The Social Critic – Zappa vs. PMRC

In the ‘80s the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) waged a war on the music industry, wanting to introduce a labeling system for music similar to that used on films. Made up of wives of powerful politicians, the record companies soon agreed to print ‘Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on albums. That was not enough. The PMRC wanted more drastic measures.

Never one to sit back and watch the right to free speech be challenged, Zappa decided to speak up. He fought the “cultural terrorists” head on, giving his testimony in court and trying to show the PMRC was out of line. Incidentally, the ordeal gave him fuel for a new album – Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Prevention. (We’re Turning Again, which put down the entire 60s youth movement, was found to be vicious and exposed Zappa as a “cold nihilist with no emotions and no feelings for anybody else” [Miles p. 339]