Parents Music Resource Center

The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was a bipartisan United States government committee formed in 1985 with the stated goal of increasing parental control over children's access to music deemed to have violent, drug-related, or sexual themes. The committee's work led to the widespread adoption of the Parental Advisory sticker. The PMRC was known for its prejudicial targeting of heavy metal music, which drew opposition and criticism. On political and religious grounds, the committee was supported by American televangelists, Reaganites, and the larger evangelical movement, who accused rock and heavy metal music of harboring Satanic and occult related themes.

The committee was founded by four women known as the "Washington Wives"—a reference to their husbands' connections with government in the Washington, D.C. area. The women who founded the PMRC are Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice PresidentAl Gore; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury SecretaryJames Baker; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of former Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius. The PMRC eventually grew to include 22 participants before shutting down in the mid-to-late 1990s.