My dad made a VHS of music I would dance to as an infant and it eventually grew from 3 songs to this, now made into a playlist.

So I’m taking a classical music class over the summer and I’ve never had any sort of formal education about music but what I’ve discovered, and what is quite possibly a product of my near-blindness, is that I unknowingly possessed an incredibly well trained ear. Especially for like, the nuances of music, and especially instrumental pieces. And so when I’m really focusing on a piece of music I close my eyes to kind of block out other sources of stimulation and I can just,,, pick out the tiniest details and I didn’t even know I could do that.

In 1985, after concern about the effect of music on children, a group of four women including Tipper Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The group pushed for a voluntary ratings system for the music industry similar to the movie industry and released a list of songs they found objectionable that was dubbed the “Filthy Fifteen.” One of the songs on the list was Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” while tracks by Judas Priest, Motley Crue, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Venom also found themselves under scrutiny.

A Senate hearing was held on Sept. 15, 1985 to discuss placing a rating system into effect. At the hearing, representatives of the PMRC testified along with Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, Frank Zappa and John Denver.