A backward message (also known as backward masking or backmasking) is a supposed subliminal message hidden in an audio recording that is only fully apparent when played backwards. For the article about subconscious level message delivery, see subliminal message. ...

Alleged backmasking

For a list of examples, see: List of backward messages#Alleged messages

Backmasking first became famous with The Beatles. Just before the band's break-up in 1970, DJ Russell Gibb initiated the infamous "Paul Is Dead" urban legend (a rumor that Beatle Paul McCartney had died) by playing certain Beatles records backwards to reveal hidden messages. One album in particular, The Beatles (aka The White Album) was said to contain backwards messages. Intentional gibberish at the end of "I'm So Tired" supposedly is "Paul is dead, man, miss him, miss him..." Likewise, the repeated words "Number nine, number nine, number nine..." in "Revolution 9" are supposedly "turn me on, dead man, turn me on, dead man..." backwards. The following is an incomplete list of backward messages found in various forms of media including music and video games. ... The Beatles were a pop and rock music group from Liverpool, England, who continue to be held in the very highest regard for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, and their groundbreaking role in the history of popular music. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... The Paul Is Dead rumor started with a series of events in the 1960s that led fans of the popular rock band The Beatles to believe that bassist Paul McCartney was actually dead and replaced with a look-alike. ... It has been suggested that William Shears Campbell be merged into this article or section. ... Urban legends are a kind of folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them (see rumor). ... Paul McCartney on stage in Prague, June 6, 2004 Paul McCartney (born June 18, 1942; known formally as Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE or Sir Paul) is a British singer, musician and songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles. ... The Beatles is a double album, released by The Beatles in 1968. ... Revolution 9 is an experimental recording which appeared on The Beatles 1968 self-titled LP release (known as the White Album). ...

Probably the most well-known example of alleged backmasking is found in rock group Led Zeppelin's 1971 song "Stairway to Heaven." The controversial lyrics are as follows: Stairway to Heaven is a song by the British rock group Led Zeppelin released in 1971 on their fourth studio album, - Led Zeppelin IV. It is widely accepted as one of the greatest of all rock songs and is the most frequently requested song on FM radio stations in the...

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean from the May Queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by; but in the long run,
There's still time to change the road you're on.

Some interpret the reversed lyrics to sound like the following:

Here's to my sweet Satan
The one who's little path would make me sad, who's power is fake/Satan.
He'll give those with him 666
There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was rumored to have bought well known Occultist Aleister Crowley's house, which was known as the "Toolshed." James Patrick Jimmy Page OBE, (born January 9, 1944) is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential guitarists in rock music. ... The word occult comes from Latin occultus (hidden), referring to the knowledge of the secret or knowledge of the hidden and often meaning knowledge of the supernatural, as opposed to knowledge of the visible or knowledge of the measurable, usually referred to as science. ... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an occultist, mystic, hedonist and sexual revolutionary. ...

The accusations are also supported by other lines in the song, including "And if you listen very hard / The tune will come to you at last."

Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant denied the accusations in an interview [1]: "To me it's very sad, because 'Stairway To Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music." Robert Plant performing live on stage at the University of East Anglia in November 2002. ...

