Rock Industry Rapped for Inaction : Producer Decries Lyrics Law Response

Barbara Dollarhide, director of promotions at a small Seattle record label, was encouraged two years ago when the $7.8-billion-a-year record industry began to speak out against censorship.

Dollarhide works with bands that are on the cutting edge and she knew it was just a matter of time before someone would object to something on one of the albums released by her company, C/Z Records.

But she found no industry support in recent months when the Washington state legislature passed a bill that prohibits the sale of “erotic” music to minors--a measure that goes into effect next Thursday

Dollarhide was so angered by what she terms the industry’s silence that she and other members of the Seattle record business have formed their own anti-censorship lobby group: the Washington Music Industry Coalition. The organization, which has approximately 200 members, plans to file papers to test the new statute in federal court next Thursday.

“I think it’s time for the industry to either put up or shut up,” Dollarhide, president of the coalition, said Wednesday. “These powerful trade group leaders like to harp about how important it is to protect and preserve the First Amendment, but what are they really doing?

“When it came time to help us defeat the erotic bill up here, where were they? We never heard a peep out of ‘em.”

Industry figures in Seattle--a recording hotbed that has helped launch such best-selling rock acts as Nirvana and Pearl Jam over the last 12 months--aren’t the only ones raising questions about what they feel is the music establishment’s “lethargic” response to the anti-rock legislative threat.

Lee Ballinger, associate editor of Rock & Roll Confidential, an activist newsletter that has been fighting rock censorship since 1983, estimated that fans in at least 100 communities across the country have formed free speech groups.

“Grass-roots groups have been springing up all over the country since the day the industry caved in to conservatives and began marketing albums with warning stickers,” Ballinger said.

A wave of “obscene music” bills erupted across the nation in 1990 as state legislators responded to church and parent media watchdog groups who voiced concerns about music that they believed might encourage violence, drug use and sexual promiscuity among young people.

More than two dozen bills have been proposed in various states specifically targeting pop music but Washington is the first state to pass one. Obscenity arrests in at least three states have been based on existing obscenity statutes.

Jason Berman, president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA), and Pamela Horovitz, executive vice president of the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), both deny that their groups--which represent the nation’s major record labels and record retail chains--haven’t been aggressive enough in opposing legislation limiting freedom of expression.

“We don’t claim to be perfect,” Berman said this week. “But we’ve done more than anybody else in this country to fight music censorship. We’ve invested an enormous amount of money and effort into fighting the free speech war and I sleep easy knowing what we’ve accomplished.”

Officials at both organizations say they are battling bills pending in Louisiana, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and also in the U.S. Senate.

NARM representatives say the organization dedicates about 16% of its $2.8-million annual budget to fighting legislative battles, while the recording industry association has allotted approximately $700,000 of its $11-million annual budget each year to oppose anti-music legislation since 1989. Berman says the recording industry association has also contributed about $250,000 to Rock the Vote’s nationwide college-age registration campaign, which stresses opposition to censorship.

But Dollarhide is not convinced.

“I don’t know what they’re doing with all that money they say they’re spending to fight censorship,” Dollarhide said. “But it obviously didn’t help us out much up here. If you ask me, I don’t think they are doing a very good job defending rock ‘n’ roll.”

Starting next Thursday, Washington record store owners who sell, distribute or exhibit “erotic” music to minors will face up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. Repeat offenders will be subject to at least a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

While the bill was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union and leaders of the Seattle arts community, representatives from industry trade groups acknowledge they did not come out against it. The organizations chose instead, they say, to join film groups in successfully defeating a stricter legislative proposal, which included references to violence.

“It’s easy to line up on the philosophical side of this issue, but those of us who are out there actually fighting these legislative battles must live in the real world,” said Mickey Branberg, director of government relations for NARM. “And that world is full of compromises. We’re not a deep-pockets group and when you’re working with limited resources in the real world, sometimes you have to make a judgment call.”

However, record store owners in other states who have been arrested for selling allegedly obscene rap music also question the industry’s commitment to fighting censorship.

Dave Risher, owner of Hogwild Records & Tapes in San Antonio, who was arrested two years ago on obscenity charges for selling a sexually explicit tape by Miami rap group 2 Live Crew to a 20-year-old customer, claims the industry ignored his pleas for help.

“I received no support whatsoever from any record label or trade group,” said Risher, 37, who estimates that his six-month legal battle cost about $10,000 before prosecutors dropped their case. “In fact, when I called the RIAA, the lawyer there gave me the complete brushoff. I think the only reason the trade groups pound their chests so hard about free speech in the press is for the free publicity.”

Tommy Hammond, store manager of Taking Home the Hits in Alexander City, Ala., also claims that the industry abandoned him during his hour of need.

Attorneys for the 50-year-old retailer, who was convicted on obscenity charges for selling a 2 Live Crew tape to an undercover adult police officer in June, 1988, say that trade groups repeatedly ignored requests to help underwrite the estimated $40,000 it cost to overturn Hammond’s case on appeal in February, 1990. Those fees were absorbed by the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“I used to be a member of NARM, but I quit,” said Hammond, whose 61-year-old brother is appealing a similar 1990 Alabama obscenity conviction allegedly ignored by the industry. “It really ticked me off the way they those people treated me during my trial. They refused to help me out in any way, shape or form.”

NARM’s Horovitz defended her group’s First Amendment posture, saying its philosophy has always been to focus on fighting legislation, not entertaining requests for assistance from individual retailers.

“I’m not sure what the expectations of these retailers are,” Horovitz said. “They sound like they want us to come like white knights out of the sky to the rescue or something. I don’t know if it’s appropriate for a trade organization to come swooping down from on high to call the shots in these cases.”

Representatives for the recording industry association also acknowledged that the organization provided no funds to either Risher or Hammond, but sources say the lobby group did contribute about $7,000 to the attorney representing Charles Freeman, a Florida retailer found guilty on obscenity charges in June, 1990 for selling a 2 Live Crew tape to an adult undercover police officer. That case is still on appeal.

Last week, the RIAA also offered legal and financial assistance to attorneys representing two record retail chains facing trial in July on obscenity charges in Omaha, Neb., for selling sexually explicit 2 Live Crew tapes to minors.

Ironically, those retailers were targeted for arrest in April after Omaha City Councilman Steve Exon read about passage of the Washington state “erotic” music statute.

“I’m not happy about the Washington law passing,” Berman said. “But no matter what we do, somebody always complains that it wasn’t enough. Sure, it took the industry a while to get mobilized on the anti-censorship front, but we’re doing the best we can. Despite what anybody says, I think we have a lot to be proud of.”