Music torture

Music torture

Music torture is a form of torture used by playing specifically chosen music incessantly to prisoners, or those being interrogated.

Instances of use

* It is currently being used by the United States 361st Psychological Operations Company, a unit dedicated to discovering new ways in which to interrogate effectively.

* A BBC News report claimed that music by band Metallica, and from children's TV programs "Barney" and "Sesame Street", was being used to cause sleep deprivation and culturally offend the prisoners.cite news
url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/59300/output/print
title=Periscope
author=A.L. Bardach, Jac Chebatoris
publisher=Newsweek
date=May 19, 2003
accessdate=2007-11-27
] cite news
url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/59409
title=The Love's not mutual
publisher=Newsweek
date=May 26, 2003
accessdate=2007-11-27
]

* According to Sergeant Mark Hadsell: quotation
"These people haven't heard heavy metal. They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them."cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3042907.stm BBC article
title=Sesame Street breaks Iraqi POWs
publisher=BBC
date=May 23 2003
accessdate=2007-11-27
]

Other instances

* Bombardment with loud music has been known to have been used in other occasions
-
Israel |
On January 12 1998 the Supreme Court of Israel declined to ban the use of loud music as an interrogation technique.cite news
url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60847881.html
title=Israel refuses to ban loud music torture
publisher=Birminghan Post
author=Gwen Ackerman
date=January 12, 1998
accessdate=2007-11-27
]

The use of music as a weapon in fiction and popular culture

In the movie "A Clockwork Orange" a rebellious outsider is subjected to brutal experimental brain-washing techniques -- including bombardment with very loud music.

In "Back to the Future", Marty used music made by Van Halen to scare his dad, George McFly, awake, implying that since that kind of music didn't exist in that time, it would scare him.

Public awareness of the use of this technique is widespread enough that it can be used in satirical attacks on popular culture:quotation|"Hollywood — Several days after Paris Hilton announced that she will release a music album, the Pentagon has decided to buy 50,000 copies of her upcoming album to use against insurgents in the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq."cite news
url=http://datelinehollywood.com/archives/2006/06/12/us-military-to-attack-insurgents-with-paris-hilton-album/
title=U.S. MILITARY TO ATTACK INSURGENTS WITH PARIS HILTON ALBUM
publisher=Dateline Hollywood
author=
date=
accessdate=2007-11-27
]

Royalty payments

"The Guardian" reported that the US military may owe royalty payments to the artists whose works were played to the captives.cite news
url=http://www.lightreading.com/blog.asp?blog_sectionid=222&doc_id=159515
title=Gitmo's Greatest Hits
publisher=Light Reading
author=
date=2008-07-21
accessdate=2008-07-21
quote=
[http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lightreading.com%2Fblog.asp%3Fblog_sectionid%3D222%26doc_id%3D159515&date=2008-07-21 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2289778,00.html
title=Music as torture may incur royalty fees
publisher=The Guardian
author=Sean Michaels
date=2008-07-09
accessdate=2008-07-21
quote=
[http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmusic.guardian.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fstory%2F0%2C%2C2289778%2C00.html&date=2008-07-21 mirror] ]

References

Further reading

* Cusick, Suzanne. 'You are in a place that is out of the world . . .': Music in the Detention Camps of the 'Global War on Terror'. "Journal of the Society for American Music" 2/1 (2008): 1-26.
* Cusick, Suzanne. 'Music as torture / Music as weapon.' "Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review" 10 (2006). Available at http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/trans10/cusick_eng.htm.

ee also

* Loud music
* High Anxiety


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