Η censorship in music it didn't start yesterday — it started then, when the PMRC committee presented the Filthy Fifteen. Songs that for many were just music, for others they were dangerous weapons. In this article you will see how the controversy began, who stood against it and why the music never fell silent
In the mid-80s, America was experiencing a wave of anxiety about music and its influence on young people. MTV had turned artists into global icons, rock stars were provocative with every lyric and appearance, and conservatives were beginning to talk about the decline of morals. In this setting, one of the most talked-about phenomena of the era was born — the Filthy Fifteen and music censorship, a story that showed how deep fear can go when dressed up in the cloak of child protection.
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Thus begins the story of the Filthy Fifteen list and music censorship — an era where pop culture became a battleground for morality and freedom of expression.
The spark was ignited by something seemingly innocent. An 11-year-old, Karenna Gore, daughter of future Vice President Al Gore, bought Prince’s album Purple Rain. When her mother, Tipper Gore, heard Darling Nikki, she was speechless by the lyrics. She believed that music had become vulgar, dangerous, and out of control. So, along with three other women in Washington, she founded the PMRC — a committee that was supposedly intended to “inform” parents about the content of songs. In reality, however, it paved the way for the largest music censorship campaign America had ever seen.
The organization immediately found support from the religious right and the media. With the help of powerful political spouses and donors, the PMRC gained access to major television networks and the ears of the Senate. The message was clear: music had gotten out of hand and needed to be controlled. Tipper Gore presented herself as a “concerned mother,” but she soon became the face of a moral crusade that divided the country. The phrase music censorship became a headline in news articles and political debates.
The Filthy Fifteen case was to become a turning point for censorship in music, with fifteen songs becoming symbols of resistance.
The climax came with the infamous Filthy Fifteen list — fifteen songs that, according to the PMRC, should have been warned or banned. The list included names like Prince, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, and WASP. The reasons? From sexual innuendo to fantastic horror themes. For parents in the 80s, these songs were a threat. For children, they were simply the voice of freedom.
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As the Senate hearings began, musicians decided not to sit idly by. Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister stood up to the politicians, defending creative freedom. Zappa called the PMRC proposal “a piece of ill-conceived nonsense.” Denver spoke about the misreading of his lyrics, while Snider explained that Under the Blade was not about sadomasochism, as Tipper Gore had claimed, but about battling personal fears. It was a rare sight: musicians of different genres, united in the face of oppression. The hearings themselves, recorded at the time and still available through the archive Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, capture in the most vivid way how an entire generation of musicians stood against the establishment.
Despite the voices of resistance, the result was predetermined. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) agreed to add “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” labels to albums. It was the first time that music was officially divided into “safe” and “dangerous.” Many record stores, including Walmart, refused to sell records with the sticker. However, the censorship backfired: sales of the banned albums soared. For young people, the sticker became a symbol of revolution.
Rob Halford of Judas Priest recalls that the PMRC brought not only public outcry but also death threats. Blackie Lawless of the WASP admitted to being shot and injured at concerts because of the climate of fear the organization created. Alice Cooper addressed the issue humorously, dedicating hit songs to Tipper Gore, but also seriously, saying that the PMRC underestimated children's intelligence. "If something is cruel or violent, parents should talk to their children about it — not the government," he said at the time.
At the same time, the wave of censorship reached the punk scene. The Dead Kennedys were taken to court over an HR Giger artwork on their cover, while Jello Biafra found himself pitted against Tipper Gore herself on the Oprah Winfrey show. The issue had transcended the boundaries of music and become purely political. The PMRC had succeeded in uniting rock, punk, and pop artists against a common enemy: the silencing of art.
After Filthy Fifteen, censorship in music took on a new form — from rock to rap, from parents to the media.
NWA and 2 Live Crew became the new “problem” for America, with lyrics that spoke openly about police brutality and sexuality. Judges, states, and television networks tried to silence them, but ultimately the public did the opposite: they deified them. Censorship in music, with each new wave of artists, proved again that nothing scares the authorities more than the honesty of art.
And yet, the legacy of censorship in music and Filthy Fifteen remains alive.
“Parental Advisory” stickers are now symbols of an era when art struggled to breathe. Despite the changes, their message remains twofold: for some it is a warning, for others a seal of authenticity. In the age of streaming, where music knows no borders and young people have access to everything with a click, the idea of censorship seems almost graphic. And yet, the specter of moral surveillance has not disappeared — it has simply changed form.
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Today, the battles fought by Prince, Zappa, Cooper, and Snider are a reminder that whenever art provokes, someone tries to silence it. The story of Filthy Fifteen is not just a story about fifteen songs that scared parents. It is proof that music, when pushed, always finds a way to make more noise.
And if the '80s taught us anything, it's that no list, no sticker, no committee can stop the power of a riff, a beat, or a voice that speaks the truth. Because every era has its Filthy Fifteen — and that's what keeps music alive.
