Hidden messeges

[*ALFIE*]

Is it true about hidden messeges being heard if music/songs are played backwards ? or is it just a myth ?

[Clanad]

If you stop to think it through, then you come up with "how would anyone know?" Is there any CD or DVD player that can be played in reverse? Same thought process applies to old vinyl recordings, unless one were to move the entire recording by hand backwards on a phongraph, how could you hear such a message, since no phonograph I've ever known could play any recording in reverse. I suppose it could be possiblie on a reel to reel tape, but those are so rare anymore that the audience for such a recording would be extremely limited...

[SteveD]

Have a read here:

http://www.beatlesagain.com/bpidnew.html

[Grunty]

Personally I wouldn't know if pop music was being played backwards, but I think the widespread concern about subliminal messages came from television and cinema advertising. So widespread was the concern that it was banned in Russia and the USA, although nobody had satisfactorily proved that it was being done.

[*ALFIE*]

Then what are these all about ?

http://www.triplo.com/ev/reversal/

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

http://www.geocities.com/muslimtruth/backmasking.html

and this ones bloody scary http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/backmasking

...........................serisouly weird eh ?

[Octavius]

The most famous alleged Backward message (BM) - or backmasking - is from the song "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. When the words "If there's a bustle in your hedgerow [...] there's still time to change the road you're on" are played backwards, the result is a garbled phrase that some claim is the phrase "here's to my sweet Satan. The One whose little path would make me sad, whose power is fate. He'll give you (give you) 666, there was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sadly." However, most people believe the idea is an urban legend.

Several musicians have deliberately recorded BMs into their songs, to make an artistic statement, and to have fun at their critics. Deliberate BMs are usually unintelligible noise when played forward. On Pink Floyds "The Wall" there is an intentional BM at the beginning of the track "Empty Spaces": "...congratulations. Youve Just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont," which refers to former lead singer Syd Barrett, who suffered a breakdown years earlier. On Roger Waters' 1991 album Amused to Death, he recorded a BM critical of Stanley Kubrick, who had refused to let him sample a breathing sound from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Beatles produced two of the first instances of backmasking in popular music in 1966, first on Rain, the B-side of Paperback Writer, which contains the first line of the song played backwards at the end, and again on I'm Only Sleeping, which contains a backwards guitar line in the middle. The Christian rock group Petra in their song "Judas Kiss" included the message "What are you looking for the devil for, when you ought to be looking for the Lord?" The techno music group Information Society, in their cover of the Gary Numan song "Are Friends Electric?", contained "Obey your parents, do your homework, winners don't do drugs".

[*ALFIE*]

i am pretty sure Robbie has tonnes of messeges on his records.

[andy hughes]

I think a more famous case that that mentioned already is the two teenagers who claimed that a backwards message on Judas Priest's album encouraged them into a suicide pact. One of the youths successfully blew his own head off, the other failed, and was dreadfully disfidgured - eventually successfully killing himself a fewe years later.

A court case was broguth by the parents of the two lads - and successfully defended by members of the band - included in their defence was sections of the record played backwards which contained sounds which could be 'interpereted' - but were complete gibberish!

In the end, the court agreed that any imagined 'messages' were simply coincidence, caused in one example by the reversed sound of vocalist Rob Halford taking a breath. The band denied deliberately 'messaging' their fans - and backed up by the defence's more sensible advice that two teenage lads playing records backwards in their rooms for hours at a time were in need of some psychological counselling by professionals, or at least being noted for behaving badly by their parents, the case was dismissed.

The simple fact is, a disturbed mind can see a 'message' anywhere it wants, from music, novels (Mark Chapman) - even everyday life - the problem lies with the individual, not the art form they attempt to blame.

[Octavius]

Yes andy, Judas Priest were sued over a 1985 suicide pact made by two Nevada schoolboys. One of the two boys survived, and the lawsuit by their families claimed that a 1978 Judas Priest album contained hidden messages. The words "Do it" were allegedly audible when the record was played backwards, and the letters S U I (supposedly for "suicide") are in the sleeve artwork. The case was dismissed after evidence was introduced that the boys had grown up in "violent and depressed" surroundings, and after the band demonstrated that other, nonsensical, backwards messages could be found if One exercised enough imagination. Judas Priest members also commented that if they wanted to insert subliminal commands in their music, killing their fans would be counterproductive, and they would prefer to insert the command "Buy more of our records".

[StuartT1]

I work in the sound industry, and have to say that my opinion on subliminal messages in tracks played backwards is that this is absolute nonsence.
If I tell you to go and listen to a track backwards and you'll hear 'he will die on June 18th' after a while you'll convince yourself that that is what you are hearing. What would be a better test is to find a track that is meant to have a subliminal message (don't read what the subliminal message is meant to be) and try and figure it out.
Now - read this whole passage backwards and take every 3rd letter - there's a hidden message in here....

[Octavius]

Octavius gave the best answer
Is that what you meant to write?
Brilliant words of wisdom
And with a very clever insight
He must be well read
Is poetic with verse
Amazing with songs played in reverse

My subliminal message is from the first word in every line, but I think you get the gist

[bongerman]

My favourite hidden message is one that cannot be heard by humans. At the end of side 2 on Sgt Peppers once the music has finished the groove forms a continuous loop (rather than heading into the centre so the stylus gets removed) and plays a dog whistle! People listening at home who thought that the record had finished couldn't work out why their pets were going beserk!

[Bob A Job]

do a google on 'britney spears backwards' if you want a giggle.

[joko]

octavious - the stairway to heaven one is true - I have heard it myself many times, just by manually reversing the record. Its actually not garbled really either.

Me and a friend then recorded it digitally on his computer and reversed it that way - and the message was still there! so not double groove.

I agree that you can imagine messages, some are just a jumble of random words, but some are so clear and make coherrent sentences, its hard to think that these ones are chance.

[Octavius]

Joko - you've got too much spare time!

[joko]

You might be right octavious, but it only took about 20 minutes and was about 12 years ago.

How long did it take you to research that extensive list of details ;D