British heavy metal band Judas Priest was 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." Heavy Metal is a genre of music that emerged as a defined musical style in the 1970s, having its roots in hard rock bands which, between 1967 and 1974, took blues and rock to create a hybrid with a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterised by the use... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article is about the year. ... Official language(s) None Capital Carson City Largest city Las Vegas Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 7th 286,367 km² 519 km 788 km 0. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Other artists accused of backmasking include AC/DC, Sweet, Black Oak Arkansas, Rush, J. Geils Band, The Beatles and Prince. Some of Styx's songs, most notably Mr. Roboto, include deliberate backmasking that pokes fun at the controversy. In the Britney Spears song "...Baby One More Time", the "I lose my mind / Give me a sign" lyrics can sound like "sleep with me, I'm not too young" when played backwards. The Eminem song "My Name Is", when played backwards, is supposedly laden with unintentionally hilarious messages. AC/DC is an Australian hard rock band. ... Sweet, on the cover of their 1974 Desolation Boulevard LP. From left to right: Andy Scott, Steve Priest, Brian Connolly, & Mick Tucker. ... Black Oak Arkansas, 1972 Black Oak Arkansas is an American southern rock band named after the bands hometown of Black Oak, Arkansas. ... Rush is a Canadian progressive rock band comprising bassist, keyboardist and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart (IPA: ). Rush formed in the summer of 1968, in Willowdale, Ontario (a northern suburb of Toronto) by Lifeson, Lee, and John Rutsey. ... The J. Geils Band was a Rock N Roll/Rhythm & Blues band that played to large arena crowds in the United States in the 1970s before moving towards a more pop-influenced sound in the 1980s, that got them airplay on MTV, which was just lifting off in the early... The Beatles were a pop and rock music group from Liverpool, England, who continue to be held in the very highest regard for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, and their groundbreaking role in the history of popular music. ... Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958), known as (or, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince) from 1993 to 2000, is a popular and influential American musician. ... Styx is the first musical act to ever have four consecutive triple platinum albums, and remain one of the most popular musical acts in history. ... Mr. ... Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American pop singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, Author and Producer. ... …Baby One More Time is the debut single from Pop singer Britney Spears, who released from her debut album . ... This article is about the rapper Eminem. ... My Name Is is a song by Eminem, released in 1999. ...

Deliberate backmasking

For a list of examples, see: Deliberate messages

Several musicians have deliberately recorded backward messages into their songs, as a way of making an artistic statement, and also to have fun at the expense of their critics. Unlike unintentional, alleged backward messages, which result from playing normal lyrics backward, deliberate backward messages are usually unintelligible noise when played forward. The following is an incomplete list of backward messages found in various forms of media including music and video games. ...

Frank Zappa experimented with the unusual sounds of backmasking from his earliest albums, particularly "We're only in it for the Money" 1968, which has the backmasked message "Take a look around before you say you don't care, shut your fucking mouth about the length of my hair, how would you survive, if you were alive, shitty little person" at the end of side A. This profanity laced verse of the song "Mother People" was not permitted by the record publisher, hence the need for backmasking. Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, guitarist, singer, film director, and satirist. ... Were Only in It For the Money is a rock n roll album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. ...

On Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict, a track from the two part 1969 Pink Floyd album, Ummagumma, there is a hidden message in the song. Around the 4:22 mark, if played at a slower speed, you can hear Waters [2] [3] or guitarist David Gilmour [4] [5] say, "That was pretty avant-garde, wasn't it?". 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Pink Floyd (formed in 1965 in Cambridge, England) is an English rock band, noted for progressive compositions, philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, cover art, and elaborate live shows. ... Ummagumma is a progressive rock album by Pink Floyd. ... David Jon Gilmour, CBE (born March 6, 1946) is an English guitarist and vocalist with British rock band Pink Floyd. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ...

On Pink Floyd's rock epic The Wall there is an intentional backwards message halfway through the track "Empty Spaces": Pink Floyd (formed in 1965 in Cambridge, England) is an English rock band, noted for progressive compositions, philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, cover art, and elaborate live shows. ... The Wall is a rock opera and concept album by Pink Floyd. ...

"...congratulations. You've just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont"

Many fans believe this line refers to former lead singer Syd Barrett, who suffered a breakdown years earlier. On Roger Waters' 1991 album Amused to Death, he deliberately recorded a backward message critical of film director Stanley Kubrick, who had refused to let Waters sample a breathing sound from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Syd Barrett, 1970 Roger Keith (Syd) Barrett (born January 6, 1946 in Cambridge, England) was one of the founding members of the group Pink Floyd. ... George Roger Waters (born September 6, 1943) is an English rock musician and songwriter. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Amused to Death is a solo album by former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, released in 1992 (see 1992 in music). ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer who is widely considered to have been one of the most innovative, talented, and influential filmmakers of the late 20th century. ...

