1

The Devil Has the Best Tunes:

Fundamentalist Crusades against Rock Music
by Nathan Dickey*
[T]he not-so-subliminal messages invariably present in fundamentalist Christian criticisms of rock music
are reaching millions of people, and these messages are so inimical to what most of us are trying to do as
educators and scholars that one must not ignore them. Since it is in the very nature of fundamentalism
that ideological positions are simply announced to the faithful, who are expected to accept them without
thought or question, it must fall to outsiders to challenge and contradict these pronouncements if they run
contrary to rational discourse, scholarly objectivity, or the constitutionally protected rights of American
citizens.
~ Charles Hamm
1

For well over a generation, many fundamentalist Christians and other conservative religious
believers have spread dire warnings about the evil in rock music. These deprecations became
especially widespread and ubiquitous in the 1980s and reached a frenzied peak in the 1990s.
Fundamentalist preacher Fletcher Brothers concludes his book The Rock Report with a bit of
pious arithmetic:
Sex and drugs equals rock and roll. Rebellion, Satan equals rock and roll. Homosexuality,
incest equals rock and roll. Sado-masochism, mutilation equals rock and roll. Suicide, alcohol
equals rock and roll. Hopelessness, anti-godliness equals rock and roll. Murder, occultism
equals rock and roll. The list goes on and on.
2

It is little wonder, then, that Brothers declares at the outset, I make no apology when I say that I
believe that rock music . . . is public enemy number one of our young people today.
3
He goes on
to complain, I cant think of one good thing to come out of the recent trend in rock music other
than the revenue it provides to our free enterprise system.
4
But for Brothers, this benefit is not
enough to counteract the harmful effects he perceives rock music to be wreaking on society; he
openly and explicitly advocates censorship in The Rock Report, which he intended to serve as a
quick, ready reference guide for knowing which music groups parents and activist

1
Charles Hamm, Putting Popular Music in Its Place (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 369.
2
Fletcher A. Brothers, The Rock Report (Lancaster, PA: Starburst Publishers, 1987), p. 141, bold font and italics in
original.
3
Ibid., p. 13.
4
Ibid.
2

organizations should work toward banning. Religious conservative David Noebel flatly states,
Rock music is evil because it is to music what Dada and surrealism are to art atheistic,
chaotic, nihilistic.
5

In 1989, a 400-page anti-rock polemic written by itinerant evangelist John Muncy was
published, entitled The Role of Rock: Harmless Entertainment or Destructive Influence? Muncy,
founder and president of Jesus Cares Ministries, maintains that the latter is true of rock music,
which he asserts is primarily responsible for an increase in society of rebellion, sexual
promiscuity and deviance, alcohol abuse, drug use, false religions, violence, suicide and
Satanism.
6

It is interesting to note that conservative anti-rock alarmists who complain about the lyrics
and imagery in rock music being replete with bloody violence and supernaturally-oppressive
dark themes never apply these criticisms to several of the most well-known hymns of the
Christian faith. For example, any objective assessment of the lyrics contained in the famous
hymn Are You Washed in the Blood? will not fail to call to ones mind a mental image of
people bathing themselves in human blood. Using the metaphor of a lamb sacrifice, the hymn
makes reference to Christianitys literal doctrine of a human sacrifice. The hymn There is
Power in the Blood contains a clear reference to a flow of literal blood which possesses occultic
power to erase sin stains. Coming just short of raising images of gushes of blood, the hymn is
speaking of blood that was shed on a crucifix from a human sacrifice. Again, the hymn Nothing
but the Blood makes reference to a fount of human blood that flows from Jesus body. Fanny
Crosbys hymn Saved by the Blood tells us Were saved by the blood that was drawn from
the side of Jesus our Lord, when He languished and died. That blood, again, is described as a
fountain, where the vilest may go and wash their souls.
7
All this bloody and occult imagery in
Christian hymns, of which many more examples could be given, would fit right in with any
black- death- or heavy-metal rock bands motifs.
Themes of the occult and of Satanism in rock music were and are almost always nothing

