I was vaguely aware of Zappa in high school – someone I knew had a copy of Joe's Garage, and "Valley Girl" got some airplay on local morning radio shows – but I didn't get into him until a little later down the line.
I remember the PMRC and the "porn rock" hearings well, not least because I'd heard that debate before. While I was in high school we had local televangelists making the same arguments. Somehow I got a copy of one of the pamphlets circulating at the time (probably from the Tony Alamo people while standing in line to see Cheap Trick or AC/DC or someone) saying all rock is Satanic and listing all the rock bands whose songs were Satanic/pornographic and why. I did not find it persuasive. In fact, I kept thinking, "Have these people even listened to any of these bands?"
But yeah, Tipper. I actually read her book "Raising PG Kids In An X Rated Society" for research purposes in college. I did not find it persuasive, either. It was interesting too that the research I did showed that this same argument has been around for most of the history of pop music – the adults of any given era of the 20th century swear that the new music the kids are listening to will lead to decadence and immorality and the general breakdown of society, etc. So I figured if we survived this long with pop music, we'll probably survive Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and 2 Live Crew. And, you know, so far so good.
no subject
I remember the PMRC and the "porn rock" hearings well, not least because I'd heard that debate before. While I was in high school we had local televangelists making the same arguments. Somehow I got a copy of one of the pamphlets circulating at the time (probably from the Tony Alamo people while standing in line to see Cheap Trick or AC/DC or someone) saying all rock is Satanic and listing all the rock bands whose songs were Satanic/pornographic and why. I did not find it persuasive. In fact, I kept thinking, "Have these people even listened to any of these bands?"
But yeah, Tipper. I actually read her book "Raising PG Kids In An X Rated Society" for research purposes in college. I did not find it persuasive, either. It was interesting too that the research I did showed that this same argument has been around for most of the history of pop music – the adults of any given era of the 20th century swear that the new music the kids are listening to will lead to decadence and immorality and the general breakdown of society, etc. So I figured if we survived this long with pop music, we'll probably survive Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and 2 Live Crew. And, you know, so far so good.