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- <text id=89TT1663>
- <title>
- June 26, 1989: American Notes:Texas
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- June 26, 1989 Kevin Costner:The New American Hero
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 31
- TEXAS
- Let Me See Some ID
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Many a parent has been shocked and offended by the lyrical
- excesses of heavy-metal and rap music. Now Western Merchandisers
- Inc., an Amarillo-based record-store chain that operates 119
- outlets in the Southwest, has taken a drastic step to ensure that
- albums like As Nasty As We Want to Be by 2 Live Crew do not fall
- into the hands of minors. Since June 8, the chain has been slapping
- little green stickers reading 18 TO PURCHASE on sexually explicit
- records and requiring customers to present proof of age before they
- can buy them.
- </p>
- <p> The policy began after police filed charges against a Dallas
- branch of the record-store chain for selling harmful material to
- a minor. The store sold to a 13-year-old boy a rap album containing
- a graphic tune about a grotesque sex act. Though the charges were
- eventually dropped by a grand jury, the chain decided to be more
- prudent about prurience. "We feel we have an obligation to the
- customers and the communities we are in to police our sales," says
- Walter McNeer, an executive vice president at Western
- Merchandisers. "We do not want to be censors."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-