5
David A. Noebel, The Legacy of John Lennon: Charming or Harming a Generation? (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson,
1982), p. 42.
6
John Muncy, The Role of Rock: Harmless Entertainment or Destructive Influence? (Canton, OH: Daring Books,
1989).
7
lor my dlscusslon and deconsLrucLlon of Lhe Lhemes presenL ln ChrlsLlan hymnology, see naLhan ulckey, Songs
of Human Sacrifice: An Exploration of the Theme of Redemption in Christian Hymns," The Journeyman Heretic
(blog) 14 May 2010, http://journeymanheretic.blogspot.com/2010/05/songs-of-human-sacrifice-exploration-
of.html (accessed 22 October 2012).
3

more than a money-making gimmick (in fact, the rock artist King Diamond, who takes his
Satanism very seriously, is probably the single exception) and only fundamentalist Christians
and cult cops tend to take their imagery and lyrics seriously. Pop and rock music has always
prided itself in being over the top, cutting-edge and often overtly sexual. This has been the
case since rock musics inception, and little has changed in this regard. In an earlier generation,
Christian fundamentalists and other conservatives denounced musicians like Buddy Holly and
Elvis Presley as an evil influence on the youth. When Elvis performed on the Ed Sullivan Show,
television producers were pressured into avoiding shooting any video of him below the waist.
His gyrations were that offensive to the millions of concerned conservatives in the viewing
audience.
But Why Should the Devil Have the Best Music?
In his book The Role of Rock, evangelist John Muncy asks his readers an interesting question:
Think about it when was the last time you heard a rock and roll song offer its [sic] listener
forgiveness? When was the last time you heard a rock and roll singer tell about being forgiven
and set free from guilt? Well, they never will until they come in contact with the ROCK THAT
DOESNT ROLLJESUS CHRIST!!!!
8

Reading this, one gets the impression that Muncy is either ignoring the cultural phenomenon
known as Contemporary Christian Music, or else he had been living under the proverbial rock
when he penned these impassioned words, thus rendering his research skills questionable.
Christian rock music, including Christian heavy metal, featured rockers who sang often about
divine forgiveness and being set free from guilt, screaming out their modernized hymns to the
exact same kind of musical accompaniment with which their secular counterparts sang about sex,
drugs, violence and Satanism.
For instance, consider the following lyrics:
Honestly, I believe in you
Do you trust in me
Patiently, I will stand by you
I will stand beside you faithfully

8
Muncy, The Role of Rock, p. 309 (bold font in original).
4

And through the years
I will be a friend
For always and forever
Call on me and I'll be there for you
I'm a friend who always will be true
And I love you can't you see
That I can say I love you honestly
The words of this poem are not likely to call to ones mind the heavy metal genre of music. Yet
these lyrics belong to Stryper, a metal band in the 1980s who associated themselves with Jesus
Christ rather than with Satan, sex and drugs. Standing for Salvation Through Redemption
Yielding Peace, Encouragement, and Righteousness, the name Stryper was derived from a
verse in the Christian Old Testament, Isaiah 53:5. Frequently appearing as part of their logo, the
verse speaks of a personage by whose stripes we are healed. Known by their fan base as the
Yellow and Black Attack (the name of their 1984 debut album released on the secular label
Enigma Records), the band members wore yellow and black spandex outfits and sported the long
and disheveled hairstyle and makeup characteristic of Eighties metal musicians. Author and
radio host Paul Baker, in his definitive history of the CCM movement, called Stryper the most
ostentatious of the groups in their appearance.
9
The lead singer, Michael Sweet, sung in an
extremely high-pitched voice that at times reminds one of a dog whistle. The lyrics quoted above
are from the bands song Honestly, a piano ballad from Strypers 1986 album To Hell with the
Devil. The song (a fairly pathetic addition to what in my opinion is an otherwise rather good
album, musically speaking) was featured on mainstream pop radio once it somehow became a
crossover hit.
At the time Stryper came on the music scene in the early 1980s, the pious backlash to
secular music known as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) was still only a fledgling
venture struggling to get on its feet.
10
The phenomenon of CCM, of which Stryper is a
particularly interesting part, is an emulation of the kind of fare offered by secular pop and rock
radio. In the mid- to late 1960s, the church decided it would serve as a great evangelistic tool, as
well as a wholesome alternative to worldly music. Christian radio, complete with guitars,

