Reviews

Cox News Service Feature on Eric Nuzum and Parental Advisory (May 3, 2001)

A dry but well-researched look at music censorship

The loud, continuous loop of anti-music commentary from politicians and various special-interest groups suggests that certain songs make teen-agers want to kill people, or themselves. Eric Nuzum believes such diatribes are classic self-serving bunk. Nuzum, of Kent, Ohio, is the author of the new book "Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America'' (HarperPerennial, $15 paperback). Obviously Nuzum, 34, is for free speech. The book, despite its saucy subject matter, is a rather dry, well-researched overview of censorship. Nuzum's full-time job is as program director of the National Public Radio affiliate at Kent State University. There, he does not push the envelope for obscene lyrics and controversial rappers. The station plays the relatively tame strains of Bach and Mozart. Although his book alludes to several historic incidents, its primary focus is the rock era, especially the past two decades, ever since the Parents Music Resource Center started demanding parental advisory warning labels on albums. The center was founded in 1984 by Tipper Gore and eight others, after Gore objected to references to masturbation in Prince's "Darling Nikki,'' from the "Purple Rain'' soundtrack. - Cox News Service