Parents Music Resource Center - Parental Advisory Sticker

Parental Advisory Sticker

On November 1, 1985, before the hearing ended, the RIAA agreed to put "Parental Advisory" labels on selected releases at their own discretion. The labels were generic, unlike the original idea of a descriptive label categorizing the explicit lyrics.

Many record stores refused to sell albums containing the label (most notably Wal-Mart), and others limited sales of those albums to adults. The label became known as the "Tipper sticker". One of the albums to receive the "Parental Advisory" sticker was Frank Zappa's Grammy-winning album Jazz From Hell, presumably for the use of the word "Hell" in its title but also for the song "G-Spot Tornado", even though it is a collection of instrumental pieces and contains no lyrics at all.

Many musicians have criticized or parodied the PMRC and Tipper Gore:

• Danzig's 1988 song "Mother" scored a top 40 hit as the most famous song about the PMRC labeling and its inherent problems. This is still one of the only songs about Tipper Gore and the PMRC to reach a wide audience.
• The song "Rock You to Hell" from the album of the same name by heavy metal band Grim Reaper is a protest song against the PMRC's attempts to censor music.
• As an early parody of the PMRC "explicit lyrics" warning labels, many prints of Metallica's 1986 release of their album Master of Puppets sported a sticker on the front in the shape of a stop-sign saying:

"THE ONLY TRACK YOU PROBABLY WON'T WANT TO PLAY IS "DAMAGE, INC." DUE TO THE MULTIPLE USE OF THE INFAMOUS "F" WORD. OTHERWISE, THERE AREN'T ANY "SHITS," "FUCKS," "PISSES," "CUNTS," "MOTHERFUCKERS," OR "COCKSUCKERS" ANYWHERE ON THIS RECORD"

• In 1987, NOFX released an EP entitled The P.M.R.C. Can Suck on This. When originally released, the album had a black-and-white photo montage of Tammy Faye Bakker pegging then-husband (and televangelist) Jim Bakker.
• Alice Donut's song "Tipper Gore", from 1988's Donut Comes Alive, uses a sexual metaphor to parody Gore's actions.
• The Megadeth song "Hook In Mouth" from their 1988 album So Far, So Good... So What! is "aimed at the P.M.R.C." It compares the PMRC to the Orwellian state in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

F is for fighting,
R is for red ancestors' blood in battles they've shed
E, we elect them,
E, we eject them in the land of the free and the home of the brave
D, for your dying,
O, your overture
M, they will cover your grave with manure

This spells out freedom, it means nothing to me
As long as there's a P.M.R.C.

In addition, in the music video for the song "In My Darkest Hour", from the same album, as well as the Megadeth portion of the 1988 rockumentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, bassist David Ellefson can be seen with a sticker on his bass that says "Fuck The P.M.R.C".

• Glam metal band Quiet Riot's 1986 single The Wild And The Young is a hymn to youth and freedom. The accompanying video shows an Orwellian future, where rock 'n' roll is battled and finally wiped out by totalitarian militarists. The video ends with a reference to the PMRC that compares the Tipper stickers to the fictive dystopia.
• Ice-T's 1989 album The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say contains many criticisms of the PMRC. One song in particular, "Freedom of Speech", is an extended attack on Tipper Gore:

Yo Tip, what's the matter? You ain't gettin' no dick?
You're bitchin' about rock'n'roll, that's censorship, dumb bitch
The Constitution says we all got a right to speak
Say what we want Tip, your argument is weak

In his book The Ice Opinion, Ice-T wrote, "Tipper Gore is the only woman I ever directly called a bitch on any of my records, and I meant that in the most negative sense of the word". On "You Shoulda Killed Me Last Year", his spoken-word outro to his album O.G. Original Gangster, he curses the CIA, the LAPD, FBI, George Bush Sr. and Tipper Gore.