9
Paul Baker, cootempototy cbtlstloo Moslc. wbete lt come ftom, wbot lt ls, wbete lts Coloq (Westchester, IL:
Crossway Books, 1985), p. 185.
10
For my brief discussion of the history of the CCM movemenL, see naLhan ulckey, Religion in American Popular
Culture (Part 3): Contemporary Christian Music," The Journeyman Heretic (blog) 7 June 2012,
http://journeymanheretic.blogspot.com/2012/06/religious-evangelism-in-american_07.html (accessed 22 October
2012).
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drums and solos, was born in the Seventies, and Christian bands such as Petra and The 2
nd

Chapter of Acts became household names among Christian youth. Attempting to seamlessly wed
faith and culture, Christian rock is full-on rock and roll with the volume and the syncopation
and the downbeats and the noise, yet it is used for worship, evangelism, and the entertainment of
abstinent youth-group members and 50-year-old biker pastors.
11

In marked contrast to its lowly and awkward beginnings, Christian record labels today are
owned by large music corporations who know how very profitable CCM has become. In his
recent scholarly treatment of Christian pop music, David W. Stowe remarks that CCM is now
one of the fastest-growing genres of music, its records outselling those of classical, jazz, and
New Age combined.
12
In fact, it is now often difficult to discern any significant difference
between the production values of Christian music and that of secular pop and rock music. But
this was not always the case. In its early days, CCM suffered from very rough production quality.
This was largely owing to the fact that the primary (and possibly the only) motivation driving the
emergence of CCM was the desire on the part of its creators to have young people listen to good,
wholesome, Jesus-oriented Christian music as an alternative to secular rock music, which of
course was of the devil. This evil influence was thought to be quite ubiquitous in the world of
secular music, and even seemingly benign music that did not sing about sex, drugs and Satan was
warned against. Hence, according to Pastor Jacob Aranza, one of the most vocal anti-rock
evangelists of the 1980s, Just because a group doesnt openly sing about immorality doesnt
mean their music is approved by God. If the music youre listening to doesnt come from the
heart of a spiritual Christian artist, you are opening the door to carnality, humanism and demonic
forces. It will distract you from serving him, feed self-centeredness, and eventually breed
rebellion in your heart.
13

But several fundamentalist Christian writers even warned against Christian rock and other
forms of Contemporary Christian Music, insisting that their artists were not spiritual Christians
of the kind Aranza supported. In fact, to some concerned believers, Christian rock was and is just
as evil and satanic as any secular and worldly rock. Terry Watkins, head of Dial-the-Truth
Ministries, is especially emphatic in exposing Christian rock as an evil ploy of the devil. His

11
John J. Thompson, Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll (Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press, 2000).
12
David W. Stowe, No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American
Evangelicalism (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), p. 1.
13
Jacob Aranza, More Rock, Country and Backward Masking Unmasked (Shreveport, LA: Huntington House Inc.,
1985), p. 47.
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fundamentalist Christian website contains a number of very long articles accusing virtually all
Contemporary Christian Music artists of consciously or unconsciously operating under Satans
influence. Says Watkins, Today, rock music is a common companion of the church. . . . the
rebellion, the sexual theme, the blasphemy, the occult influence, are found lurking under the
cover of Christian rock.
14
Watkins sees these devilish elements in the lyrical and musical
contents of even the most overtly Christian artists such as Sandi Patti, Michael W. Smith and
Point of Grace, whose song lyrics unmistakably and unambiguously promote Christian and
biblical beliefs. Of course, the usual suspects are included as well. Watkins says of the band
Stryper,
With long womanish hair, earrings, mascara, lip-gloss, eye shadow and effeminate clothes,
Stryper demolished any convictions left in Christian music! How Christians tolerate such
ungodly behavior is frightening! And despite the Bible's clear warnings! 1 Corinthians 6:9 says .
. . Be not deceived: neither fornicators, . . . NOR EFFEMINATE, . . . shall inherit the kingdom
of God. The demonic creatures from the bottomless pit in Revelation 9:8 are described as their
faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as THE HAIR OF WOMEN. . .!
15