It is considered by many that Slayer's 1985 album Hell Awaits is largely responsible for the idea of hidden Satanic messages in music. The album starts with a demonic-sounding voice urging something that when played backwards is "Join Us" repeated over and over as it and increases in volume. Slayer is an American thrash metal band, founded in Huntington Park, California (not Huntington Beach as has often been reported) in 1981 by Tom Araya (bass guitar, vocals), Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman (guitars) and Dave Lombardo (drums). ...

A few Christian rock musicians in the 1980s included deliberate backmasking with a gospel message as a lighthearted way of poking fun at the concern over backmasking—concern which was often being promoted by the same fundamentalist evangelists who were also attacking Christian rock. 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?" Another Christian rock musician, Randy Stonehill, included the backward message "He shall reign forever" in his song "Rainbow." The Christian heavy metal band Stryken (not to be confused with Stryper) put a warning label on their album to warn listeners that the album contained numerous backward messages urging the listener to accept Jesus Christ as personal savior. Christian rock is a phorm oph rock music played by bands where the musicians are openly Christian. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... Petra is a Christian Rock band formed in the 70s. ... Randy Stonehill is an American singer/songwriter from San Jose, California. ... Stryper is a Christian metal band from Orange County, California, USA. Formed in 1983, they are considered to be pioneers in the popularization of Christian rock music. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

On the other side of the spectrum, on their 1994 album Born Dead, heavy metal band Body Count intentionally put in a backward message on the song "Killing Floor," which when played backwards says, "Body Count, motherfucker. Burn in hell!" Black metal band Darkthrone put a backward message at the end of the seventh track of their Transilvanian Hunger album, which said, "In the name of God, let the churches burn." The Cradle of Filth song "Dinner at Deviants Palace" consists almost entirely of ambient sounds and a reversed reading of the Lord's Prayer (being able to say the Lord's Prayer backwards was perceived in the middle ages as a sign of being a witch). The Finnish metal act Turmion Kätilöt, on their 2005 EP Niuva 20, inserted a deliberate backwards message about halfway through the second track, "Kirosana" ("Swear Word,") which, when played backwards, says, "Raiskatkaamme tämä helvetillinen maanpäällinen taivas. Siinä sinulle elämän tarkoitus" (roughly translating to "Let's rape this damned aboveground heaven. There is meaning of life for you."). This is one known example of backmasking in another language. Another less known example is in The Alan Parsons Project album The Turn of a Friendly Card: at the very end of the first track "May be a price to pay", a backward message is inserted, constructed by the words "something's been going on, there may be a price to pay" played in reverse. The message is in clear and present spanish, and says: "Escucha, baby, al Demonio, es bien fácil" (Listen, baby, to the Demon, it's so easy). Heavy Metal is a genre of music that emerged as a defined musical style in the 1970s, having its roots in hard rock bands which, between 1967 and 1974, took blues and rock to create a hybrid with a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterised by the use... Body Count is a crossover band, best known for being fronted by Ice-T and causing a furor with the release of Cop Killer from their debut album, Body Count. ... The word motherfucker (also contracted forms mother, mofo, and mamma-jamma and, phonetically, in African American Vernacular English, muthafucka) is a common insult and profanity in the English language and is widely considered obscene. ... Black metal is a musical genre which emerged in the early 1980s predating the great expansion of heavy metal extreme genres. ... Darkthrone is a highly influential Norwegian black metal band formed in 1986. ... Cradle of Filth is an English band formed in 1991. ... The Lords Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster, in Greek as the , or the English equivalent Our Father) is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Heavy metal music. ... Turmion Kätilöt is a Finnish industrial metal band founded by MC Raaka Pee and DJ Vastapallo. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An example of EP, Mint Car from The Cure released in 1996. ... A profanity (or swear word, or curse word) is a word, expression, or other usage which is generally considered insulting, rude or vulgar. ... The Alan Parsons Project was a British progressive rock and pop group active between 1975 and 1987 founded by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson. ... The Turn Of A Friendly Card is a progressive rock album by The Alan Parsons Project. ...

Parodies of backmasking

The manual for the popular sound program SoX pokes fun at subliminal messages.

