Brownback Hearings
Congressional Hearings were held on the subject of rock music and its impact on youth, in November of 1997. The hearings focused on violent and anti-social song lyrics. Much of this criticism was aimed at rap. Senator Sam Brownback, of Kansas, led the hearings and focused on songs with titles as "Smack My Bitch Up," by Prodigy, "Don't Trust a Bitch," by Mo Thugs and "Slap a Ho," by Dove Shack.[1] There is almost a tinge of racism here. Rap, like many black musical trends, creates an outlet for the frustration and problems of the inner city youth. Black youth identify with the feelings of frustration that are displayed in those lyrics. Even though these lyrics are clearly derogatory toward women, they symbolize a deterioration in the black communities. If the quality of life deteriorates in black neighborhoods, human relationships are affected by it. What these artists are saying is that life has become cheap.
But members of the status quo, such as Brownback, feel threatened by this raw expression and the fact that these songs remind society of its failure to deal adequately with the problems of Black youth.
Shock rock was also a target of the hearings, focusing on such singers as Marilyn Manson. The focus was on lyrics which displayed violence or sadistic themes. The hearings brought no conclusion. They rarely do. Their point seems to be to "shame" the music industry into policing themselves. The focus is always on music that promotes dissent.
One thing that's become commonly found at these hearings are parents of children who have committed suicide. One such father, Richard Kuntz, father of Raymond Kuntz, described a Marilyn Manson CD as a "hand grenade that was live and it was ready to go off." Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, consoled the father by agreeing with him.
In response to this, pro-rap and anti-censorship advocates staged a news conference to protest what they considered a biased racist hearing. A fight almost broke out between William Tucker, husband of anti-rap activist C. Delores Tucker, and Michael Eric Dyson, an African American Studies professor at Columbia University. After complaining about the witnesses, Tucker tried to shout Dyson down and a confrontation began.[2]
1980s
The music industry came under heavy attacks during the 1980s. Some of criticism came from the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth. "It's as if young people were living in two different worlds," said Joyce Nalepka, associate director of the Federation. "Their parents say no to drugs, but their music says it's fun."[3]
The Federation was organized as a kind of cheer-leading section for the "war on drugs." Their past goals have included: fighting the legalization of drugs, advocating for the creation of the Office of Drug Czar, raising the drinking age to 21 and bringing government attention to the drug issue.
One of the biggest challenges to the music industry, in the '80s, were attacks by the Parents Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.). They pushed for a record-label rating system. Their main focus was on what they called "porn rock." But they also wanted to restrict music with pro-drug lyrics. In their proposal X would be a rating for explicit sexual lyrics, V for records that glorify violence and D/A for those that promote drug and alcohol use. Besides pushing for these labels, they also worked to get record companies to reassess whether they should renew the contracts of artists, such as Ozzy Osborn, that promote rebelliousness or Satanism.[4] They wanted to encourage music outlets to restrict the sale of certain records. The P.M.R.C. was headed by a small group of politicians wives, most notably Tippor Gore, wife of the vice-president-to-be Al Gore.
A senate hearing on "porn rock" was held in 1985. The pro-label side was argued by Gore and other members of the P.M.R.C. The anti-label side was argued by people in the music industry, including Frank Zappa. Zappa later used clips from recordings of the hearings in a musical piece called "Porn Wars."
In 1986, the Wal-Mart chain removed all rock magazines from their shelves, shortly after company officials met with televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Swaggart, as with several religious right leaders, said in a TV broadcast he believes that rock music is "the music of the devil." He even opposes Christian rock.[5]
Outside of Eric Clapton's song "Cocaine," there weren't many groups celebrating drug use, in the 1980s. Some anti-drug warriors even targeted anti-drug songs such as "I Want A New Drug," by Huey Lewis and the News.
[1] Senator Sam Brownback, "Music Violence," http://www.senate.gov/~brownback/music.html (25 August 1999),
[2] Tom Webb, "Brownback's music hearing inconclusive," The Wichita Eagle, (7 November 1997), year 126 issue 311, pp. 1A, 5A.
[3]Alvin P. Sanoff, Juanita R. Hogue, “Is Show Biz Pushing Drugs? The Big Debate,” U.S. News and World
Report, (16 May 1983), vol. 94 no. 19, p. 59.
[4] Otto, War on Drugs/ War on People, p. 44.
[5] Steven Wishnia, "Of Punk And Pornography, Rockin' With the First Amendment," The Nation, (24 October 1987), col. 245, no. 13, pp. 444 - 446.
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