Subliminal Messages In Music: Myth Or Reality?
The question of whether or not there are subliminal messages in music has always been shrouded in controversy. For some, it is simply a myth. For others, however, it is an insignificant anecdote. Others even believe that these messages are capable of changing people’s behavior and influencing their values.
There are still no definitive conclusions regarding subliminal messages in music or pictures. Actual available data are conflicting. Several governments have banned this type of message. However, most researchers have distorted their real effectiveness.
The subject occasionally gets attention again. It has actually caused everything from laughter to great concern. Sometimes people blame subliminal messages in music to incite violence, practice Satanism or use drugs. Can any of this really be true?
Some history
Subliminal messages are designed to break through the boundaries of normal perception. In other words, people cannot perceive them consciously, so they are supposed to receive them without seeing realizing it.
People talked about this type of message thousands of years ago. Aristotle argued that impulses could go unnoticed when people were awake, but that they reappear strongly when they sleep. In the same way, Michael de Montaigne, O. Poetzle and later Sigmund Freud also talked about this type of unconscious experience.
Advances in technology, however, made it possible to really try things out. By the 20th century, this type of communication was actually possible.
In 1957, researchers performed a well-known experiment with subliminal messages in images. Almost ten years later, The Beatles got everyone talking about subliminal messages in music or “backward masking.”
Subliminal messages in music
Subliminal messages in music or “reverse masking” are inserted through a special recording technique. Someone is recording a sound or message backwards on a track that is meant to be played forward. Thus, the listener can only consciously hear the message if they listen to it backwards.
Two major factors led to subliminal messages in music. The first came from “concrete music” in France. This genre used electronic instrument sounds with sounds from the environment and combined them in the recording studio.
The second factor was the use of recorded tapes to record and preserve the original performances of the musicians. This allowed technicians to combine, cut, record, and paste pieces of the original recording.
The Beatles and John Lennon in particular conducted a series of experiments with “concrete music”. Thus, they started a whole new chapter in history.
The Beatles’ seventh album included subliminal messages. For the first time it was a song where words had been played backwards. That song, “Rain”, was released in 1966. The band wanted to satirize, experiment and try out some new sounds, and subliminal messages were a great way to do that. From that time on, many artists did the same. Therefore, subliminal messages in music became more common.
Questions that persist
Predictably, several religious movements began to preach against subliminal messages. As a result, wandering stories about them also gained traction. Many people listened to tapes backwards and found hidden meanings, but the majority of their claims were just wild guesses.
Religious people in particular accused various rock bands of enticing young people to worship the devil, commit crimes and take drugs. The debate raged until psychologists John R. Vokey and J. Don Read performed an experiment in 1985. They recorded a hymn from the Bible and observed the reactions of the listeners.
These researchers concluded that subliminal messages in music had no effect. C. Trappery performed 23 experiments in 1966 which basically gave the same conclusions. However, Johan C. Karremansa, Wolfgang Stroebeb and Jasper Claus, researchers from Utrecht University, conducted a new experiment in 2006. They concluded that these messages could apparently change people’s behavior. The debate continues!
