Highways to Hell: How the Intersections of Cinema, Rock Music and the Resurgence of Evangelicalism Influenced the 1985 Senate Hearing on Rock Music

The Senate hearing on the “Contents of Music and the Lyrics of Records, held on September 19, 1985, was as much a popular culture event as a public airing of concerns about explicit content in music. Much has been written about the significance of the Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC), the Senate hearing and the issues it engaged in, and how it colored conversations about censorship of the arts, the effectiveness of rating systems to police popular media and the effects of media on children’s behavior and development. The thesis will explore aspects of formative trends that influenced the PMRC’s presentation in 1985, specifically film, rock music and the resurgence of a public evangelical campaign convinced it had found a new mode of satanic influence bent on corrupting children’s morals and degrading the nation.