For a list of examples, see: Parody messages

The Firesign Theatre use backward masking as a joke on their album How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All in which the protagionist thinks he is on the wrong side of the album and has to play it backwards and finds out that it's alright because they are "only speaking Chinese." Image File history File links A screenshot of the man page for the SoX program, which includes a joke about backward messages. ... Image File history File links A screenshot of the man page for the SoX program, which includes a joke about backward messages. ... Sound eXchange, abbreviated SoX, is a free digital audio editor which is licensed under the GPL and distributed by Chris Bagwell through Sourceforge. ... The following is an incomplete list of backward messages found in various forms of media including music and video games. ... Left to right: Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin, and David Ossman in 2001 The Firesign Theatre is a comedy troupe consisting of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor. ... How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When Youre Not Anywhere at All was the second comedy album recorded by The Firesign Theatre. ...

A famous, deliberately recorded backward message comes from the beginning of the Electric Light Orchestra song "Fire on High," where the mysterious deep mumbling reverses to "The music is reversible, but time is not...turn back! Turn back! Turn back!"—ostensibly a shot at the hysteria surrounding "reversed speech" at the time the album was released. The ELO Logo as seen on numerous music covers Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) was a successful Birmingham rock music group of the 1970s and 1980s. ...

The irreverant rap/punk band Bloodhound Gang poked fun at the backmasking controversy in their song Lift Your Head Up High (and blow your brains out). At one point the lyrics contain the lines The Bloodhound Gang are an American post-grunge rock-and-roll band, originally from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. ...

I hope you take this the wrong way

And misinterpret what I say

Rewind and let me reverse it

Backwards like Judas Priest first did.

followed by garbled speech. When played backwards, the speech says "devil child will wake up and eat Chef Boyardee Beefaroni" in an intentionally deep, odd-sounding voice, similar to the way backwards speech normally sounds. Chef Boyardee in an early television commercial. ...

Two songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic employ deliberate backmasking; only one song of the two has a particular (albeit tongue-in-cheek) demonic reference. In "Nature Trail to Hell", from the 1984 album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D, Al declares that "Satan eats Cheez Whiz." Later, in "I Remember Larry" from the 1996 album Bad Hair Day, Al lightly chastises the listener, remarking, "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands." Additionally, in the music video for Amish Paradise, one scene required Al to film a small portion of the song while walking and phonetically singing backwards. In the video itself, this scene is played in reverse so it appears Al is walking and singing normally, and the various animals and occurances around him are actually the ones moving backwards. Alfred Matthew Weird Al Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American musician best known for his parodies of contemporary radio hits. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D, sometimes referred to simply as In 3-D, is the second [[album (music)|album by song parodist Weird Al Yankovic, released in 1984. ... Cheez Whiz is a thick processed cheese sauce introduced by Kraft Foods in 1952. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Bad Hair Day is the ninth album by song parodist Weird Al Yankovic, released in 1996. ... Scene from music video. ...

In the metal parody "Why Rock?" by superhero ska band The Aquabats, the unusually positive backmasked messages include, "Put dinner in its place. Don't eat too many dairy products or you might get diarrhea. Dab the grease off your pizza before you eat. In school, it's worth it to graduate. Your parents have the right idea. Brush your teeth." Superman and Batman, two of the most recognizable and iconic superheroes. ... Ska is a form of Jamaican music which began in the early 1960s. ... The Aquabats are a musical ensemble from Southern California known for their humorous lyrics and outrageous live shows, during which the band is often attacked by supervillains onstage. ... Diarrhea (American English) or diarrhoea (Commonwealth English) is a condition in which the sufferer has frequent and watery, chunky, or loose bowel movements (from the ancient Greek word διαρροή = leakage; lit. ...

Australian hip hop group Butterfingers parodied backmasking in their track "Everytime." The line "Everytime you play my lyrics in reverse they're satanic" is followed by the stock backmasking sound with the clearly heard words "worship satan, worship satan." The song pokes fun at the allegations of backmasking of satanic messages. Butterfingers is an Australian hip-hop group, from Brisbane, Queensland. ...

