25 years ago, 2 Live Crew were arrested for obscenity. Here’s the back story

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Twenty-five years ago this week, members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were arrested. Not for DUIs or assault like today's musicians and celebrities, mind you, but for performing obscene songs at a concert.

It's hard to fathom something like this happening now. This is America! We have the 1st Amendment! But there was a time when lyrics were a political issue and pop was under fire from politicians, parents and the police. Rappers were getting arrested, and so were record store owners, and freedom of speech took a back seat to a court ruling about what was offensive.

But how did we even get to that point, and what has changed since then?

From Elvis's televised pelvic thrusts to Miley Cyrus riding a wrecking ball in nothing but boots, popular music has a history of pushing the boundaries of good taste. But in the mid-1980s, there was concerted pushback.

In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center, or PMRC, released the Filthy Fifteen, a list of 15 songs about sex, masturbation, violence or the occult from artists like Prince, Motley Crue, AC/DC, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. It was a reaction to the pop landscape of the time. MTV had made music more visual and visible than ever, and this rewarded artists for pushing boundaries and being controversial. The MTV Video Music Awards, where Madonna suggestively rolled around on stage while singing "Like a Virgin," debuted the previous fall, and bands like Slayer and Judas Priest were accused of "backmasking" -- or putting subliminal and sometimes satanic messages in their songs. Parents were worried.

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