From: dkletter@adobe.com (SUGAR in their vitamins?)
Subject: Re: The election
Organization: Flying Esophagus Productions
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 02:25:05 GMT

This just in! lpm@fert2.fe.psu.edu (Lee Miller) writes:
>If the record store does not carry stickered albums, boycott that record
>chain.

the problem is bigger than this... Tipper Gore can stand up and say
whatever she wishes, but the reality is that she knows there are states
that have obscenity laws (the kind that say if something has no artistic
or moral values, it's not worthy of being sold to the public, end of
story) and they took advantage of that by forcing the record labels to
bow into the pressure of stickering various specific CD releases, not
to mention that some bands and albums were put on an unofficial blackball
list. 

my complaint is that if the PMRC's position was really stickering for
the sake of giving parents a chance to parent their children, then why
don't they sticker Country music? why not some Classical music? there are
genres other than Pop/Rock such as the one's mentioned that deal with very
"adult" themes that were left completely untouched by the entire PMRC action.
not to mention that if you look around at the titles that get stickered or
"blackballed" by the smaller record stores in bumfuck parts of the states,
it's almost always Jello Biafra/Dead Kennedy's, Rap (read: Black musicians)
and now some Heavy Metal. everything else is considered OK. this shows me
that Tipper is a hypocrite that believes in some kind of censorship.

there was a really excellent article about a year ago in Tower Record's
PULSE! magazine that went through the entire history of the PMRC and
stickering starting with the H.R. Geiger poster and ending with the
state of affairs today. you'll find that Tower Records is very against
what the PRMC did and continues to do now that they are not in the
public eye.

the concept of stickering in it of itself is acceptible if you're simply
going to be alerting the public that certain subjects are dealt with in
the music and if it is on a non-obligitory basis. where it went wrong was
when they used Congressional power to exert some pressure on the record
labels which ammounted to nothing more than blackmail and then they further
went on to include a very narrow scope of music in those that should be
stickered. don't be deceived. this is the first step towards some kind of
very thinly veiled, but clever form of censorship and an erosion of your
first amendment rights (unless of course you don't live in the U.S.
i suppose).

>Which is worse some stores not carry the album because of a sticker or NO
>stores being able to carry an album because of legislation?

that's a leading question... you should know that in some states, you
could be some kind of "specialist" record store and STILL not be able
to carry these stickered items no matter how hard you try because of
current existing state-level legislation. there have been some stunning
victories, but it still hasn't changed a whole lot in some parts of
the country.

the only thing we can be very thankful for is that the PMRC has such
a limited scope of what kind of music is out there that "industrial"
music hasn't been affected yet. and i'm not about to alert their
attention to that detail. 2:)

hasta.
-- 
Yes.  Beautiful, wonderful nature.  Hear it sing to us: *snap*  Yes.  natURE.