Industry Offers Voluntary Tag for Recordings

The recording industry today unveiled a uniform, voluntary parental warning label for albums that might contain explicit lyrics.

Jay Berman, president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, told a news conference that the black-and-white label will appear on the lower right-hand corner of possibly objectionable records, cassettes and compact discs reaching retail stores starting in July.

“We believe the uniform logo will enhance the existing voluntary system and better respond to the legitimate concerns of parents,” Berman said.

“Now that we have agreed on this new logo, it will be up to parents to use it as they see fit,” he said.

The standard label, which reads “Parental Advisory--Explicit Lyrics,” will appear on albums at the discretion of record companies and individual artists.

Plans for the label were announced in late March at a convention of the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers, which endorsed the idea at today’s news conference.

That association, representing record retailers and distributors across the country, said, “Our members hope that this voluntary step by the recording industry will put the nightmare of governmental regulation behind us.”

Berman said that by his count, 16 of the 19 states considering legislation requiring warning labels on records have backed away from those efforts since the industry promised to institute a uniform label on a voluntary basis.

The voluntary labeling plan had previously been endorsed by Tipper Gore, president of the Parents Music Resource Center, and Ann Lynch, president of the National PTA, as a better answer to parents’ concerns about explicit lyrics than mandatory labeling.

The new system is intended to alert consumers to recordings that could be deemed objectionable because of explicit lyrics dealing with sex, violence, suicide and substance abuse.

The voluntary labels were also endorsed at the news conference by Daddy-O of the rap group Stetsasonic, who said he is the father of five children.

“We don’t think the government should determine what our children listen to,” Daddy-O said. “We all think the label is cute.”