THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 7, 1995 TAG: 9511070044
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
COMPACT DISCS and cassette tapes have carried the warnings for five years now: ``Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics.'' Many parents look for the black-and-white advisory labels. Many stores refuse to sell such recordings to children under 18.
Kids still get the records. Always have.
They borrow them from friends and tape them. They get older kids to buy them. They buy them themselves at record stores that don't check or care.
And a lot of times, the parents get the albums for their minor children, ignoring the black-and-white stickers on rap, rock and even comedy albums that warn of raw language, graphic sexual depictions or calls to violence against self or others.
``Parents even get irritated'' when told that they - and not their younger children - must make the purchase at Planet Music in Virginia Beach, said Jeanette M. Arsenault, general sales manager. When confronted with the warning sticker, about half the parents still buy the music for their kids, she and another manager estimated.
``We don't sell them to minors. And we don't let them listen'' in the store's preview area, Arsenault said. ``We try to do our best. . . . Parents come in and buy it. We'll sell it to the parents.''
The same thing happens across town at Birdland Records Tapes & Compact Discs.
``Every once in a while, I'll even say something to the parent, and they'll say, `I know but my child wants it,' '' said Barry I. Friedman, Birdland's owner.
``Every parent is different. Some parents will say it's no different from what they hear in school or on the street.''
The observations of Arsenault and Friedman come at a time when the recording industry - the people who make and sell the music that's such a big part of teens' lives - is promising to toughen its voluntary warnings to these same parents about explicit lyrics. The pledge follows renewed criticism of the industry this year for continuing to release such songs.
The Recording Industry Association of America and the National Association of rding Merchandisers jointly announced Oct. 24 that they would work with members to:
Ensure a standard size and placement of the parental-advisory logo on CDs and tapes. Some now are as small as an inch long and can be placed anywhere, making them hard to spot on busy covers or easily hidden by price stickers.
Include the logo on advertising and in-store signs, akin to movie ratings.
Encourage record clubs to identify such recordings in catalogs and ads.
Erect permanent signs in stores explaining the advisory logo.
Adopt a similar logo for music videos.
``We're confident that these new positive steps will make an enormous difference in providing parents with the information they want,'' RIAA President Hilary Rosen said in a statement. ``Clearly, we've been doing the right thing; we just haven't been doing it loudly enough.''
The two music-industry associations said that earlier research with parents and teens showed that parents feel they have the primary responsibility for their children's values and behavior, but they want some help.
The industry study also found that:
Parents may object to songs with themes of explicit violence or sex or strong language, but they don't want censorship.
Parents don't know specifically what their teens are listening to.
Parents aren't familiar with the existing parental-advisory logo that's been used since 1990.
Parents don't know that stores may refuse to sell such recordings to their children.
Several stores do just that, but the practice is uneven.
In addition to Planet Music, the clerks at Birdland tell minors to come back with their parents if they want to buy recordings with the parental advisory.
``We're a neighborhood store, and nine times out of 10, we know them,'' said owner Friedman. ``It's not worth it to us to have the parents upset with us.''
Although Birdland doesn't have a strict policy, it has accepted returns from disgruntled parents of youngsters who still managed to purchase an explicit CD or tape.
At area Blockbuster Music outlets, recordings bearing the advisory show up when scanned at the cash registers, and purchasers must provide proof they're 18 or older. But a Camelot Music representative in Canton, Ohio, said only that his store employees point out the advisory to customers, declining to say if they sell such recordings to minors.
Kids have said for years that they have no trouble buying any records they want, and little trouble listening to them at home. Several students at Western Branch High School in Chesapeake agreed recently.
Steven M. Collett, a 16-year-old junior, said he was just 12 when he bought a Red Hot Chili Peppers CD that carried an advisory.
Raynard R. Tubbs, also 16 and a sophomore, said he's never been stopped or asked to show identification when he buys rap recordings with the warning. But his parents don't like it and sometimes take them from him.
``It depends on how bad it is,'' he said.
Raynard's parents are in the minority, according to fellow students.
``I really don't think parents pay attention to them. It's not going to change anything,'' said Katie L. MacPhail, a 17-year-old senior.
``Kids are going to listen to it no matter what,'' agreed a 16-year-old class mate, L. Lynn Terry. ``Some parents don't really care.''
``It's like the cancer notice on cigarettes,'' Planet Music's Arsenault added. ``They're not supposed to smoke, but everyone does. . . . Where there's a will, there's a way.''
However, several of the students said a parental-advisory notice on a recording neither attracts nor repels them. Most buy music for the sound and pay scant attention to the words, they said. Or they're used to the words from other areas of their lives.
``A lot of kids are like, ``Why do they put these on here? Who cares?'' Lynn said.
But one mother visiting the school said she was surprised last summer when her 14-year-old daughter came home with a comedy album carrying a parents' warning that she had bought with birthday money. But the mother didn't return it.
``I actually listened to it with her,'' said Susan S. Bunch. ``It wasn't that bad. There wasn't any violence. I guess it was a comedy album and wasn't too bad.''
Other parents come to Planet Music and ask the staff about suspect CDs, Arsenault said. Some sit down and listen to entire recordings before allowing their children to hear them.
Barbara P. Wyatt, president of the Parents' Music Resource Center in Arlington, called the industry move to enhance its parents' warning program a good one but not enough. Her group formed a decade ago to call attention to questionable lyrics in popular music, and it pushed for the current labeling system.
``The problem is, we have standard labels but no standards,'' Wyatt said. ``I think it really comes down to, do people really care about children?''
The enhanced warning program doesn't address some of her complaints. There still aren't restrictions on who can buy recordings. And the labels aren't used often enough when there's profanity, racial or religious slurs or the depiction of illegal activities such as drug abuse. The labels also don't account for what's on the covers or enclosures accompanying the CDs or tapes.
``People don't know the power of music,'' Wyatt said. ``You don't play a lullaby to get people to go to war.'' MEMO: Information about popular recording artists and their current albums
can be obtained from the Parents' Music Resource Center by calling (900)
288-PMRC (7672). Calls cost 99 cents a minute and average four minutes.
ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN
The Virginian-Pilot
by CNB