The Not So Filthy Fifteen: We're Not Gonna Take It

In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center launched a full-scale assault on popular music.  They selected what they deemed the fifteen most offensive songs they could find as examples of why the music industry needed to be closely monitored and censored.  Thankfully, Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and John Denver staved that off.  This is a track-by-track breakdown of the songs the PRMC picked as the so-called “filthy fifteen.”

The song.

“We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.  Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?!  This song got flagged on account of “violence.”  The most violent image in the whole thing is its use of the word “fight” three times.  As a point of comparison, the University of Kentucky’s pep song is only a minute long, but uses that same word eight times.  Violence, indeed.  It’s pretty clear this song was pegged for its video which features less violence than a roadrunner cartoon and less drag than a traditional Shakespearean play.  Thirty-plus years later, I can’t help but love the fact that a song the PRMC deemed dangerous to children ended up as this.

What they should have chosen.

“Coward of the County” by Kenny Rogers.  This song topped the country charts.  It almost topped the pop charts.  It got made into a movie.  And it makes my skin crawl every time I hear it.  “They took turns at Becky.  There was three of them.”  In case you aren’t familiar with the track, the subject matter is exactly what that line suggests.  In the context of this narrative, any atrocity can be resolved with a good old fashioned fist fight.  Violence begets violence.  Violence resolves violence.  And when it does, the world is completely right again and all problems are solved.  I think that’s a far more dangerous message than some dudes in makeup saying “if that’s your best, your best won’t do.”

What has come since.

“Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People.  My daughter was eight when this song came out and she loved it.  To be fair, it has to be the catchiest song ever written about mass homicide.  Rewatching the video for this entry, I think about my daughter (now eight years older).  I think about the paranoia and lingering vigilance that she and others her age have to endure.  I think about conversations I never dreamed I would need to have with her.  I think about how this single song disproves every single idea championed by “Coward of the County.”  I think I would much rather just go listen to some more Twisted Sister.