Explicit Lyrics
I’ve never quite figured out what qualifies a CD for the explicit lyrics sticker. Case in point: Modest Mouse’s excellent Good News for People Who Love Bad News, whose “Black Cadillac” repeatedly drops the f-bomb in its shout-along chorus, managed to avoid the sticker. Meanwhile, Bloc Party’s recent Silent Alarm gets the sticker for exactly one such offense in “Positive Tension.”
In both instances, the f-bomb plays a significant role in the song’s success. Though I think everyone would agree that “Black Cadillacs” and its “done done done with all the f*** f*** f***in’ around” chorus relies more heavily on its explicit lyrics. It’s funny that Modest Mouse’s bad-boy posterchild Isaac Brock avoided the sticker, while the British political hipsters are saddled with the bold EXPLICIT LYRICS label on every online store.
A few years back, I was listing the Jamison Live CD on Amazon.com. The submission form included a checkbox for “explicit lyrics.” Naive to these things, I assumed this meant that the lyrics were explicitly printed in the CD booklet - an obvious selling point for a CD - and I checked the box. Apparently I was the only person in the world who didn’t know what “explicit” meant, because I received a lot of comments and email. I doubt someone at Bloc Party’s label made this same mistake.
Officially, the Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics sticker really is a voluntary warning. But it’s virtually impossible to find a hip-hop CD without the warning, and equally impossible to find an indie release with the PMRC seal of approval. Interesting.
I could play the race card here - as unlike most indie rock bands Bloc Party is multi-racial - but that seems pretty far-fetched. Here’s a more reasonable theory: maybe last December’s lawsuit against WalMart for stocking the incorrectly un-labeled Evanescence Anywhere But Home CD is changing all this. Despite Tipper Gore’s best efforts, nothing elicits change quite like lawsuits against big business.