In Neal Stephenson's novel Zodiac, the protagonist, Sangoman Taylor, at one time comes home to find a series of death threats on his phone's answering machine; when he rewinds the machine's tape, his flatmate enters the room and asks when Taylor started listening to heavy metal music. Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (b. ... Zodiac (1988) is Neal Stephensons second novel, which tells the story of an environmentalist uncovering a conspiracy involving industrialist pollutors and bicameral minded Satanists in the Boston Harbor. ...

A Simpsons episode made use of backmasking. Bart Simpson and The Party Posse (a short-lived boy band) sang a song with the lyrics "Yvan Eht Nioj." Lisa subsequently figured out, once the townspeople were boarding navy buses that the term said Join the Navy. The Simpson family first seen on The Tracey Ullman Show. ... Bartholomew Jo-Jo Simpson, better known as Bart, (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) He is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. ... A boyband (British English)—or boy band (American English)—is a type of pop group featuring between three and six young male singers who are usually also dancers. ... Lisa Marie Simpson (voiced by Yeardley Smith) is a fictional character on the animated television series The Simpsons. ...

In the man page of the popular SoX program, the description of the "reverse" option says "Included for finding satanic subliminals." Almost all substantial UNIX and Unix-like operating systems have extensive documentation available as an electronic manual, split into multiple sections called man pages (short for manual pages and based on the command used to display them). ... Sound eXchange, abbreviated SoX, is a free digital audio editor which is licensed under the GPL and distributed by Chris Bagwell through Sourceforge. ...

In the computer game Doom II, a garbled message played at the start of Map 30, spoken by the "Icon of Sin", can be played backwards to hear "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero." The player can use the no-clip cheat to enter the brain of the Icon of Sin to see Romero's head impaled on a stake. This article is about computer and video games. ... Doom II: Hell on Earth is a first-person shooter video game created by id Software. ... The following are enemies in the id Software first-person shooter computer and video games Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom II and Final Doom. ... Romero with short hair Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is a famous figure in the computer gaming industry. ...

In the end credits of the Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy a voice can be heard speaking backwards at the end of the credits. Played backwards, the voice states "No, no, this is the END of the show. You're watching it backwards!" The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, created by Maxwell Atoms, is an American animated television series that currently airs on Cartoon Network. ...

When reversed, the Mindless Self Indulgence song "Backmask Warning!" contains mundane hidden messages such as "Eat your vegetables" and "Clean your room", and ultimately "Don't listen to this song" as a parody of the usual sensational and 'evil' backmasked messages. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In the HIM song, "Venus (In Our Blood)" off their 2005 Sire release Dark Light, at the beginning if you reverse it, it plays VERY creepy Jack-In-The-Box type music and there is a little girl that says "Where are we going, Daddy?". The heartagram used by HIM. HIM, a Pop/Alternative Rock-band from Finland, was formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Hermanni Valo, along with Mikko Viljami Linde Lindström and Mikko Heinrik Julius Migé Amour Paananen. ... Dark Light was Finnish Alternative Metal band HIMs fifth full length album. ...

The Christian Death song Mysterium Iniquitatis is sung almost entirely backwards, which when reversed, expresses atheistic beliefs. // Christian Death is a band name that originally applied to a Los Angeles death rock group during the post punk era in the early 1980s, but after some major line up changes (which resulted at one point, during the mid 1990s, in two bands with the name Christian Death), it... Atheism, in its broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of gods. ...

The grande finale of the stage show The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company consists of the comedy troupe performing the play Hamlet backwards. "Oh, yes," one of the performers quips, "and be sure to listen for the Satanic messages," leading to the obvious yelled joke: "Judas Priest is God!" As massive improvisation is an intentional part of the show, however, other celebrities (most notably Frank Sinatra) sometimes find themselves deified instead. Also used is the phrase 'reelect George Bush!'. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abrindged) is a comedy. ... The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a company of actors that performs unsubtle, fast-paced, seemingly highly-improvisational comedies presenting ludicrously condensed versions of huge topics. ... The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare and is one of his best-known and most often quoted plays. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Michelangelos depiction of God in the painting Creation of the Sun and Moon in the Sistine Chapel This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Improvisation is the act of making something up as it is performed. ... The neutrality of this article or section may be compromised by weasel words. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. ...

