In Washington state, a law passed over the summer makes it illegal to sell sexually explicit music to minors.
In Omaha, owners of music stores that sold to minors the controversial 2 Live Crew album ”As Nasty As They Wanna Be” were threatened with jail.
In cities throughout the nation, the rap song, ”Cop Killer” was met by boycotts and police protests, which led rapper Ice-T to remove the song from his album.
Now enter Lake Forest.
This week, Lake Forest took steps to block youths` access to music-from rap to heavy metal to country and western-with sexually explicit or violent lyrics.
On Monday, the Lake Forest City Council adopted a resolution opposing
”the sale or distribution of offensive or violent music to young adults.”
After parents complained about the lyrics on compact discs sold at the city`s three music shops, Lake Forest Mayor Charles F. Clarke Jr. sent letters Monday to the businesses asking them to establish guidelines for distribution of ”more offensive CDs.”
Lake Forest officials said that if the stores refuse, they will consider charging them with violations of the city`s obscenity law.
Clarke suggested that music stores use a system similar to one already in place at local video stores, giving parents the option of signing a sheet stipulating that their children are not to buy anything bearing a ”parental advisement” sticker.
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”We are very sensitive to the issue of censorship and do not want to tread on your rights to operate a successful business in town,” Clarke wrote. ”However, your sensitivity and good judgment in this matter will help us to better deal with the offensive music readily accessible to our children.” The battle was first waged before the nation by Mary Elizabeth
”Tipper” Gore, wife of U.S. Senator and vice presidential candidate Albert Gore of Tennessee. She began campaigning for warning labels on recordings in 1985.
And the issue has reached something of a fever pitch in recent weeks with the ”Cop Killer” furor.
The turmoil has drawn in other Chicago-area cities too. Last week, a Calumet City police officer persuaded operators of the city`s largest tape and record dealer to pull the controversial Ice-T album from its shelves.
And on Monday, the Waukegan City Council unanimously passed a resolution asking Time-Warner Inc. to stop distribution of the ”Cop Killer” song that Ice-T has said he will continue to give away as a single at his concerts.
”I think from the industry`s standpoint, we need to be very watchful and vigilant of any actions like this that border on censorship of music,” said Tim Sites, spokesman for the Record Industry Association of America in Washington.
”I think it`s important for communities to discuss these issues and raise them, but it`s just as important to discuss why such lyrics are created,” he said.
”The question becomes: Is this an appropriate way of dealing with the problem?” said Robert Peck, counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington. ”You can`t take away the parental responsibility here.”
He said he believed that Lake Forest`s actions, while not yet violating 1st Amendment rights, was nearing that point.
”Certainly, there`s nothing unconstitutional about saying they don`t like it,” he said. But, if city officials begin warning or coercing stores not to sell certain recordings, they will cross the line, he said.
”The best way to make sure the kids want to hear these records is to pass a law like this,” he added.
Linda Biondi, a 1st-grade teacher and mother of four children, is leading a Lake Forest movement to ban the sale of records with offensive lyrics to children under age 17.
At Monday`s City Council meeting, she was armed with a list of song titles, most of them including profanity and references to sex or violence. The titles include: ”I Wanna Kill Soon,” ”Quicksand Jesus,” and
”Psychosexual.”
Censorship, she told the City Council, is not at issue.
”This is about our future-our children`s well being,” she said. ”Do they have enough maturity to realize that their heads and hearts are being filled with the most degrading, most violent messages, each time they hear a favorite song?”
The Lake Forest resolution, while outlining the council`s wishes, does not carry the weight of an ordinance.
”You can`t get arrested for violating a resolution,” City Atty. Murray Conzelman explained.
He called the resolution a first step, saying that if record stores do not go along with the council`s wishes the city would evaluate whether they were violating its obscenity ordinance.
Youths in Lake Forest music stores Tuesday did not support Lake Forest`s resolution.
Tyrone Cozart, 13, of North Chicago wanted to buy ”Way 2 Honky,” a recording with a parental advisory sticker.
He was not allowed to.
That store`s policy requires minors to phone a parent for permission to buy recordings with parental advise stickers. When Cozart called, his mother wasn`t home.
”Sometimes they send a message across with profanity,” Cozart said. Artists use profanity to express feelings about the Rodney King and Mike Tyson trials, and about the problems of black youths in general, he said.
”If parents raise their kids bad, then the music is going to affect them,” he said.
Operators of Lake Forest`s music stores said they had heard complaints from parents about some records` lyrics and about what they considered attempts at censorship.
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When parental advisory stickers were introduced in May 1990, Heather Sullivan, co-owner of Lake Forest Music Co., started a list like the one the mayor suggested. Parents may sign it if they do not want their children to buy any of the stickered recordings.
Three parents have signed.
Sullivan said she is willing to work with the city, but she questions its authority to regulate her business and to assume the wishes of parents and teenagers.
She said she is willing to weed out the most offensive songs and not sell them to children under age 17. But, she said that age group accounts for 30 to 40 percent of her business, and the most popular recordings carry warning stickers.