35 years have passed since the Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC) event, where Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider spoke in defense of his music.
Here’s what Dee said in a chat with “Hardcore Humanism With Dr. Mike”:
“For every reaction, there’s a reaction, and during the decade of decadence, which is how they refer to the ’80s as, and that’s all the hair bands. And you look at the all the ’80s music — it was very sensational and outrageous at times, but it also reflects the time… It was the Reagan era, and it was very conservative at the time.
And for every action, there’s a reaction, and kids were pushing back, young people were pushing back on conservatism by acting out in a very outrageous [way], with the party lifestyle and all that stuff. Parents, a couple of senators’ wives, Al Gore‘s in particular, started looking at song lyrics and decided that they need to protect their children by reading song lyrics, so parents are making parents’ job easier as parents to protect their children from our words.
He added more:
“It gets very complicated, because it’s a First Amendment issue, it’s freedom of speech. Who’s gonna judge what words actually mean? You’re talking about art. You’re looking at a painting and saying, ‘What did the artist mean?” Sometimes it’s just a bick d*ck on the page, and you’re pretty sure he meant to draw a d*ck, but other times it’s interpreted — a lot of times it’s interpreted.
But the bigger problem, it wasn’t for me. And I was a parent, which really shocked them. I was married, and I already had a kid, and I was one of the rockers that they were worried about. I said what I do mind is how this could be used in the wrong way, and that is to prevent people from accessing art, to prevent people from getting the music.
And that is what happened ultimately — the sticker that was put on there, ‘Warning: Parental Advisory’, was used to segregate records; stores would not carry albums. That’s not informing parents; that is keeping art from the general public, and certain parties deciding what people will listen to and not listen to. That’s unacceptable.”