Know those "parental advisory" labels that inform adults that the record in question has explicit lyrics or content (and also inadvertently tell the young consumers where all the cool stuff is)?  As Ken Paulson of USA Today tells us, we have Prince to thank for that. Not that the artist personally lobbied for this particular form of pseudo-censorship, though. He merely inspired it. 

In 1984, Prince's Purple Rain was wooing audiences all over, and Senator Al Gore and his wife, Mary "Tipper" Gore, were among the many people who bought it. However, the Gores were in for a surprise when the neat new pop album turned out to feature "Darling Nikki," a song that liberally references self-love and promiscuity. The terrors of Prince being Prince were enough to send Mrs. Gore on a warpath, and her Parents Music Resource Center group soon compiled the "Filthy Fifteen," a list of "objectionable" songs from artists such as Prince, Madonna, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and, uh, Sheena Easton. After much lobbying, public attention, and hand-wringing, and under a potential threat of government regulation thanks to Tipper Gore's connections, the music industry eventually adapted the warning label system that kids of the CD-buying era know and ... well, know.

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