First Advisor

David A. Horowitz

Term of Graduation

Spring 2025

Date of Publication

5-30-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in History

Department

History

Language

English

Subjects

Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, Music censorship, Parents Music Resource Center, Reformist movements, Tipper Gore

DOI

10.15760/etd.3980

Physical Description

1 online resource (iii, 153 pages)

Abstract

The Parent's Music Resource Center is a cultural curiosity that few historians have examined. Started by Tipper Gore and Susan Baker, the wives of prominent politicians, they advocated for a warning label on music with explicit lyrics and achieved their goal within only a few years of their creation. This thesis aims to contextualize the PMRC within a broader context of middle-to-upper class reformist movements. Many have argued that the PMRC falls on the conservative end of the political spectrum. Yet, a more complete story can be told by situating the organization within a reformist tendency in American history, thus giving us new ways to examine social movements. This thesis also explores the tension between government and private action. While the PMRC wanted a voluntary mechanism for regulating explicit music, legislators instead defaulted to the threat of government compulsion if the recording industry did not act. It shows a dichotomy between a progressive-populist suasion method versus a conservative suasion method.

Rights

© 2025 Nathaniel Todd Belcik

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43951

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