Have you ever wondered to play a song backwards? It's kinda weird right? But have you thought that when a song played backwards you will hear something? Like a lyrics or a message? I have experienced this kind of stuff like listening to music that is played backwards. It's kinda creepy because of the lyrics that I am hearing. It's different from the original lyrics when you played it back.
Back Masking is a technique of playing a song backwards that is meant to be played forward. In the process, there is a possibility that you will encounter or hear messages in the reversal that maybe unintentional or intentional. In addition to that, I read an article entitled "Article about backmasking" from the site paranormalknowledge.com. John, the author of the article, Stated that it is a controversial topic because it is a type of a subliminal message. Subliminal messages enters in our mind consciously but it affects some parts of the subconscious mind.
Ever since, the artists used Back Masking for some artistic and comedic purposes for both analog and digital recordings. It is used to review words for clean versions of the songs. They making sure that it is safe to listen to or it is free from bad subliminal messages. They use this so that they can check up on artist if they are writing good lyrics or not.
It began with Thomas Alva Edison. After inventing the phonograph in 1877, Thomas noticed that music in reverse sounded "novel and sweet but altogether different." In the early 1950's, experimental musicians began including the difference into their compositions. They ran reel-to-reel tape recorders backwards and boom - the unsettling sound sucking up a melody and lyric. In 1966, it was popularized by the Beatles who used backward vocals on the album Revolver.
In another article I read entitled, "History of Back Masking" from the site mentalfloss.com. A book entitled "Backward Masking Unmasked" written in 1983 by Jacob Aranza . His book is an unintentionally hilarious attempt to expose the backward messages of rock music. He found a backward messages from a southern California group that he thought of them was they were a bad person because of the backward messaged that he had found.
He blast subliminal messages that encourage everything from homosexuality to marijuana use, he mentions the usual suspects – Zeppelin, Stones, Sabbath – as well as Hall & Oates. He thought of them was that they exploit to people bad influences. He believed that they intentionally wrote songs for people to do crazy stuff.
So think, can a songwriter write a song that scan forwards and backwards? And does the brain understands the subliminal messages? Big no to the first because David John says that our subconscious mind can understand the reversal, there is no proof that it can, or that person's behavior can be influenced in any way, if it could. It's up to the person in how he/she will react to this.
Jeff Milmer, the author of the article "backmasking" from the site seattletimes.com said that, "People have a natural curiosity for hidden messages and the unknown," and "People like being in on the secret." Maybe some artists intentionally they wrote songs that has subliminal messages and some are not. But we are really not sure if they use it against people because they are merely humans and maybe they don't know what's going on with their song.
It's up to us in understanding if the artists use it against us. We have a choice in every situation. One thing for sure is that you can play a song backwards but it's your responsibility on how you will react to what will you going to hear. Many videos are being shown but we are humans, our brains are wired and it will look for something according to some rules. So we will not be surprised when everybody agrees on when something weird is they are hearing about. Even though it was not intended to be there.
We should be responsible and careful enough on songs that we will be listening to. Again, their are no proofs that it can really affect our minds. It's up to the person on how he will take it and understand it. We should be responsible and mature enough to understand this kind of situations. My point here is that it's okay to listen to songs even though it is rock, pop, or R&B because we don't have any right to judge the artists. They are just humans who sings and write songs and maybe they are not aware on what's happening with their songs.
No comments:
Post a Comment