Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990 TAG: 9005100586
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We all think the label is cute," says Daddy O, a member of Stetsasonic rap music group.
Jay Berman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, is hoping that parents whose children bought more than $2 billion worth of records, cassettes and compact discs in 1988 will agree with Daddy O.
At a news conference Wednesday, Berman unveiled the industry's uniform "parental guidance" label for recordings that might be deemed objectionable because of lyrics dealing with sex, violence, suicide, drug abuse, bigotry or satanic worship.
The black-and-white logo, which reads "PARENTAL WARNING - EXPLICIT LYRICS," will appear on the front lower right-hand corner of new releases reaching retail music stores in July, if the record companies and performing artists decide they are potentially offensive.
Recording manufacturers, distributors and retailers hope the standardized stickers will halt the drive in a handful of state legislatures for mandatory warning labels.
The music industry is backed by the Parents' Music Resource Center led by Tipper Gore, wife of Sen. Albert Gore Jr., D-Tenn., and the National PTA, the consumer advocates who won the industry's agreement in 1985 to use voluntary warning labels.
"We clearly have demonstrated that music consumers, especially parents, want and need label information - not censorship," she said.
"We ask state legislators to consider dropping their legislation in favor of a voluntary system," said National PTA president Ann Lynch.
But Dixon, a Republican state representative from Springfield, Mo., and chief sponsor of a mandatory warning label bill this year, was unconvinced.
"Are they kidding? It stinks. This is a joke," she said. "This plan doesn't even touch most of the music we're talking about."
Berman's trade association represents companies that produce more than 90 percent of the recordings sold in the United States, but many of the objectionable records are released by small, independent companies that don't belong to the recording industry group.
Dixon also criticized the size, color and content of the warning labels. Her bill would have required a bright yellow label that listed specific offensive material, including sex, violence and drug abuse.
"I'm not happy with this, but we'll give it a chance to work," she said.
Berman says all but five of the 21 state legislatures that once considered mandatory labeling have backed down since the industry promised in late March to produce a standard, easily recognizable label.
He said his association will continue its battle against mandatory labels in state legislatures in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Louisiana.
Previously, individual record companies produced their own diverse warning labels and compliance was erratic. This resulted in parental complaints and the legislative drives for mandatory labels on albums with objectionable lyrics, primarily rap and heavy metal music.
"We believe the uniform logo will enhance the existing voluntary system and better respond to the legitimate concerns of parents," Berman said. "Now that we have agreed on this new logo, it will be up to parents to use it as they see fit."
by CNB