Backward music and lyrics as a form of art

The Icelandic band Sigur Rós has used backmasking in a somewhat different way. The instrumental portions of one of their songs, "Starálfur," sounds similar be hidden inside another. Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical and minimalist elements. ...

Heavy rock act KoЯn used backmasking in their interlude track "Am I Going Crazy" from their fourth album Issues. When listened to forwards it is a short track less than a minute in length without any of the distorted guitars or heavy drumming typical of the band. When listened to backwards the song sounds the same backwards as forwards. The song is recorded forwards in one track and backwards on the other, meaning the two are split between the left and right speakers. One final note is that the words "It's the same thing" become audible when the track is played in reverse. Korn logo KoЯn. ... Issues is the fourth album by the band KoЯn. ...

The Stone Roses created the song "Don't Stop" from their self-titled debut-album by playing the demo of another song, "Waterfall", backwards, and then adding lyrics that they thought fit to the sound of the song. The Stone Roses were one of the most influential bands to come out of England during the late 1980s and early 90s. ... The Stone Roses is the debut album by The Stone Roses, released in March 1989. ...

Radiohead created the song "Like Spinning Plates" from Amnesiac by playing the backing track from "I Will" backwards. Singer Thom Yorke then sung the lyrics, played them backwards and learned how to sing them backwards. He recorded them backwards and reversed them for the final take of the song. (This technique was also used for the Man from another place character in the television drama Twin Peaks.) This article needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by British rock band Radiohead, released on June 4, 2001 in the United Kingdom and on June 5 in the United States and Canada, debuting at #2 on the Billboard Top 100. ... The Man from another place also known as The Dream Dwarf is a character in the Mark Frost and David Lynch television series, Twin Peaks, which aired over 29 episodes on ABC from 1990-91. ... This article is about the television show. ...

Kate Bush used a similar method of singing and recording lyrics backwards and to make them sounds right in reverse in several songs, for instance Watching You Without Me (1985) and Leave it Open (1982), starting a long discussion thread [6] about mysterious hidden messages in her lyrics. Kate Bush (born Catherine Bush on 30 July 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent, now part of Greater London) is an English singer-songwriter known for her expressive three-octave voice, idiosyncratic and literary lyrics, and eclectic and meticulous musical and production style. ...

In the song, "It's Alive" by Tech N9ne, he records rehearsed gibberish into the beginning of the second verse, which, when reversed, makes an actual rhyme. In fact, Tech N9ne has several songs where he runs the lyrics backwards. Sometimes (in the case of the song, "Freaky"), he runs it backwards to censor himself. The method he used in "It's Alive" has caught the attention of many an underground hip-hop artist, and his music serves as an inspirational challenge to a lot of rising stars. Tech N9ne (born November 8, 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri as Aaron D. Yates) is a rapper. ... Tech N9ne (born November 8, 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri as Aaron D. Yates) is a rapper. ...

In Enigma's fourth album, The Screen Behind the Mirror, the song "Camera Obscura" contained sections of Andru Donalds' reversed vocals from "Modern Crusaders", an earlier track in the album. Towards the end of "Camera Obscura", a symmetric pattern emerges at the point of climax, as it reverses into the buildup of the climax, creating a chaotic-like atmosphere. Enigma is a musical project started by Michael Cretu and his wife Sandra Cretu in 1990. ... The Screen Behind the Mirror is a 1999 music album created by the musical project Enigma. ...

Boards of Canada's albums contain many hidden messages, including an audio palindrome in "A is to B as B is to C" and the reversed phrase 'A God with horns' in "You Could Feel the Sky". Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo comprised of brothers Michael Sandison (b. ... A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units (such as a strand of DNA) that has the property of reading the same in either direction (the adjustment of punctuation and spaces between words is generally permitted). ...

