I, being a devoted Slayer fan, bought their new CD – World Painted Blood this week. An unreal great album and I will be raving about it on a future post – that’s a Metal guarantee. What makes me laugh, however, is the lame Parental Advisory/Explicit Content sticker that stares at you on the front cover wrapping of this CD. This silly little sticker also reads: strong language, sexual + violent content. If this sticker with it’s various warnings is mandated to be on the new Slayer CD, why then, is there not the same warning, for the following:
Cosmopolitan Magazine – this soft porn magazine is out in the open for toddlers and youngsters to see at every checkout in every major supermarket and retail store everywhere. The words – orgasm and sex are the monthly norm on the front cover and never out of eye sight.
All Network News and Cable News Networks – my God almighty, if there ever was a warning needed, it is for the constant news footage of war, murder, rape, violence and crimes against humanity and society. This stuff is reality and it is constantly available around the clock, every day of the year. NEVER A WARNING or Parental Advisory for when gruesome, morbid, violent and sexual images and or footage is shown by network news, at a split seconds notice… never.
Political Campaign Commercials – backstabbing, hate, lying, rumors and more hate. Those are reasons enough for me to cry out for the Parental Advisory Warning!
All Tabloid Publications – just like Cosmopolitan Magazine, these publications are fully shown, out in the open, at every checkout, at every supermarket, retail store and gasoline quick mart everywhere… for toddlers to see. No warnings to be found. Just 3/4 naked celebrities adorning the front covers with sexual headlines galore.
Day Time Soaps, (Soap Operas) – do I really need to explain why this is on the list? Again, NO WARNINGS or Parental Advisory before any soap opera that I have ever seen, in my ADULT life.
I could go on with a fantastically long list here. It is not my intention to ever censor any of the above, I am against censorship in America – period. The Metal Music and lyrics of Slayer can’t possibly be interpreted as any more offensive, as the list of examples above. My only question is, where is the fairness in placing warning stickers on Heavy Metal CD’s, (or any music genre), when other forms of media are not subject to the same advisory standards? Hypocrisy is the only answer I can find.
This sticker as shown at the bottom, also included more warnings on the Slayer CD as I stated above. Not to sound redundant, yet, if the RIAA, (Recording Industry Association of America), deems it necessary to establish this type of warning on music, why then are other media industries and/or entities exempt from using such a warning? Again, hypocrisy is the only answer I can find.
For those who may have never seen this ridiculous sticker attached onto CD’s that span many music genres, here it is in it’s most gruesome glory. By the way, this annoying little sticker only enhances a CD’s taboo mystique, in turn helping to sell more copies of the CD it’s on. In it’s own morbid way, maybe this sticker has become something of a Pop Culture symbol of cool… that’s just my Metal opinion.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
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