PMRC Senate Hearings

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Tipper Gore, founder of the Parents Music Resource Center. 

Zappa’s greatest battle in American politics was against censorship and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The PMRC started when Tipper Gore, wife of former senator and vice president Al Gore, took offense at her eleven-year-old daughter listening to Prince’s “Darling Nikki” because it contains the word “masturbating.” Gore led the PMRC in a movement to label music albums with content deemed inappropriate for minors.

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An early version of the parental advisory logo colloquially referred to as the "Tipper sticker." 

On September 19, 1985, in front of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and PMRC, Zappa condemned these censorship efforts with vitriol and his personal brand of biting humor. Zappa also spent $70,000 towards efforts to fight music censorship.