J-Pop singer Utada Hikaru uses backmasking in her song "Sanctuary" (the opening song for Kingdom Hearts 2). Some lines sound like gibberish, but when reversed yield messages including "I need more affection than you know," "So many ups and downs," and "I need true emotion." The first line of Sanctuary, "In you and I", sounds like a normal sentence, but when played backwards is "Hey, I'd never ruin ya." J-pop is an abbreviation of Japanese pop. ... Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル Utada Hikaru, born January 19, 1983), also known as Hikki to her Japanese fans, is a J-Pop music star. ... Kingdom Hearts II is an RPG video game sequel to 2002 Kingdom Hearts. ...

Skepticism

It is worth noting that, given a randomly generated series of syllables spoken in a variety of accents, a two-syllable pair that can be liberally interpreted as "Satan" is very easy to generate. Therefore, any individual with a small amount of creative interpretation skills could play virtually any song with vocals backwards and uncover "Satanic messages". This fact has been exploited by defense attorneys in "backwards messaging" court cases, who often disprove allegations by "uncovering Satanic messages" in songs by Christian artists, most famously Amy Grant. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. ... Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960 in Augusta, Georgia) is an American singer-songwriter whose music has strong Christian themes. ...

In many movies, the voice of a Satanic character is made by reversing and reducing the speed of any voice. Thus one might suppose that either this technique started from backward messages, or that a voice played in slow motion has a Satanic tone in American culture.

Vokey and Read study

In 1985, university psychologists John R. Vokey and J. Don Read conducted a study using Psalm 23 from the Bible, Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," and various other sound passages made up for the experiment. Of the 300 people tested, less than 10% claimed they could hear any messages. When a particular phrase was cited beforehand and the subjects prompted to listen for it, 90% were able to hear it, even when the phrase was not intentionally recorded. Vokey and Read concluded that if backmasking did indeed exist, it was ineffective. Their volunteers had trouble even noticing the backmasked phrase when the tape was played forward, were unable to judge the type of message (whether it was Christian, Satanic, or commercial) it contained, and were not led to behave in any certain way as a result of being "exposed" to the backmasked phrase. Due to this research, Vokey and Read were later called upon as expert witnesses in the above-mentioned trial involving the band Judas Priest. This article is about the year. ... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctor) in a variety of subjects. ... A psychologist is a scientist who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human behavior and mental processes. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Psalm 23 Psalm 23 (Psalm 22 in the Septuagint numbering), sometimes known as the Shepherd Psalm because of its opening line, The Lord is my shepherd, is the best-known psalm, and perhaps the best-known chapter in the Bible. ... The Bible (Hebrew: תנ״ך tanakh, Greek: η Βίβλος hē biblos) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Word of God, The Word Scripture, Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the name used by Jews and Christians for their (differing but overlapping) canons of sacred texts. ... Queen is a British rock band that came to popularity during the mid-1970s and amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day. ... Another One Bites the Dust is a 1980 rock song from the British rock band Queen. ...

See also

• List of backward messages
• Subliminal Message
• Expectancy effect
• Reverse speech
• Allegations of Satanism in popular culture

The following is an incomplete list of backward messages found in various forms of media including music and video games. ... A subliminal message is a signal or message designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. ... The observer-expectancy effect, in science, is a cognitive bias that occurs in science when a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it. ... Reverse speech is a hypothesis first put forward by David John Oates. ... Allegations of Satanism in popular culture have been made by some Christian Fundamentalists in recent years, particularly in the United States. ...

External links

• Audio Reversal in Popular Culture - essay and analysis with examples
• Jeff Milner's BackMasking Flash Page - Excellent way to listen once without lyrics, and then view the alleged lyrics
• sample mp3s of the above mentioned backmasks
• A description of the improper usage of "Backward masking" or "Backmasking"
• A podcast created on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 showcases several of the intentional and unintentional examples of backwards messages mentioned in this article
• January 12 - Michael Mills - Hidden & Satanic Messages In Rock Music (1981 Christian radio broadcast) 365 Days Project