WARNINGS ON LABELS LAUDED

The president of the Washingston-based group that is crusading against sexually explicit lyrics in pop songs said Friday she was “encouraged” by the record industry’s announcement that it will begin putting labels on albums to warn parents and children about potentially offensive material.

But Pam Howar, president of Parents’ Music Resource Center, made it clear in a phone interview that the organization will continue to keep pressure on the industry.

“We’ve opened the door (through the group’s campaign) and are pleased to see that the record industry is responding,” she said. “We now need to work toward forming a council that can come up with a national consensus . . . a code of ethics that makes it clear to everyone what standards are being applied.”

Howar’s remarks were in response to a letter received this week from the head of the Recording Industry Assn. of America declaring that representatives of 19 of the nation’s top record companies have agreed to an informal system of warning labels.

Stanley M. Gortikov, president of the RIAA, informed the Resource Center that “companies in the future will individually apply a printed inscription on packaging of future recording releases to identify blatant or explicit lyric content in order to inform concerned parents and children and to make possible parental discretion.”

He said the companies involved--including CBS, the Warner-Atlantic-Elektra complex and Capitol--market about 80% of the nation’s albums and tapes.

The Resource Center--whose members also include the wives of such high-ranking Washington officials as Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III and Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.)--began attracting national attention in June with its crusade against “morally offensive” pop music, but has achieved a much higher media profile in recent days.

Howar said she was “optimistic” after the RIAA decision, but insisted that it isn’t enough to have every company decide for itself what is acceptable because standards could differ so greatly.

At the same, she said her organization is not wed to its earlier proposal that records be rated in a system similar to that of the motion-picture industry. Under the plan, records deemed violent or sexually explicit would be rated “X,” records that “glorify” drugs or alcohol would be labeled “D/A” and records dealing with the occult would be branded “O.”

In his letter, Gortikov reaffirmed strongly the industry’s opposition to a more formal--and comprehensive--ratings system. “Despite the noble intent of the PRMC, there is a risk in the translation of its wishes that could dilute precious rights and could emerge as censorship in disguise,” he maintained.

Among the songs cited by the parents group as examples of why records should carry warning “X” symbols: Prince’s “Darling Nikki” and Sheena Easton’s “Sugar Walls” (written by Prince), both of which have blatantly sexual themes.