Californian
loco band 'The Sun Godz' c. 1969. The Sun Godz were one of many bands to contribute to the 'Sound of the Sun' era of
loco music, and among the first to marry the usual Latin inspirations with other music styles.
Loco music did not remain limited to the Pacific States in popularity, and spread across the North and South American continents and beyond. However, it was very much frowned upon in the NRC-era United States. Though not actually made
illegal, federal censors would find so many reasons to not allow
loco to be played or sold that it might as well have been. However, this would lead to a thriving culture of record-smuggling in border states, and American youth could often lay their hands on records, if willing to pay and take 'pot luck' with whatever the smugglers had been able to bring in.
American youth listening to smuggled
loco music at an underground club in Philadelphia, c. 1967. Despite the efforts of the censors, of police departments, and of parents in many cases, it was impossible to keep either
loco or German Neo-Cabaret out of the country. Thus, the NRC encouraged a number of friendly businessmen to establish 'youth' record labels, which would promote 'more suitable' artists.
Anita Bryant c. 1971. Bryant was one of the artists promoted by Eagle Records, a record company with the unofficial backing of the NRC and the official stamp of approval from the Office of the Federal Censor. By volume of sales, she was a fairly popular artist...though anecdotal evidence suggests the majority of purchases of her records were by parents who thought this was what their teenage offspring were listening to. Another reason - again, thanks to anecdotal evidence - is that young people would buy her records, then throw away the discs and use the sleeve to house their smuggled copies of The Sun Godz or The Desert Flowers or Joan Baez.
Bryant was also outspoken on socio-political matters including her patriotism, her religio-patriotism, and her denunciation of the many 'evils' that riddled PSA and Canadian youth culture and how they were trying to 'influence good American kids away from the light'. In later life, she would join the Patriotic Christian Association and become one of its leading spokespeople. She remains an outspoken proponent of her brand of Christianity and public morality, being a vigorous denouncer of the 'Manhattan Scene', but owing to her previous membership of the PCA even most right-wing Christians want nothing to do with her...and while many social conservatives would agree with her fulminations against gay rights, her demands to make it illegal on a federal level is something that even few conservatives would openly support these days.