"Explicit Lyrics" warning label useless? (1 Viewer)

[Jason Merrick]

Is this label only applied arbitrarily by the record company or is there some sort of board that rates each disk and decides whether it needs the label?

The reason I ask is this, since I have 4 kids and they are often in the car with me, I generally don't buy cd's that have foul language in them. Now I have bought the occasional disk that I knew had one or two bad words, knowing I could just skip that track when the kids are in the car.

Recently, I purchased the Nickelback cd because I really like the two songs I have heard on the radio and MTV, only one of which I remember having one bad word (damn). This cd does not have an Explicit Lyrics label on it, but if it doesn't deserve one, I'm not sure what does.

1st Track includes:

ass, shit, fuckin

2nd Track includes:

damn

3rd Track includes:

shit(2x)

9th Track includes:

shit(3x)

10th Track includes:

shit(3x)

I wonder why they don't have a graduated rating system like movies and video games? It would sure help some of us make better informed purchasing decisions.

P.S. On the reverse side of this issue, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a mainstream band like Linkin Park put out a cd with not one profanity on it. Very nice!

 

[Iain Lambert]

It seems to be stuck on by the record label when they feel like it. My personal favorite example is the Nine Inch Nails Broken/Fixed eps. Despite Fixed being a collections of remixes of tracks from Broken, with a fair bit of the most obscene lyrics intact (one track is even renamed to an uncensored version of 'fist f***', only Broken is deemed worthy of the 'explicit lyrics' logo.

Mind you, anyone expecting there to be no explicit lyrics on an album with song titles like that is clearly naive.

 

[Mike Broadman]

One thing that amazes me is that Frank Zappa's music never has any warning labels.

 

[TheoGB]

The warning labels are only there for kids' music - it is considered (I believe) that no music should be censored. They are stuck on at the discretion of the record label, normally on releases where they believe they might get complaints from the public due to the content.

It is in reality used to sell more records. The Outhere Brothers (IIRC) had two number ones in this country. On Top of the Pops you couldn't see a single reason why they were number 1. However it transpired that both singles were very explicit and had their warning stickers. The average age of a single buyer is, I believe, about 13. I bet there were a lot kids thinking they were a real rebel because they were buying a single with rude words.

Whatever the situation, I doubt you find a single instance where 'damn' was considered offensive enough to mention on a record.

 

[MickeS]

If you're not playing hip-hop or "nu-metal", they don't put the sticker on, it seems. Makes sense? No, but this label isn't there because it makes sense, it's to cover the industry's ass.

There was an article about this in Entertainment Weekly a while ago, here it is:

Maybe Janet Jackson's come-hither pose on the cover of ''All For You'' was its own warning. But her latest album was released in April sans a ''Parental Advisory -- Explicit Content'' label, even though its sexually provocative songs typically contain heavy-breathing choruses like ''I just wanna kiss you, suck you, taste you, ride you, feel you, make you come, too.'' Not even epithets like ''stupid bitch'' and ''you greedy motherf---er'' were deemed worthy of a parental shout-out.

Needless to say, there were some startled moms out there. The Wherehouse record chain affixed its own ''explicit content'' stickers to Jackson's shrink-wrap. ''We don't think retailers should have to do that,'' says RIAA president Hilary Rosen. ''That's the label's responsibility, and EMI [Virgin's parent company] has assumed that responsibility.'' In late July, Virgin began stickering Jackson's by-then double-platinum album -- evidence to Rosen that the system is ''self-correcting.''

Even so, the belated labeling points to what some see as hypocrisy in the parental advisory process. Nearly all hip-hop albums get stickers, but among more mainstream genres, it's hard to find any standard. Rage Against the Machine's Renegades featured rock versions of several profane rap songs but went unstickered -- unlike those of the hip-hop acts being covered. Recent albums by Aerosmith, Nelly Furtado, the Dave Matthews Band, Macy Gray, Barenaked Ladies, and Jennifer Lopez all included the F-word, but no advisory. (In Lopez's case, Epic has just reissued J.Lo in ''clean'' [censored] and ''explicit'' versions.) According to Rosen, cussing alone doesn't merit a warning: ''There's no one-f---, two-f---s test,'' she says, alluding to the movie industry's guidelines for what earns a PG-13 versus an R.

Sexual content is no clear barometer, either. Bob Waliszewski, who reviews albums for the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family, is incensed when teen fave Shaggy can sell 6 million unstickered copies of ''Hotshot,'' in which he ''uses vivid sexual slang...and rejects a woman because she's not a 'Freaky Girl' [who's] into handcuffs, whips and chains,'' among other offenses. Waliszewski says that ''for the gangstas and Korns of the world, stickers are a badge of pride,'' but more middle-of-the-road acts still see them as stigmatizing -- especially since Wal-Mart, which accounts for roughly 15 percent of U.S. album sales, won't stock stickered product. The Focus exec, like Sen. Joseph Lieberman, wants a universally applied ratings system. ''How can Hilary Rosen oppose parents getting more information?'' he asks.

