How Heavy Metal and Satan gave us this sticker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9gLmBgUTV4&feature=youtu.be
Amid the growth of underground heavy metal scenes during 1980s America, 1985 saw a congressional meeting discussing 'contents of music and the lyrics of records', which captured the nations attention. The main focus was on the 'lack of morals' within the music industry and lyrics in songs at the time; member of the Democrats Fritz Hollings branded the music industry as 'outrageous filth'.
The leader of the charge was the PMC (Parents Music Resource Centre) - a group formed of the wives of a few US politicians. Their concern surrounded the influence of music on kids, and the 'outrageous' lyrics and messages sent in music videos and album art. The group used Princes' 'darling nikki' as an example of this, fully blaming Prince himself for his language, despite it being used in an R rated movie; the song was used in the PMRC's 'filthy fifteen', 15 songs compiled in a collection of 1985's most explicit music.
Musicians such as Dee Snider from Twisted Sister stood in the meeting to defend their music, with the argument of free speech within the music industry, claiming the hearing to be motivated by suppression.
This 5 hour long congressional meeting ended up being the birthplace of this sticker:
The PMC had their own coding for songs considered 'explicit content':
V- violent
X- sexual references
D/A- drugs and alcohol
O- the occult
Satan and Heavy Metal
The association of Satan with music is not unusual, with genres like blues and rock being stigmatised with stories of musicians selling their souls to the Devil - but this association only reached its peak with the birth of heavy metal. Bands such as Black Sabbath (widely considered the first heavy metal band) used imagery and lyrics referencing the Devil, and ingrained satanic imagery into their brand/ image. By the 1980s Heavy Metal was mainstream, with bands using the same visuals of the Devil and graphic, blackletter typefaces.
With the rise of MTV, kids would sit and watch their daily dose of music videos; bands started to be more and more outlandish with their videos, which concerned parents with 'graphic' imagery used in heavy metal music videos. This was the first wave of the 'Satan panic' of 80's parents and the PMC. This saw a massive amount of christian evangelists scrutinising rock and heavy metal, with crazy claims about the music industry. It got so bad that there was even a full feature length movie called 'Rock - its your decision'; with homophobic accusations of musicians in the rock industry. A funny example of these ridiculous claims is the theory that the band KISS actually meant 'Knights in Satans Service'.
Backmasking was also a big deal for these evangelists, with theories that if a song was played backwards a subliminal message would form; such as claims that Led Zepplins' 'stairway to heaven' says 'my sweet satan' backwards.
No comments:
Post a Comment