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Page 4 - T h e Portland Observer -August 7, 1991
New Study Shows Effect of Warning Labels on Records
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ...
Despite Predictions—Teens are Less Likely to Pity Records With Warning Labels
Parental A dvisory: E x p lic it L y r ­
ics. ’ rh a t’ s the warning record com ­
panies vo lu n ta rily stick on their most
blatantly offensive records, tapes and
CDs.
if they think parents are going to do
much about this whole thing, th ey’re
dead wrong. We know that parents are
not going to intrude upon the privacy o f
their k id s’ bedrooms, go through every
record and listen to the lyrics. Parents
consider music to be outside the realm
o f things they can control.
" I f labeling is to affect anyone,
it ’ s going to affect k id s -th e ir purchas­
ing o f and listening to records. I t ’ s
going to affect them directly-not through
their parents,” he said.
Christenson’ s study involved 145
middle school students, grades 6 through
8, ages 11 to 15. The sample was pre­
dom inantly white, from lower-m iddle
to upper-middle income fam ilies.
Subjects were randomly assigned
one o f two conditions: a label condi­
tion, in which the album cover o f the
music they were asked to judge was
shown to them w ith a parental advisory
label a ffixe d to the album cover; and a
control condition, in w hich they heard
and judged the same music w ithout a
label.
The study used tw o diferent target
albums: a hard rock (bordering on heavy
metal) album by a regional band and a
nationally released by unfam iliar pop/
urban contemporary dance album.
Each subject heard and responded
to four short samples o f songs. Lew is &
Clark students, ages 18 to 21, con­
ducted the experiment.
"T h e results confirm ed my pre­
d ictio n ,” said Christenson. “ This con­
flicts w ith what everyone has said from
day one. The evidence is that the fru it is
tainted and not made more attractive
through lableing,” he said.
A sk any 10 people how that label
affects k id s ,” challenges Peter C hris­
tenson, assoc late professor o f com m u­
nications at L ew is & C lark College in
Portland, Ore. " T h e y ’ ll say. I t ’ s o b v i­
ous. K id s are in the business o f reject­
ing th eir parental tentacles. W arning
stickers w ill make them want the rec­
ords m ore.’ ”
T h a t’ s what Christenson calls the
"fo rb id d e n fru it theory,” and it ’ s the
com m on lay theory Christenson heard
repealed over and over again.
But i t ’ s wrong. A t least that’ s what
Christenson found in his most recent
research.
" W e found a small but significant
e ffe c t-th e presence o f a label made
kids like the music le ss-n o t more. I
saw absolutely no evidence that stick­
ers act as a parental rebellion mecha­
nism to make adolescents want the music
m ore,” said Christenson.
Christenson has spent years study­
ing popular music and adolescence and
the relationship between music and the
peer culture and has w ritten numerous
papers on those topics. He recently
com pleted his paper on “ The Effects
o f Parental A dvisory Labels on A d o ­
lescent M usic Preferences,” the o nly
paper that exists on how labeling actu­
a lly affects adolescents.
"W e know the intent o f the people
w ho pushed fo r labeling was to de­
crease the extent to w hich kids are
exposed to it,” said Christenson. " B u t
Christenson’ s 1989 study on “ I Son
o f W ant M y M T V : C hildren’ s Use o f
Music Television,” gave him additional
insight.
"W h e n you really get down to ta lk­
ing w ith early teenagers, they are not
te rribly comfortable w ith sexual im ­
agery,” said Christenson. “ When I asked
them what they disliked about M T V , for
instance, many kids, aged 12 to 15, said
they disliked the sex in it.
Christenson pointed out that very
few records get labels.
"K id s , by now, know that the ones
that get labels are quite extreme in their
sexual content and offensiveness. I f you
would compare it to film ratings, a label
would compare to an X rating, not an R.
Teenagers want something a little b it
racy, they are attracted to movies w ith a
PG or an R rating. But they are famous
fo r rejecting extremes. They want to be
in the mainstream. They want to f it in ,”
he said
“ I put a ll o f this together and pre­
dicted that what labels really mean for
kids is that the record is way out o f
bounds. I predicted that i f the presence
o f a label does anything, it w ill make
kids like the album less-no t more. And
that’ s what the research shows.”
Christenson’s next step is to study
the effect o f labeling on tw o popula­
tions: adolescents who do w ell in school
and adolescents who are alienated from
the school culture. He and Donald Roberts
o f Stanford U niversity studied the ef­
fects o f popular music on both o f those
groups in a paper he completed last year
fo r the Carnegie C ouncil on Adolecent
Development: ‘ ‘Popular Music in Early
Adolescence.”
