The idea of subliminal messages in songs, by a method called backmasking, has become a topic of discussion among many famous artists and songs. In my opinion, most of the “controversial messages” are not even there. I think people play a song backwards searching for something crazy. It seems like a way to criticize or put a bad spotlight on musicians. The most recognizable example is Led Zeppelins “Stairway to Heaven.”
Many songs, including “Stairway to Heaven”, have been accused of containing satanic worship messages when played backwards. “Stairway” is convincing to many because the original line, “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now/It’s just a spring clean for the May queen”, is a very strange lyric to begin with. When played backwards it supposedly reads, “Here’s to my sweet Satan/I sing because I live with Satan”. I’m skeptical because the original line is very odd, but in the end I don’t believe anything is really hidden. I think someone went looking for something strange and thought they heard the name Satan. Plus, if you listen to it, there is no way you can hear that line if you don’t already know what it is. Another famous song, “Hotel California” by The Eagles, has been accused of hiding the line “Yeah Satan organized his own religion”. Once again, I hear nothing in this song that makes me believe The Eagles were up to anything fishy.
Other songs are more believable in my opinion. The song “Help” by The Beatles is accused of supporting drugs when played backwards. After listening to it, it is easy to hear the line, “Now he uses Marijuana”. The message is audible, unlike the Led Zeppelin example, and the actual meaning of the song “Help” was written by The Beatles about their drug abuse, so it makes sense. I’m not completely convinced that The Beatles did this on purpose, but it isn’t as absurd. Another Beatles track “Revolution 9” is definitely more believable. The song repeats the words “number 9” over and over, which is strange. When reversed, the line reads “turn me on dead man”. These Beatles examples are highly possible, mainly because they’re the Beatles, where as the prior Satan examples are farfetched to me.
Finally, some artists use the technique of back masking to obviously “hide” messages, sometimes as a joke. The comedy artist Weird Al Yankovic uses backmasking to poke fun at backmasking, ironic. In his song “Nature trail to hell” he purposely hides the mocking line of, “Satan eats Cheez Whiz”, which is a direct joke on the people who claim songs have hidden Satanic messages, such as “Stairway to Heaven. Another example of intentional backmasking is the song “Announcement service public” by the band Linkin Park. The song is a mostly instrumental bit, only around 2 minutes long, but towards the end you can hear the vocalist screaming nonsense. He isn’t communicating anything when the song is played forwards, but as the title suggests (Public service announcement would make more sense that announcement service public) there is something when heard backwards. The message heard when back masked is, “You should brush your teeth and you should wash your hands”. It’s obvious that Linkin Park recorded this song with the intent to make a humorous hidden message. Weird Al and Linkin Park are newer artists, so the idea of back masking has been around for a while and they seem to find the concept funny. They used back masking intentionally to try something different, where as I think The Eagles and Led Zeppelin simply made amazing songs that people dissected way too much.
I think back masking is a fun idea and finding messages can be fun, but in the end I find most of it is ridiculous. The use of it now is mostly intentional, meaning to be found, and it’s easy for computers to do this for newer artists. The supposed use of back masking back in the 60’s and 70’s was, in my opinion, never even there. Many people consider “Stairway to Heaven” the greatest song of all time. The people that took the time to tear it apart and accuse them of supporting Satan took away from its greatness. The same could be said for “Hotel California”, it is an extremely well written song and well-recognized, but there will always be people that claim it’s flawed and controversial. As for The Beatles examples, they’re The Beatles and no one can ever be as appreciated and loved, so they get away with weird things like in “Revolution 9”. Back masking is simply a product of boredom and people’s desire to find flaws in great things. Back masking would not exist today if it weren’t for people that had too much time on their hands.
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