Expanded ratings proposals draw a sigh from Rosen, fresh from another grilling before Lieberman's entertainment-watchdog committee on Capitol Hill. ''It's important not to have a ratings board-type system because you need that flexibility to make those decisions yourself,'' she says, speaking for the record companies. Stickering judgments ''do take into account the expectations of both the audience and artist. The same themes will be in opera that are in hip-hop, but no one expects opera to be labeled.''

Who makes that decision? ''I think most companies have a centralized system,'' Rosen says. But when EW contacted the major labels to confirm that, almost all refused to comment (''There is no upside to talking about warning labels,'' grumbled one PR chief) or would speak only off the record. ''There's no committee,'' says one exec. ''It's ad hoc, and often a business decision.''

Tom Corson, J Records' marketing chief, is one exec who owns up to the labeling buck stopping at his desk, saying he and his sales head ''use what retailers are telling us as a litmus test.'' Subjectivity isn't just a cop-out: ''Somebody saying a naughty word is a lot less objectionable than the intent of the lyrics, in certain cases.... As an industry, we may have missed a couple. But we generally try to err on the side of being responsible when we run into any sticky situation.'' No pun intended.

/Mike

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

As that article alludes to, the sticker system is 100% voluntary. There is nothing requiring that an album be rated nor stickered.

-Vince

 

[Jason Merrick]

The problem is that by not stickering the albums, they are also going to lose sales from some like me, who will no longer buy an album without knowing the lyrics ahead of time.

I can understand not wanting to label them if its going to keep you out of a huge marketplace like Walmart, but that seems like all the more motivation to create a grading system with more than one level. The video game system seems to be most appropriate. Then they could convince Walmart to stock at least titles up to a certain rating, yet still have accurate measures for those of us who care.

 

[Ike]

I can understand not wanting to label them if its going to keep you out of a huge marketplace like Walmart, but that seems like all the more motivation to create a grading system with more than one level. The video game system seems to be most appropriate. Then they could convince Walmart to stock at least titles up to a certain rating, yet still have accurate measures for those of us who care.

Jason, since your here, I'm going to assume you know something about movies also. You know that you can't go down to your local multiplex and watch an NC-17 film, and you know why. As such, these ratings programs always just spiral into some form of censorship-voluntary or not. There was an uproar from musicians when albums had to become stickered-remember Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, and John Denver (!) stating they felt it would just open the door to censorship programs. (Zappa even got in a few sarcastic comments that are fantastic.)

Reading through the profanity list, I wouldn't sticker the Nickelback album. Any PG-13 film could contain that many swears. It's all subjective, and while it may result in a few errors (like you buying the Nickelback record), the flood it would open is too strong to fight.

Ike. Constant Anti-Censorship Fighter.

 

[Eve T]

There was an uproar from musicians when albums had to become stickered-remember Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, and John Denver (!) stating they felt it would just open the door to censorship programs. (Zappa even got in a few sarcastic comments that are fantastic.)Reading through the profanity list, I wouldn't sticker the Nickelback album. Any PG-13 film could contain that many swears. It's all subjective, and while it may result in a few errors (like you buying the Nickelback record), the flood it would open is too strong to fight.

Well said Ike

Yes, I remember Dee Snider and John Denver fighting against censorship, I was 100% behind them. (I still am)
Peace,
Eve

 

[Jason Merrick]

Ike,

I completely understand where you are coming from, and would love to see an alternative that would give consumers the needed information without impeding the artistic license of the musicians. Maybe there could be a central industry website with all lyrics available for viewing?

To be honest, I would not be as upset with the Nickelback album if all of those profane words were in one or two songs (which I could easily skip), but more than half the songs have bad language in them, making it a cd I can only rarely listen to.

While your comparison to movie ratings has merit, I still see a rating system similar (or even identical) to the video game rating system as more appropriate. I also don't think there would be nearly as much opportunity for censorship with that format. I may be mistaken, but even Walmart carries Mature rated games - which is the highest level of warning. I would venture to say that stores such as Walmart would be more likely to carry products with explicit content if the labels were more accurate and provided more information to the consumer (e.g. Sexual content, violent content, etc.).

So to get back to the subject of the thread, if the industry is going to use "Explicit Lyrics" labels, I would just like to see more consistency in the labeling. If more levels of ratings would encourage more accurate and consistent labeling, I am all for it.

 

[Eve T]

Maybe there could be a central industry website with all lyrics available for viewing?

Buying an album with lyrics one may deem unacceptable to them can be easily avoided by doing a simple search on the net for lyrics. Search for lyrics on the artist you have in question and read before you buy. Lyrics for nearly every song ever made and produced can be found on the world wide web.Problem solved.

 

[Ryan L B]

Are there any cd's out there that deserve a Parental Advisery, but dosen't have one or a Cd that has one that has almost no language or nothing really offensive.

My pick would be the Staind album "Break the Cycle". There are only like 3or 4 songs that have any language at all.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Ryan-
Another example that left me scratching my head was the Parental Advisory sticker on the last P.J. Harvey album. Maybe it has a cussword or two but even after reading through the lyrics I could not find anything that would warrent the CD getting stickered.
Yet there are a ton of Johnny Cash CDs with no warnings and that guys always singing about Killing his woman and doing time in jail.