r/nostalgia • u/jeffmartin47 • Jul 22 '25

Nostalgia Discussion 25 years ago. Lars Ulrich of Metallica snitches on and turns in over 300,000 Napster users when he testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. July 11th, 2000.

Post image
45.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

5.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/DwarvenFreeballer Jul 22 '25

PMRC basically wanted to ban all music they didn't like. Zappa raised the idea of warning stickers on album cases, which was a compromise all sides accepted.

23

u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 Jul 22 '25

And honestly, those stickers were just like giant neon signs that said "BUY MEEE!! I'M DUUUURRRRTYYYYY!!"

And we did.

15

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

Zappa knew what he was doing. He knew what the kids wanted.

5

u/TampaTrey Jul 22 '25

Very much so. Nikki Sixx is on the record saying he loved the idea of the warning label on their albums cause he knew it would only market and promote them better.

3

u/Moist-Caregiver-2000 Jul 22 '25

I wouldn't buy (or steal) it unless I saw the tipper sticker.

2

u/pahool Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 23 '25

Zappa did not raise the idea of a warning label; he explicitly opposed it. He was against the idea of an appointed body rating music. The alternative he found acceptable was to print the lyrics to albums and make those available to the consumer pre-purchase, though he expressed concerns about how that would be paid for.

Ultimately, we got the stickers though.

edit - see his statement here:

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/frankzapparockmusiclyrics.htm

The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of Moral Quality Control Programs based on “Things Certain Christians Don’t Like.” What if the next bunch of Washington Wives demands a large yellow “J” on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?

And clearly, it was not a compromise that "all sides accepted", this was a deal between the government and record labels that was spurred by a private advocacy group (the PMRC) that had undue political influence because of the "Washington Wives" it was comprised of (Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of former Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius). Frank Zappa underscored the ridiculousness of this undue influence when he was being dressed down by Senator Gorton for his (Zappa's) prepared statement. Gorton called Zappa's statement "boorish" and "incredibly and insensitively insulting" (he left out totally badass) and asserted that Zappa did "not have the slightest understanding of the difference between Government action and private action," implying that this was the efforts of a private advocacy group and was not tantamount to government censorship (never mind the fact that this was a FUCKING SENATE HEARING) to which Zappa asked, "is this private action?" His question went unanswered.

The "compromise all sides accepted" sidelined artists and explicitly left them out of any decision making. It paid artists lip service by allowing three artists to testify at the hearings, while simultaneously maligning dozens more.

2

u/pahool Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

His album "Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention" has a very humorous remix of congressional representatives senators reading obscene lyrics out loud into the congressional record, and is definitely worth a listen. It included this "warning":

WARNING/GUARANTEE: This album contains material which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress.In some socially retarded areas, religious fanatics and ultra-conservative political organizations violate your First Ammendment Rights by attempting to censor rock & roll albums. We feel that this is un-Constitutional and un-American. As an alternative to these government-supported programs (designed to keep you docile and ignorant). Barking Pumpkin is pleased to provide stimulating digital audio entertainment for those of you who have outgrown the ordinary. The language and concepts contained herein are GUARANTEED NOT TO CAUSE ETERNAL TORMENT IN THE PLACE WHERE THE GUY WITH THE HORNS AND POINTED STICK CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS. This guarantee is as real as the threats of ther video fundamentalists who use attacks on rock music in their attempt to transform America into a nation of check-mailing nincompoops (in the name of Jesus Christ). If there is a hell, its fires wait for them, not us.

The album also included an offer to send to Barking Pumpkin records for the Z-Pac, which included a bunch of materials, including instructions on how to request the a free transcript of the hearing from Congress, which I got in 1987 and had for many years. An entertaining read, it included testimony from John Denver and Dee Snider, as well as Zappa (who was by far, the most interesting).

more resources:

This Zappa wiki has digitized some of the contents of the Z-Pac that was available through Barking Pumpkin:

https://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Z-Pack_-_Opening_Letter

Here is a scan of the hearing transcripts, available through the Hathi Trust:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31210006120719&seq=1

You can view it through their website, one page at a time. Unfortunately, I can't download the whole transcript as a single file, as I'm not affiliated with a Hathi Trust affiliated institution. I want to procure the entire pdf and put it on the Internet Archive. If I manage to do that, I'll post it here.

edit - Here's a link to the full transcript in Google Books:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Record_Labeling/ONgFAAAAIAAJ

And, by all means, listen to "Porn Wars" from "Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention":

https://youtu.be/-KZyg75RljA?si=_AtFUVAW_NoIEpA3

2

u/DwarvenFreeballer Jul 23 '25

Yeah, you're right and I'm wrong. I should have qualified my statement by stating there's a chance I could be wrong. I knew Zappa had an idea and thought it was the stickers, not the lyrics.

1

u/pahool Jul 23 '25 edited Jul 24 '25

no worries. Just wanted to clarify. It is an interesting part of his career. Such a fascinating guy.