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From: blickstein@eludom.DEC (Dave Blickstein)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: re: record rating and the \"Occult\" label
Message-ID: <669@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Oct-85 10:39:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.669
Posted: Thu Oct  3 10:39:25 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Oct-85 06:47:45 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
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From a recent "net.music" submission:
 
>PMRC proposes rating lyrics that are a) offensive sexually, b) violent,
>c) "occult" (Satanic?  Astrological?), and d) drug/alcohol-related....
 
>BTW, can anyone think of any songs that fall into all four categories
>simultaneously?  Think Frank Zappa will write one?

Something occurred to me while reading this.  Offhand, I'm not aware of any
Zappa tunes that fall under all four.  On the other hand, I can think of at
least one common Zappa topic that doesn't fall into any of these categories
that I'll bet the PMRC would like to see labelled. 

Zappa has written several tunes denouncing most types of organized religion. He
has been particularly harsh on christianity.   Such tunes include: "The Meek
Shall Inherit Nothing", "Heavenly Bank Account", and "Dumb All Over" (all on
the "You Are What You Is" album). 

I don't think that Atheism falls under the "Occult" catagory, but then again,
Falwell has been quoted as saying that Atheism is the work of the devil.  But
if they labelled atheistic tunes as "occult" would be hard to prove that they
weren't using the christian definition of occult and that, of course, is biased
against all non-christian religions. 

So here's the rub.   I propose that the choice of the word "occult" is
religiously biased towards christianity.   As proof of this I offer that songs
involving satanism will get a label, whereas songs involving christianity will
not.   I think that is unfair.   In my opinion the ratings must not judge one
religion as better than another, and satanism is just another religion.   The
definition is loose enough that it could be applied to religions like Arab
religions, indian religions and even judaism. 

So I propose that they change the label to "Contains a religious bias". That of
course means that gospel and general "Christian music" has to get a label just
like everything else.  I wonder how the PMRC and Falwell would react to their
proposal being turned on them like this.  After all, I'm jewish, and maybe I
don't want my kids listening to that heretic christian stuff! 

Of course, I'd rather see no labels at all....

	Dave Blickstein

(UUCP)  {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-orphan!blickstein

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