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Gore and other P.M.R.C. founders want song lyrics made available with records and tapes, and are demanding, in Gore's words, "a one-time panel to recommend a uniform set of criteria." The P.M.R.C. has backed off from its earlier insistence on specific ratings, such as V for violence, X for explicit lyrics and O for occult. "We do not want censorship in any shape or form," Gore insists. Comments Baker: "The issue affects my family. I really believe that the escalation of violence and sexuality is a form of child abuse."
The ruckus over rock's excesses flares on historical cue: Elvis' pelvis in the '50s; Beatles and drugs, sex and Stones in the '60s; punk anarchy in the '70s. Those controversies were just as intense and at times even more widespread. Presley shook up the whole country; the Sex Pistols played yet another funeral march for the British Empire. Things simmered down with time, which is probably what is most needed now. Even liberals like New York Governor Mario Cuomo have voiced concern about explicit lyrics. Danny Goldberg, president of Gold Mountain Records, has organized his own group to counter the influence of the P.M.R.C., but readily admits, "I empathize with parents who are shocked to see what happens as their kids grow up."
Shock waves really started spreading this spring. The NPTA had been weighing in against the record companies for a year before that, but their only response was a stereophonic yawn. The women of the P.M.R.C. fired off a strong letter to the Recording Industry Association of America, an organization whose most prominent responsibility is to certify record sales. They also arranged for an interdenominational minister named Jeff Ling ("I am to religion what a free agent is to football") to put on an audiovisual show of rock naughtiness in Washington in May. Capital movers and shakers shifted in their seats while Ling read from the works of Judas Priest. Not long after, the women heard from RIAA President Stanley Gortikov. He announced that record companies would, at their own discretion, put warning labels on certain albums: PARENTAL GUIDANCE--EXPLICIT LYRICS.