h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i have heard reliogeos people saying that if you reverse metal bands songs you will get some evil message, is this true? can somebody give me a song that if i play backwards will give me an evil message, although with bands like slipknot they dont bother hiding it, they just come out and say it lol

umm.. well I know that Judas Preist have subliminal messaging in one of their songs, because they got sued for it. It's almost definitely a coincidence though, and says "do it" - so it's not exactly Satanic, even if it was intentional.

I've heard about a Queen song that has a backwards message in it. Something along the lines of "it's fun to smoke pot" or "pot is fun" ... something like that. Quite possibly a coincidence as well. Sorry I don't know the name of the song.

I've always wondered though, is the human brain even capable of decifering a backwards message? I mean, do they have any affect you you at all, or would you be completely unaffected even if you listened to it for hours?

i think the queen song was another one bites the dust, i seem to remember my friend saying that did

i dont think they have any affect, i listen to music like that for hours and i havnt done anything, i think metalica has them, but im listing to them now and im certainly not going evil

Yeah, it was "Another one bites the dust" The message was "It's fun to smoke marijuana".

The backwards-message thing is called backmasking, by the way. Another song that was roumered to have it was "stairway to heaven" although I hear that one's a lot more debatable. Most people don't hear it. The message is apparently "here's to our lord Satan" or something like that.

... Everything i've read so far seems to think the whole thing is complete garbage though.

I remember hearing a really intriguing one a few years back (actually it was a good ten, fifteen years back!)

It appears (according to the recording played to us) that the line 'Another One Bites the Dust' from the Queen Song if played backwards suggests that it's a jolly wheeze to indulge oneself in a certain botanical additive. I thought the suggestion was a bit daft until I heard it and found that it did!

Of course, I can't say for sure that the recording wasn't tweaked in some way or other, and I'm not going to suggest that it was or wasn't as I'm not a sound recording engineer and know nothing about recording techniques. But hearing the words backwards sounding like that was really weird.

Mind you, the Mary Whitehouse Experience (a comedy quartet which used to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 back in the early nineties) did a really neat sketch about it where the Devil is discussing with a Minion how he's going to enslave mankind by putting coded messages onto the lyrics of Heavy Metal records so they can hear them when the record is played backwards - until the Minion points out that you can't hear the lyrics - and anyway, they'll all be buying CDs.

Well I thought it was funny...

I think the Jury's probably still out on all this subliminal messaging stuff - but that was one example that I actually listened to - and, yes, it was at a church meeting!

We didn't get anything from the Heavy Metal bands which are supposed to do this sort of thing though - the presenter stuck to a reasonably 'innocent' example which showed that it *is* possible, even if only by coincidence - so I couldn't suggest anything else. Given that I find Heavy Metal to be relentless ear-numbing noise, I've never listened to enough to come across one!

Darn it. I am *so* slow at composing my posts...

I am not quite sure if I remember right...

But I think there is a song by Prince (or whatever he is called now), that has an intentinal backwards message.

They put the choir backwards into the song, so all that you here are nice soothing noises and no text. If you play the record backwards, they are singing a prayer.

If thats evil or not... well, you decide

Chili

hmm... this is actually quite an interesting subject.

here's a site where you can hear some famous sound clips (speeches by GW Bush, and such) and then hear them in reverse:

http://www.reversespeech.com/Simple_Examples.htm

and here is a site that plays songs with 'backwards messages' in them (forwards and backwards). everything from Beatles to Judas Preist.

http://reversespeech.com/music_reversals.htm

There was a Snap song some years ago (I think it was called 'do you see the light'). I'd just bought a four-track and was experimenting with playing songs backwards. Michael Jackson had just featured in a documentary where he had whined 'it hurts me' about press intrusion or something like that. Those very words could be heard - and sounding like Michael Jackson - when a part of the song played backwards.

Just to put the record straight here...

Yes, Judas Priest were sued in 1990 because they were accused of putting subliminal messages in their records, thus causing the suicide of (i think) two boys...

The whole case was eventually thrown out of court by the judge though


And if you listen hard enough to any recorded speech played backwards your brain is bound to find 'subliminal' text - our brains work by looking for patterns in seemingly random noises.

The Judas Priest song was up in court because two drunk lads were 'inspired' to top themselves whilst listening to it. One succeeded, the other just ended up with a head injury and the conviction that the words 'do it, do it'- not the booze, o'course- was sufficient incentive to do oneself in.
Hmm.

Is there any real evidence *at all* that messages that you don't actually hear can be coherently processed
There is one on 'The Wall' which goes 'Congratulations, you have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont.' That one is real at least, but not interesting, not satanic, and is reliably said to be a techie's prank.