Some people have way to much time on their hands to listen to Jay Z backwards. I’m not fond of listening to him forwards.
I also have to say that with the number of times I’ve listened to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”, I’ve never felt the urge to go and get high on marijuana…
I also have to say that with the number of times I’ve listened to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”, I’ve never felt the urge to go and get high on marijuana…
I can say the same.
But I’m also of the mind that for subliminal or subconscious suggestion to work you have to have a natural inclination toward whatever the suggestion is. I’ve never done drugs, I’ve never wanted to do drugs and I don’t plan on doing drugs in the future. Therefore a “hidden” message trying to secretly tell me to get high wouldn’t be effective on me because it would be against my nature.
And, of course, I find the whole backward message thing stupid, too.
So today it is Jay-Z with the satanic messages, eh?
When I was in middle school my parents had enrolled me in a very strict Southern Baptist private school - all the fire and brimstone you could desire. We had daily chapel services where the pastor preached on the evils of rock and roll and the satanic backmasking contained therein. Back then he was still harping on Led Zepplin, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, and The Beatles, even though it was the early 80s. We had book and record burnings there too, it was pretty scary stuff.
Of course the only effect it had on me was to make me go out and buy all of the above mentioned artists to see what the big deal was all about.
Any psychological problems I may have I attribute to attending that school for two years, lol.
All that unconscious stuff is stupid. Even if a song had secret messages when played backwards, there is no way that the human brain would figure it out unconsciously and act on it, whether or not you have an inclination towards the act.
Well, if you listen to Nirvana backwards it subliminally encourages listeners to mumble incoherently. That is assuming that you can tell if you’re listening to it backwards instead of forwards. . .
This is just soooooo old!
It originated with the Beatles’ song “I am the walrus”.
If you played it backwards you were supposed to hear the words “John has been dead for ages”.
Back in those times music was not digital, so playing songs backwards at normal speed was difficult.
So the myth lived on.
Later, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, AC/DC, Kiss, Marilyn Manson and almost every rock artist/band you care to mention have been accused of putting subliminal backwards messages in their texts.
This, however, is the first case I’ve heard of when the victim of the urban legend is not a _rock_ artist/band.
I always liked the defense Judas Priest’s attorneys used during a trial following the suicide attempt of two boys (one immediately successful, one belatedly successful). Basically it boiled down the Band and especially the record label being in the business to make money. Exterminating their audience was counterproductive to this aim. If they’d wanted to put subliminal messages in their songs they’d be more along the lines of “Buy more records from us”.