• The liner notes of Sonic Youth's 1990 album Goo include a cartoon with the caption "SMASH THE PMRC".
• The song "Shelter Me", from glam metal group Cinderella's 1990 album Heartbreak Station, contained a lyric which mockingly noted that "Tipper led the war against the record industry/She said she saw the devil on her MTV."
• In 1990, thrash group Suicidal Tendencies released a song called "Lovely" on their Lights...Camera...Revolution! album, which has a mockingly clean/positive atmosphere to it and even addresses Tipper Gore by name. Also addressing the PMRC on the album was "You Can't Bring Me Down".
• In 1990, the industrial band Ministry released the live album In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up with a cut out version of the parental advisory sticker. On the inside they urged fans to cut it out and send it to the PMRC in protest. Also on the track "Stigmata" the lead singer, Al Jourgensen, rants about Tipper Gore as well as George H.W. Bush and others.
• A minute-long track tagged onto the end of Warrant's 1990 Cherry Pie was titled "Ode to Tipper Gore" and featured nothing but various swear words recorded in rapid-fire order from past concerts.
• US Thrash Metal band Flotsam and Jetsam recorded the song "Hard On You" on their 1988 album No Place for Disgrace which deals openly with the topic and accuses the PMRC of limiting their artistic right without mentioning the PMRC or Tipper Gore directly. Lines like "One that's young sees the circled "R", does he buy it?" and "If your committee is so damn right, why did we write this song?" leave no room for misinterpretation though.
• In 1990 Everlast released a song called "Fuck Everyone" on his first solo album, Forever Everlasting. This song contains the lyrics:

Got Tipper Gore protestin' my lyrics
Fuck that bitch, I don't need a clearance
To write my rhymes, speak my mind
You can't censor me, the public's not blind

• In 1991 American hard rock band Guns N' Roses released Use Your Illusion I & II, each including a cover advisory stating "This album contains language which some listeners may find objectionable. They can F?!* OFF and buy something from the New Age section."
• In 1992, The first music video released by Tool, "Hush", promoted their dissenting views about the then-prominent Parents Music Resource Center and its advocacy of the censorship of music. The video featured the band members naked with their genitalia covered by parental advisory stickers and their mouths covered by duct tape.
• The PMRC would often protest Punk Rock band Butt Trumpet's live shows. This occurred many times through their American tours, but most notably at the 1995 "Sunset Junction" street fair in Hollywood where dozens of PMRC supporters showed up with picket signs in an attempt to block the stage. The band just laughed it off, and Butt Trumpet lead singer Thom Bone "freestyle" changed many of his lyrics on the fly during the performance to make fun of them. Between songs, he would also attempt to "interview" members as they walked by, asking them how they were enjoying the show.
• The Ramones' 1992 album Mondo Bizarro contained the song "Censorshit", which proposes that the sticker is "just a smoke screen for the real problems. S&L deficit, the homeless, the environment."
• Anthrax's "Startin' Up a Posse", from their 1991 release Attack of the Killer B's, states that "These seven words you're trying to take / Shit, fuck, satan, death, sex, drugs, rape / Right or wrong it's our choice to make". The song also mentions about stopping the P.M.R.C. while the band throws insults.
• On July 18, 1993, Rage Against the Machine protested against the PMRC at Lollapalooza III by standing naked onstage with duct tape covering their mouths and the letters PMRC on their chests. The band used up their 14-minute performance time without playing any songs. The only sound emitted was audio feedback from Tom Morello and Tim Commerford's guitars. The band later played a free show for disappointed fans.
• Pistol Grip's 2001 album The Shots From The Kalico Rose includes a song called "Fuck The P.M.R.C".
• The punk band Leftöver Crack refer to the PMRC in their song "Stop The Insanity", from 2001's Mediocre Generica, with the lyrics:

Let's kill the cops, the C.I.A.
The F.B.I., the P.T.A.
The N.F.L., the P.M.R.C.
Let's kill you and let's kill me

• Underground Rapper Carnage has a song on his EP named "The PMRC has Silenced me"
• Twisted Sister's 1985 album Come Out and Play featured a mark on the album cover resembling a parental advisory sticker; however, it read "H for humor".
• On a live album, Live...In the Raw, W.A.S.P. dedicated their song "Harder, Faster" to the Washington Wives, a "branch" of PMRC. The PMRC said that WASP stood for "We Are Sexual Perverts".

I've been reading an awful lot in the newspapers, and the magazines, about me and my boys here... and I was reading one article in particular, about an organization, you may have heard of them... they're called "the PMRC", well I read... I read that they said, that they think that "We Are Sexual Perverts!" Now, this is coming from an organization called "The Washington Wives". Now I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like some sort of, God damn, Jackie Collins Hollywood fuckin' novel if you ask me! Well this is for that whole bunch, because they can- shuck me, suck me, eat me raw....this is "Harder... Faster!"

