Music, which has been around since the beginning of time, is a vital aspect to every individual’s daily life. It surrounds us as we work, as we play and as we go from place to place. Some use music as motivation while they work. Others use music as a release, a way to loosen up after a hard day. Music can be inspirational, deep and moving. Artists project their feelings and emotions to their audience through words and melodies. Music is powerful because it allows people to express themselves uniquely. The opportunity to create music and share it with the world is a right that every person has, and deserves. However, this opportunity becomes more and more limited as time goes on. Years ago, people began trying to censor music and it hasn’t been the same since.
             In 1990, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), after being pressured by the Parent’s Music Resource Center (PMRC), a conservative activist group lead by Tipper Gore and Susan Baker, introduced a music labeling system for those works found to have explicit lyrics. Record companies were
             provided with stickers that read, “Parental Advisory – Explicit Lyrics,” to be placed on CDs, tapes and albums. However, the RIAA failed to provide record companies with any standards, criteria or guidelines for determining what recordings should be labeled. With the decision of which music should be labeled left up to the record companies, “labels appear only on rock and rap albums and not recording of country music, opera, or musical comedy, even though they may also contain controversial material” (SILS 529).
             The PMRC’s stance is that all recordings whose themes relate to “sex, violence, drugs, alcohol, suicide or the occult” (SILS 529) should receive warning labels and record companies and stores that produce or sell albums containing controversial material should be prosecuted.
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