Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004060966
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We are asking state lawmakers to give the voluntary system a chance to work," Tipper Gore, president of the Parents' Music Resource Center, told reporters Thursday.
She and Ann Lynch, president of the National PTA, said an industry-wide voluntary system is a better answer to parents' needs than mandatory labeling.
"We can accommodate the rights of artists to express themselves freely with the rights of parents, of consumers, to know, for example, if the music their kids want to buy says suicide is a good idea," Gore said.
She said legislators in 13 states have agreed to abandon attempts to pass or revive bills to require warning labels on recordings. She urged a similar course in the six states where such measures are still pending.
Six major record companies - Warner Brothers, MCA, CBS, Capitol-EMI, RCA and Polygram - said last week that they plan to create an industry-wide standard for warning labels.
Gore's group and the PTA, among others, have expressed concern about music they believe encourages violence, suicide, drug use, sexual promiscuity, bigotry and Satan worship.
Gore and Lynch said they were confident the uniform standard would result in better compliance than a 1985 agreement that called for voluntary warnings or printed lyrics on albums the companies determined to be violent or explicit.
"We take the industry on good faith that they really do mean to seriously address the problem. We take them at their word and we believe they will do the job correctly this time," Gore said.
It still will be up to recording companies to decide which music merits a warning label, she said. But she said the commitment to create a standardized label shows the industry "is willing to provide the tools to make a voluntary system work. Now it is up to parents to use that tool wisely."
Tom Susman, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, said he had withdrawn a mandatory labeling bill inspired by a local disk jockey's concern.
"We hope for a positive outcome," Susman said of the latest music industry scheme. "If not, then it will be up to the legislators to look at this issue again."
Record merchandising industry executives indicated last week that pressure from state legislatures was at least partly responsible for their decision to standardize and try to broaden the labeling system. The music industry has been lobbying hard in state capitols to kill legislation to require warning labels.
by CNB