• On the 2001 Dead Kennedys' live album Mutiny on the Bay, during their song "M.T.V. - Get off the Air", lead singer Jello Biafra tells the audience to "buy a homemade instead, before the PMRC closes the stores down that sell 'em". Biafra had earlier been brought to trial on charges of "distributing harmful matter to minors" in an incident involving the 1985 Dead Kennedys' album Frankenchrist, which featured an insert of H. R. Giger's Penis Landscape and a parody sticker on the front cover reading:

"WARNING: The inside fold out to this record cover is a work of art by H.R. Giger that some people may find shocking, repulsive or offensive. Life can sometimes be that way."

• In the music video "The Hunter" by Dokken on one of the trucks used has the P.M.R.C painted on the side.
• The song "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!" released on the 2004 album of the same name by Harry and the Potters contains the lyrics "And we won't let the Dark Lord ruin our party/ Just like Tipper Gore tried with the PMRC."
• The album artwork on the vinyl release of Queens of the Stone Age's single "3's & 7's" contains a parody of the sticker, reading "Rental Advisory: Freedom Not For Purchase".
• The artwork on Clawfinger's album Life Will Kill You parodies the 'tipper sticker' by replacing 'Parental' with Life Will, 'Advisory' with Clawfinger and 'Explicit Lyrics' with Kill You.
• Other groups that have mentioned the PMRC or Tipper Gore include Aerosmith ("F.I.N.E."), Body Count ("KKK Bitch"), The Dead Milkmen ("I Against Osbourne" and "Do the Brown Nose"), Eminem ("White America"), The Fad ("P.M.R.C."), Fishbone ("Pray to the Junkiemaker"), KMFDM ("Sucks"), Manic Street Preachers ("IFWHITEAMERICATOLDTHETRUTHFORONEDAYIT'SWORLDWOULDFALLAPART" and "Tennessee"), Mojo Nixon ("Burn Down the Malls"), Pinkard & Bowden ("Censor Us"), Reset ("Go Away"), Todd Rundgren ("Jesse"), Warrant ("Ode to Tipper Gore"), and The Bouncing Souls ("PMRC"). German Metal band Running Wild, on their live album Ready for Boarding, dedicated the song 'Purgatory' to the PMRC.

Releases by independent, non-RIAA labels may not carry the sticker (often proudly). Still, the RIAA encourages the labeling of any album containing explicit lyrics.

It is uncertain whether the "Tipper sticker" is effective in preventing children from being exposed to explicit content. Some suggest that the sticker actually increases record sales. Philip Bailey stated that "For the most part might even sell more records in some areas - all you've got to do is tell somebody this is a no-no and then that's what they want to go see." Ice-T's "Freedom of Speech" states that "Hey PMRC, you stupid fuckin' assholes/The sticker on the record is what makes 'em sell gold./Can't you see, you alcoholic idiots/The more you try to suppress us, the larger we get." And the Furnaceface song "We Love You, Tipper Gore", from 1991's album Just Buy It, suggests that the label "only whets my appetite ... only makes us want to hear it that much more".

Rap group Insane Clown Posse had a fight with the P.M.R.C and Hollywood Records in 1997 after their album The Great Milenko was pulled off the shelves six hours after the release of the CD due to unclean lyrics referencing rape, murder, child abuse and sex. Rapper Violent J said "We went to the guys at Hollywood Records and showed them the lyrics sheet months prior to the release, they OK'd it and we recorded it. The last minute they pull it off the shelves and say what we do is bad".

The rock group The Company Band features the PMRC in their song "Zombie Barricades". In it the lyrics call for the return of the PMRC and the USSR, saying "we need that motivation".

Frank Zappa's album Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers of Prevention is named as a parody of the PMRC and his former band The Mothers of Invention. Its cover features a Tipper Sticker parody which reads:

"WARNING GUARANTEE: This album contains material which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress. In some socially retarded areas, religious fanatics and ultra-conservative political organizations violate your First Amendment Rights by attempting to censor rock & roll albums. We feel that this is un-Constitutional and un-American. As an alternative to these government-supported programs (designed to keep you docile and ignorant), Barking Pumpkin is pleased to provide stimulating digital audio entertainment for those of you who have outgrown the ordinary. The language and concepts contained herein are GUARANTEED NOT TO CAUSE ETERNAL TORMENT IN THE PLACE WHERE THE GUY WITH THE HORNS AND POINTED STICK CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS. This guarantee is as real as the threats of the video fundamentalists who use attacks on rock music in their attempt to transform America into a nation of check-mailing nincompoops (in the name of Jesus Christ). If there is a hell, its fires wait for them, not us."