Sep. 11, 2007 - Issue #621: Sex in The City 07

Enter Sandor

Parental advisory: explicit content

I sure as hell have a lot of pretty nasty sex songs in my CD and vinyl collection. From Peaches’s “Fuck the Pain Away” to Liz Phair’s “Flower,” hip-hop misogyny to heavy metal misogyny, there are plenty of records on the Sandor family shelves that would certainly raise a few eyebrows.

And a lot of those albums came with those black and white “Parental Advisory” stickers or labels right on the front. For more than two decades the record industry has voluntarily slapped these labels on any albums considered racy, provocative or which are just filled with lots of cuss words.

But it’s really quite amusing to read just how the Canadian Recording Industry Association expects retailers to treat the items that have stickers on them.

“In instances where the artist and the record company agree that there is musical and artistic credibility in the work even when the lyrics are too explicit for mainstream distribution, the industry’s ‘Parental Advisory’ label is applied prominently to the outside of the permanent packaging,” reads CRIA’s guidelines. “All product identified in this way is also brought to the attention of retailers in the distribution process and most Canadian retailers offer yet a ‘second layer’ of checks and balances to support the labeling system in-store, having staff keep watch on who is purchasing these products and asking for age-proof ID when necessary.”

Okay, raise your hand if you have ever seen a clerk at a record shop card a teenager, or downright refuse to sell a record to a minor. And what about online sites?

On iTunes, versions of song are labeled if they are “clean” or “explicit,” but there’s no way that a site can truly test to see if the user is over 18 or not.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) also pays the topic of explicit music the same kind of lip service as CRIA.

“The RIAA does not represent the record retailers, but works closely with the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), the Digital Media Association (DiMA), the wireless industry and leading technology companies on this issue (of labeling),” reads RIAA’s policy sheet. “A good number of traditional retailers have in-store policies prohibiting the sale of records displaying the PAL (parental advisory label) logo to those younger than 18, and many online retailers now are implementing parental control mechanisms. In addition, some retail outlets choose not to stock PAL-labeled product if they believe such a policy would best serve their own communities.”
Let’s face it. The advisory sticker is a badge of honour to many artists. Reading the regulations on how record stores are supposed to treat labelled albums is like going into old city bylaws and finding out there is still legislation on the books about how horses are supposed to be tied to posts or how livestock is to be driven through city streets: worth a chuckle, but totally and utterly meaningless. V

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