Music activists are taking on parental advisory stickers--those little black and white labels that appear on CDs marketed to young listeners.

The stickers read PARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT LYRICS and are put in place by the CD manufacturer under an agreement reached in 1989 between the

The intent seemed innocent enough: to give parents advance notice that some of the lyrics on the disc might contain explicit, offensive, or obscene language. The effect, however, has been creeping censorship--not only of language but of ideas.

"You have music containing the f-word and other sexually explicit language. That's predictable," says Rick Montone, manager of a Strawberry's music franchise in Keene, New Hampshire. "But there's another category of stickered music that has to do with actions." Lyrics about sex, drugs, or politics that some find objectionable get stickered. Most CDs by African-American rap and hip-hop artists carry the stickers, Montone says.

"The real motive behind these advisories seems to be to get offensive music off the shelves, since seven legislatures are currently considering bills forbidding sales of stickered CDs to minors, and/or divestiture of state funds from companies that manufacture offensive music CDs and videos," says John Woods of the Ohio-based educational and lobbying organization Rock Out Censorship.

Rock Out Censorship maintains a web site that lists pending censorship legislation, discusses how to take action at the local level, and provides news about musicians who speak out. One outspoken band is Los Angeles-based Rage Against The Machine. "Particularly in small towns where people have limited choices about where to shop for their music, the practice of stores restricting sales of stickered product literally keeps our music away from kids who want to hear it," says the band's guitarist, Tom Morello.

Wal-Mart and other chains have refused to stock stickered CDs. Morello calls that practice "insidious." The solution, say the activists, is consumer clout. "Boycott stores that won't sell stickered music to minors," says Woods. "And make it very clear why you aren't shopping there."

"You have to let your voice be heard," says Morello. "Contact your legislators, write letters, picket record stores, whatever it takes. Don't let them deny your right to listen to the music you want to hear."

For more information, visit the Rock Out Censorship web site at www.theroc.org.