There is a crisis going on, similar to when rock & roll first came out and was criticised for offensive and subjective lyrics. Today the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet met for 3 hours to discuss the entertainment industry's efforts to curb children's exposure to violent content. The movie and gaming industry were complemented for their advances in self-monitoring through ratings, but the music industry was lambasted for the failure of their ratings to be understandable to parents.

Hilary Rosen, president and CEO of the RIAA argued against enhancing the rating system for songs, noting that while the movie industry rates the 600 movies a year released in the US, the recording industry would have to rate the more than 370,000 songs released in a year. Along with the considerable work this would take, the subjective judgements which would have to be made would send the industry into an uproar, Ms. Rosen argued.

Her official response is posted on the RIAA website, which states that the industry will publicize the existing rating systems with more posters and PSAs.

The crisis begins with the FCC fining of a radio station in Colorado for playing the relatively mild Eminem song, The Real Slim Shady. Apparently this song is deemed indecent by the FCC. No wonder I haven't heard it lately on the radio.

With Napster out of commission and radio stations self-censoring because of the threats of fines from an increasingly conservative FCC, where will hip hop fans go to for new and old favorite releases?