason they can have carte blanche. If it is mentioned to them what is acceptable and what is not and you hold to it, I personally don't see any problem with a damn "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" sticker.

When my kids were younger, I had the rule that we didn't play music during family time that was created by anyone that had been shot, or shot at, or did the shooting!

On the profanity, I'm not too worried about it. To me, it's a seller and is often done with no real impact. My view on this is that profanity is really something that should be reserved for those times when it really matters, is uttered with style and precision, and if overused, loses it's potential for expression.

Overuse also devalues the person as well.

So far, the kids have done well with this and have learned to see the cheap productions for what they are. If that continues, I'm happy.

Even though profanity is generally permitted in my house, you will see my kids calling each other out on too much of it, or on a poor use. Again, if that continues I'm happy.

Little Johnny should be able to listen to his favorites, but I'm perfectly ok with the stickers and limiting sales on that basis. Each parent is gonna handle this differently. The stickers let them do that. Kids are not yet fully formed people. This means some of their rights are subject to parenting.

Without the stickers, I might not have been able to make my point on profanity, for example. The whole thing makes it just enough of an issue that kids will listen as well as really want to buy CD's. IMHO, it's all good.

> When my kids were younger, I had the rule that we
> didn't play music during family time that was
> created by anyone that had been shot, or shot at,
> or did the shooting!

Would John Lennon and Marvin Gaye be exempted from this rule? Both were shot to death, but not because of gang activity.

If most albums today carry some kind of warning label, then I would say that the warning labels themselves have been diluted in their meaning due to overuse. It is like the FOX Sunday night lineup, in which every show that is on at 8:30 or later has a "viewer discretion" warning.

I remember that when these warning labels first came out, Jello Biafra was a big critic of them. Of course, one could be very cynical and say that Biafra, who ran the Alternative Tentacles record company, was upset that his sales might be hurt if the labels barred teenagers from buying his records. One valid point that he did make was that one of the PMRC's (Tipper Gore's group) criteria for applying a warning label was "occult subject matter." I believe that identifying "occult" is a lot more subjective than identifying profane, sexist, or violent content. If a pagan band plays some songs paying homage to Gaea and tree nymphs, is that occult. If I recorded a song that proclaims Atheism as the only true philosophical system, would that be occult?

Saved by the fact that my kids were largely unaware of that era in music!

Would have required some quick stepping for sure!

We aren't having any problems with music in our house because our kids simply don't listen to the radio plus no one has an iPod and our stereo system is a boom box from 1995 that is in my sons room and used for listening to dad's own recorded music at bedtime. Our kids have never asked to be taken to a record store or have been on iTunes or any other music downloading web site. We don't have cable TV in the house and my wife and I never have the radio on.

Slowly my daughter is being introduced to pop music culture with her friends. But since she hasn’t been exposed to it she thinks most of it is crap and knows when something is offensive to her.
She does enjoy the oldies station the best when she does listen to music.

Doug is totally right on that we parents need to know how to handle each child differently. You know what they can handle and what they can't.

I know my kids will get more exposure to things we don't expose them too now, but by that time the hard work we have put in will pay off with good decision making. And we are seeing that already.

As far as cursing. It happens, rarely. We are pretty open with our discussion on language and sexuality. It's not a great sin if someone swears...however the kids feel uncomfortable swearing, at least in front of mom and dad.

Actually, thinking back to my early days playing tunes on the radio, and the fact that there were no "advisory" labels on albums (even though Lennon and Gaye were still alive and Blondie was the top "rap" artist) a few mistakes happened that today could be financially disastrous for a small station, e.g.

The Who "Dr. Jimmy" from Quadrophenia "Her fella's gonna kill me, Oh F*ckin' will he!!! (Who Are You "Who the F*ck are you" came along about 10 years later)

Pink Floyd "Speak To Me" from Dark Side Of The Moon "I've been mad for f*cking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands..."

These albums sold like hotcakes, and the expletives were not a controversy. A far cry from the present, where F*ck is as common as a drum beat.

The Velvet Underground was better known back then for pushing the envelop with lyrics, like in Sister Rae:
"Cecil's got his new piece
He cocks and shoots between three and four
He aims it at the Sailor
Shoots him down dead on the floor
Oh, you shouldn't do that
Don't you know you'll stain the carpet
Don't you know you'll stain the carpet
And by the way man, have you got a dollar
Oh no man, I haven't got the time time
Too busy sucking on a ding dong
She's too busy sucking on my ding dong
Oh, she does it just like Sister Ray said
I'm searching for my mainline
I said I couldn't hit it sideways
I couldn't hit it sideways
Oh, just like, just like Sister Ray says"
Not exactly afternoon drive stuff, but I played it on the overnite a few times.

Zappa, precious and outrageous at the same time, and "Billy The Mountain" from the album Just Another Band From L.A.
"A mountain is something you don't want to f*ck with"
Played that one back east and out here on KVAN.

So, I guess my point is that times change. Advisory labels are just a marketing gimmick, as alluded to earlier in the thread. It's not really about public acceptance. Even back in the day when the FCC wasn't on a witch hunt, playing the wrong lyrics in drive time or daylight hours could cost you your job if "Do Not Play" was written on the label or album cover, but a lot of it slipped by because the lyrics were buried and barely intelligible.

SSG Barry Sadler was shot at and did some shooting in his life. He had only one hit, and you never hear it played, even on oldies.