The Visual Aesthetics of the Parental Advisory Label
If you started buying music in the 1990s, the most common visual feature of your CD collection probably had nothing to do with the cover designer’s intentions. Yes, I am referring to the parental advisory label that has been around since the late 1980s.
The label began as a warning against inappropriate content, but has become an important part of of some artists’ visual aesthetic. For example, even the “clean” version of Benny the Butcher’s new release Burden of Proof, the cover retains the appearance of the advisory label, but instead it reads “Clean Lyrics.”
The Music Resource Center’s “Filthy Fifteen” list from 1985 with their suggested rating system
Beginning in 1985, the National Parent Teacher Association and the Parents Music Resource Center advocated for a system of labeling offensive content in music, primarily targeting metal music, with its themes of sex, violence, and sometimes satanism. Vox has made an interesting mini-documentary about the hearings.
Despite congressional hearings on the issue, no legislation was passed establishing a rating system for music. Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America decided to self-regulate, establishing the now iconic “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” label.
To this day, the use of the label remains a voluntary element of album packaging, and what exactly constitutes “explicit content” is not well defined. The RIAA website only states: “If strong language or depictions of violence, sex or substance abuse are present in a recorded work, the [Parental Advisory Label] Mark is typically applied prominently to its packaging.”
Though the concern of the National Parent Teacher Association and the Parents Music Resource Center first centered on metal music, the implementation of the label soon became associated with gangsta rap, which gained mainstream popularity in the late 1980s with figures like Ice Cube and N.W.A.
The label was intended to turn people away from ostensibly inappropriate recordings, but in reality, it had almost the opposite effect. As John Corbett has argued in his book Extended Play (on page 69, no less…):
Warning stickers have become a mark of authenticity; they are the prized assurance of sufficient profanity that makes some recordings desirable. In fact, contrary to their intended effect, it is clear that warning stickers increase the desirability of certain music objects, lending them the kind of transgressive appeal through which much commodity exchange now occurs. Profane music now wears its sticker proudly, defiantly, seductively.
Through its association with gangsta rap, the “warning” of the parental advisory label began to signify an enticing “badass Black masculinity,” and the label was eventually embraced (and parodied) by recording artists.
Ice-T’s parody of the parental advisory sticker. (Iceburg, Sire Records, 1989)
A recent indicator of this embrace is in the 2015 film “Straight Outta Compton,” about the origins of N.W.A. The visual form of the advisory label was used in advertisements for the film. Promotion for the film also took full advantage of the rising tide of internet memes, and provided a website where users could customize and share their own “Straight Outta” logo.
Counter to the original intent of the parental advisory label, the “Straight Outta” meme functioned to generate widespread excitement about the film, demonstrating the visual power of parental advisory labels to entice an audience rather than warn them away.
