Milwaukee’s Satanic panic of 1988: The kids were alright
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Where was I in 1988? Anywhere but aware. In my fourteenth year on Planet Suburb, folded neatly between the Green Sheets of the afternoon Milwaukee Journal and the abstract piety of St. Alphonsus middle school, I knew not of “Suicide Solution” and the parental panic at heavy metal music. My older sister’s closet door was covered with Metallica’s Ride The Lighting and Ratt’s Out Of The Cellar posters, though each band represented to me nothing more than something loud coming from her carefully painted purple silver boombox.
Did I realize Frank Zappa, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and John F-n Denver had testified against censorship in music before the U.S. Congress? Nope, I was too busy tracking the statistical anomalies of Rickey Henderson and public school girls.
Fortunately for Milwaukee, four aware and articulate teenagers were ready to speak their minds about heavy metal music and pour cool sense on the Satanic panic of 1980s America. And providing the forum to allow their voices to run free? None other than WTMJ’s most handsome weapon, the gentlemen’s gentleman Mike Gousha (god, he’s good), who hosted “Second Sunday: Heavy Metal” on WTMJ-TV Channel 4 in 1988.
Four things happened to me after watching “Second Sunday: Heavy Metal”:
1. I contacted Milwaukee Record to request permission to write about it: Success.
2. I swooned over the clear-headed 1988 heavy metal Milwaukee-area teens.
3. I realized Mike Gousha is the smoothest interviewer ever invented.
4. I decided to track down one of the teens and talk to them about their TV appearance: Success, I found Jeni Czysz (Jenny Foster in the video).
A Brief History of Satanic Panic
In 1980s America, nothing was more important to parents and politicians than drugs, and lyrics in popular music. Education, including academics, social emotional learning, and loving thy neighbor took an extreme backseat to the words sung by Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest. Before the dude blew the 2000 presidential election (and way before he invented the internet), Al Gore was Tipper Gore’s husband, thanks to her outspoken leadership of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). This sounds zany, but before the Left freaked over the manosphere and the Right developed their orange crush, reactionary politicians spent their days pouring over song lyrics, looking for reasons their children had tuned them out.
In 1984 a teenager killed himself after allegedly listening to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution,” and the PMRC was out for blood. Heavy metal, with its dark, fiery imagery and thrashing, speedy sound that inspired males to grow their hair long (gasp!) became Public Enemy Number One. Parental warning stickers were invented, and the PMRC went into full Satanic panic, inspiring huge interest and spiked revenue for every band named on their notorious “Filthy Fifteen.”
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