Pop Music That F*cks: An Oral History of Outrage
Eating For Free
Joan Summers and Matthew Lawson
4.8 • 536 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2023
⏱️ 125 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Kim Petras and Sam Smith don 'devilish' attire for their Grammy performance of 'Unholy', right-wring pundits claim Satanic panic, echoing outrage seen in American politics since the 1830s. Our new series charts 200 years in American moral panics about music, race, sexuality, and the conservative religious zealot's war for control of America's heart and mind.
Links:
- Kim Petras Defends Sam Smith Against 'I'm Not Here to Make Friends' Music Video Backlash (Exclusive) [ET]
- The Christian Right Is Having a Meltdown Over the 'Satanic' Grammys [Vice]
- Did We Really Need a Satan Bondage Show at the Grammys? [TheDailyBeast]
- Link to Smokestack Lightning by Howlin Wolf, Life (1964)
- The Black Musician and the White City: Race and Music in Chicago, 1900-1967, Amy Absher [PDF]
- Why they tried to censor the blues [Louder Sound]
- SEX AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT: THE LONG AND WINDING HISTORY OF OBSCENITY LAW Geoffrey R. Stone, First Amendment Law Review (2019) [WordPress]
- The Pop Life; IS PRINCE LEADING MUSIC TO A TRUE BIRACISM? (Dec 2, 1981) [NYT]
- WHY THESE POP SINGERS HAVE RISEN TO SUPERSTARDOM (Sep 2, 1984) [NYT]
- Birth of the PMRC, Claude Chastanger [HAL Science PDF]
- Notes from: Record Labeling: Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, Ninety-Ninth Congress, First Session, on Contents of Music and the Lyrics of Records, September 19, 1985[University of California Riverside]
- Zappa Defends Obscene Lyrics (Nov 6, 1985) [The Harvard Crimson]
- Discord on Record Warning (August 29, 1985) [Washington Post]
- UNREST IN THE PURPLE KINGDOM (April 12, 1987) [Washington Post]
- Bloom and Doom: 'The Closing of the American Mind' [Oct 8, 1987) [Rolling Stone]
- [Prager U Video] (Start at 1:05)
About:
Hosted by journalists Joan Summers and Matthew Lawson, Eating For Free is a weekly podcast that explores gossip and power in the pop culture landscape: Where it comes from, who wields it, and who suffers at the hands of it. Find out the stories behind the stories, as together they look beyond the headlines of troublesome YouTubers or scandal-ridden A-Listers, and delve deep into the inner workings of Hollywood's favorite pastime. The truth, they've found, is definitely stranger than any gossip.
You can also find us on our website, Twitter, and Instagram. Or buy our merch! Any personal, business, or general inquires can be sent to eatingforfreepodcast@gmail.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Some of the album covers are very explicit. |
| 0:02.0 | In fact, they look like they should be in Playboy or Penthouse, some of them. |
| 0:06.0 | And they're in the record bins available to young children. |
| 0:09.0 | But others, you can't tell. |
| 0:11.0 | I bought the Purple Rain album for our 11-year-old. |
| 0:14.0 | And I didn't know that Darling Nikki was on it, |
| 0:17.0 | and I felt that it was inappropriate for her and her eight and six-year-old sister to hear a song describing a girl masturbating in a hotel lobby. |
| 0:24.4 | These gays, they're trying to murder me. |
| 0:30.3 | What do I think of her? |
| 0:31.5 | Yes. |
| 0:32.9 | I don't think of her. |
| 0:35.5 | Goodbye. |
| 0:37.2 | Come on. |
| 0:39.0 | Right about that in the New York |
| 0:40.3 | fucking post. |
| 0:42.0 | I'm not even going to honor you |
| 0:44.0 | and your work here on this podcast |
| 0:47.3 | in this day with a bit. |
| 0:50.0 | Because my palms are sweating. |
| 0:52.4 | I'm furious. |
| 0:53.6 | I'm absolutely about to be crucified. |
| 0:55.5 | Here on eating for free. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Joan Summers and Matthew Lawson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Joan Summers and Matthew Lawson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.