WHEN SWEDENS PARENTS WERE IN UPROAR ABOUT W.A.S.P.

When W.A.S.P. released their first album in 1984, then they were all over the news and on talk shows here in Sweden, mainly about their stage show but also their lyrics were a topic of discussion. 

OKEJ was the popular and more or less the only music magazine in Sweden at that time and they put W.A.S.P into their magazine as often as possible, and didn’t give one single f**k about what school organizations or politicians thought about them. They were the biggest selling magazine at the time.

So in 1985 when a Home & School organization sent them a letter to stop giving W.A.S.P. publicity, they answered by printing the letter and kind of made fun of them, which lead to that even more teens bought the magazine.

So here’s the article (in Swedish) and down below is an English translation of the letter and the original one in Swedish.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

To

Editor-in-Chief Hans G Hatwig

OKEJ Magazine
Bröderna Lindströms förlag B
Box 7193
103 88 STOCKHOLM

Dear Hatwig.

The board of Jämtland County Home and School District) has assigned me the task of presenting our view of the magazine's launch of the hard rock group WASP to the magazine OKEJ

We fully understand that young people must have their music.

But we object to your helping hard rock groups that use violence, blood, naked women and all sorts of smears in their image, in order to attract attention.

We are worried that this type of band could trigger a whole new violence built on some kind of strange devil worship. There is no such need among our young people.

As a youth magazine, you should boycott groups that cannot do without such an image.

Isn't it better to encourage those in your magazine who have music as their central focus instead?

Isn't it the case that you have the ultimate responsibility for what is in your magazine?

Since the journalist who wrote the article about the hard rock group WASP, apparently has no moral responsibility as a journalist.

If it is the case that you do not take on the moral responsibility, ensure that this type of hard rock groups are not included in your magazine, then we will be forced to take other measures against the newspaper.

With kind regards
Jämtland County Home and School District
Bo Sundström e.u.

My note: Jämtland is a county in northern Sweden.

THE ORIGINAL LETTER:

English translation from the Swedish Pop Magazine OKEJ. OKEJ was more or less the only music magazine in Sweden during the 1980’s and almost 90% of Swedish youth read it and then talked about in school. Are you interested in the OKEJ magazine phenomena, read more here!