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Backmasking

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward.[1] It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

Not to be confused with backward masking.

Artists have used backmasking for artistic, comedic and satiric effect, on both analogue and digital recordings. It has also been used to censor words or phrases for "clean" releases of explicit songs.


In 1969, rumors of a backmasked message in the Beatles song "Revolution 9" fueled the Paul is dead urban legend.[2] Since at least the early 1980s, Christian groups in the United States alleged that backmasking was being used by prominent rock musicians for Satanic purposes,[3] leading to record-burning protests and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments during the 1980s, as part of the Satanic panic movement of the time.


Many popular musicians were accused of including backmasked messages in their music. However, apparent backmasked messages may in fact be examples of pareidolia (the brain's tendency to recognize patterns in meaningless data), coincidental phonetic reversal,[2] or as deliberate responses to the allegations themselves.[4]

History[edit]

Development[edit]

The backwards playing of records was advised as training for magicians by occultist Aleister Crowley, who suggested in his 1913 book Magick (Book 4) that an adept "train himself to think backwards by external means", one of which was to "listen to phonograph records, reversed".[5][2] In the movie Gold Diggers of 1935, the end of the dancing-pianos musical number, "The Words Are in My Heart," is filmed in reverse motion, with the accompanying instrumental score incidentally being reversed.

... Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont ...

Roger! Carolyne's on the phone!

Okay.

List of backmasked messages

Phonetic reversal

Programming the Nation?

Reverse speech

Subliminal stimuli

Denisoff, R. Serge (1988). Inside MTV. Transaction.  978-0-88738-864-4.

ISBN

Patterson, R. Gary (2004). . Fireside. ISBN 978-0-7432-4423-7.

Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses

(1983). "Secret Messages on Records". Big Secrets. New York City: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 978-0-688-04830-3. Chapter also available with commentary by Malinda McCall.

Poundstone, William

(1986). "Backward Messages on Records". Bigger Secrets. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-45397-1.

Poundstone, William

Vokey, John R. (2005). "Subliminal Messages". (PDF) (7th ed.). Lethbridge, Alberta: Psyence Ink. pp. 249–261. Retrieved January 25, 2012.

Psychological Sketches

Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 78.  978-0-8058-0508-6.

ISBN

 – essay on backmasking & a small survey about perception of alleged satanic messages in the song "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin

Backmasking

 – clips and analysis of possible backmasked messages

Backmask Online

 – a Flash player with forward and backward versions of songs claimed to contain backmasking; the focus of the Wall Street Journal article

Jeff Milner's Backmasking Page

 – Another flash player with forward and backward versions of songs claimed to contain backmasking

Subliminal Audio Database

 – allows uploaded music to be reversed

TalkBackwards.com

Hidden and Satanic Messages In Rock Music

Excerpt

exploring backmasking by announcer Joe Kleon, broadcast on WRQK-FM, with audio samples from Britney Spears, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Styx, Cheap Trick and others

Radio program

A Touch Radio podcast made of backmasking, both as a tribute and as an artistic approach