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D o n t B e lie v e T h e H y p e
Taken fro m the Peoples’ Preacher
By Rev. A l Sharpton
In the recent debate on the nom i
nation to the Supreme C ourt by Presi­
dent Bush o f Clarence Thomas, the
usual litm us test hysteria has been in ­
troduced again into national politics.
M r. Thomas w ill not be judged on his
ju d ic ia l record, or lack thereof, but he
w ill be judged on his statements that he
admired L ouis Farrakhan. This par­
ticular part o f the debate is most troub­
ling , since no politicians, or public
o fficials, or jurists, other than Blacks,
are subjected to such a ridiculous and
demeaning form o f a litm us test. As
one who clearly opposes the Thomas
nom ination, I am just as unequivocally
opposed to a litm us test being intro­
duced here in the name o f Louis Farra­
khan.
First o f a ll, M r. Farrakhan is a re li­
gious leader o f great respect in Black
Am erica, and around the w orld. M r.
Farrakhan has been maligned, distorted
and in many ways castigated by the
w hite media fo r his uncomprom ising
and courageous stands on behalf o f
Black people and people o f color around
the w orld. Because he has done the
unheard o f by questioning Jewish au­
th ority in certain fields o f American
life , he has been labeled anti-Sem itic,
w hich is the way fo r those w ho sin and
are members o f the Jewish faith to try
to purge themselves o f examination by
clouding the issue w ith a non-issue,
when the issue is whether they have
acted in an unsavory and unprincipled
manner politically and/or economically,
and not be discriminated against be­
cause o f their faith or their heritage.
No white religious or political fig ­
ure, no matter how extreme their views
are perceived to be, has been a litmus
test for w hite politicians or white o ffi­
cials. Ronald Reagan was endorsed by
the Ku K lu x Kian, and announced his
election campaign in Philadelphia,
Mississippi. Philadelphia, M ississippi’ s
only claim to fame, is the place where
Goodman, Chaney and Schwemer were
kille d during the c iv il rights m ove­
ment. Yet no one asked him to repudi­
ate Philadelphia, M ississippi, where he
strangely chose to announce his candi­
dacy, nor to repudiate the K K K ’s en­
dorsement. N or has anyone asked the
National Republican Chairman to re­
pudiate D avid Duke, or George Bush to
repudiate David D uke’ s support. And
these people are clearly practicing,
violent racists, whereas Louis Farra­
khan clearly is not.
I think that it is again the double
standard and triple play o f the white
media to try and reinforce this "b o g e y
man” image on the Farrakhans o f this
w orld, and to make those in the Black
com m unity who want to rise to posi­
tions o f power feel that in order to do
that, they must make sure they distance
themselves from those that dare to cry
fo r freedom. The subtlety here is that i f
you want to advance, yo u ’ve got to
have nothing to do w ith liberation o f
liberation fighters. For that precedent
to be established and unquestioned is
dangerous to Black Am erica, danger­
ous to white Am erica, and dangerous to
the freedom and liberty o f all people.
M r. Thomas should admire Farra­
khan because Farrakhan represents a
self-empowered, self economic, and
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self-sufficency program unequaled by
any national Black leader today. It is
nothing that Thomas ought to apologize
for; it is probably the only positive thing
I ’ ve heard about him since his nom ina­
tion. But the issue is not even Thomas,
the issue is the white media and white
power structures continual branding o f
certain forceful, aggressive, uncompro­
mising leaders as unacceptable, o r as
some anathema that must be shunned by
those who seek power and positions and
postures o f influence in this society.
This must be unilaterally rejected and
not accepted by a ll conscious, thinking
Americans.
I ’d much rather see us operate across
the board or not at all. When the people
are not maligned fo r ide ntifyin g w ith
fascists like Jerry F alw ell or admitted
racists like Daved Duke, then how can
they in any way try to use as a litm us test
a man who has taken junkies and al-
choholics and transformed them into
responsible fa m ily men and citizens? It
w ould seem to me that i f there are some
who ought to be shunned based on their
demagoguery, their racism, and their ill
effects on society, we ought to re-evalu­
ate a ll those who ran around and en­
joyed the endorsement o f the M oral
M a jo rity from some T V evangelists,
h a lf o f w hich are now finishing their
second year in federal prison fo r de­
frauding the public and ripping o ff old
ladies.
But i f they w ill not be questioned
for being aligned with some gospel thieves
and some religious r ip -o ff artists, then
certainly we cannot bear this litmus test
using a man who has operated above the
worship houses o f ill repute.
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