Thanks to Watkins belligerent ravings, I can no longer read Revelation 9 without picturing the
swarm of demonic locusts, which are described in the passage as pouring out upon the earth from
a bottomless pit, having the heads of the Stryper band members. There is a striking irony that
presents itself when one studies fundamentalist attacks against Christian rock music: while such
fundamentalists are more than willing to view the theological themes and elements present in
Christian rock as nothing more than a faade or a gimmick, they refuse to concede the fact that
the use of Satan in secular heavy metal and other forms of rock is just as much or more of a
money-making gimmick.
As early as 1980, the most vocal spokesperson for the view that Christian rock is a ploy of
the devil was the infamous televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. In the pages of his monthly magazine
The Evangelist, Swaggart criticized Christian rockers for doing nothing more than copying the
ways of the world and lambasted Christian rock for having vacated the premise of the Holy

14
1erry WaLklns, ChrlsLlan ock: 8lesslng or 8lasphemy," Dial-the-Truth Ministries n.d. (last modified 21 March
2012, italics in original), http://www.av1611.org/crock.html (accessed 23 October 2012).
15
Ibid., bold font, capitalization and italics in original.
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Spirit and succumbed to the methods used by demon spirits.
16
Swaggart who has since come
to be known primarily for his own moral lapses categorically denounced as sinful all
contemporary music, and his failure to see recognize the relative nature inherent in the
designation of contemporary is reflected in the fact that he himself had often made use of
certain instruments and arrangements for his own recordings which were widely considered too
risqu for conservative churches only a few years before.
17
Relying on anecdotal accounts of the
offense he took when seeing Christian music artists performing on television rather than
scholarly analysis, Swaggart writes,
I turn on my television set. I see a young lady who goes under the guise of being a Christian,
known all over the nation, dressed in skin-tight leather pants, shaking and wiggling her hips to the
beat and rhythm of the music as the strobe lights beat their patterns across the stage and the band
plays the contemporary rock sound which cannot be differentiated from songs by the Grateful
Dead, the Beatles, or anyone else. And you may try to tell me this is of God and that it is leading
people to Christ, but I know better.
18

Following closely on the heels of Swaggarts well-publicized attacks on CCM, fundamentalist
Bible teacher Lowell Hart authored a 189-page tirade entitled Satans Music Exposed, in which
he indicts all modern Christian music as evil. Undertaking to blow the cover off CCM and reveal
it as a means devised by Satan himself to sneak his way into the church through the back door,
Hart writes,
Like the hamburger-French fry diet of today (that has replaced the nutritious foods of
grandfathers day) the teen-agers fare of todays Christian music, with its frothy, candy-coated
content, has been substituted for the solid meat of Luther, Wesley, Watts, and Sankey. In search
of something that will reach turned-off youth, many have incorporated the sweet but empty
sounds of the world into Christian music in hopes of spreading the good news. Unfortunately, this

16
!lmmy waggarL, 1wo olnLs of vlew: 'ChrlsLlan' ock and oll," The Evangelist 17, no. 8 (August 1985): 50.
17
Baker, Contemporary Christian Music, p. 178.
18
Swaggart, 1wo olnLs of vlew: 'ChrlsLlan' ock and oll." waggarL may be here referrlng Lo Amy CranL, Lhe
Christian singer who had at that time been the recipient of four Grammy Awards and whose performances were
featured on MTV in addition to explicitly Christian programming. If Swaggart was in fact referring to Grant, he is
obviously a very poor judge of popular music. Amy Grant sounds nothing like the Grateful Dead or the Beatles.
8

unholy alliance of pop music with church music is leading many young people into distorted
concepts and false impressions of the Christian life.
19

Contrary to Harts assertions, a great deal of the traditional and hymnological music of the likes
of Luther, Wesley, Watts and Sankey was not the solid meat he believes it to be. Much of it
was appropriated from frothy, candy-coated content as well. The famous hymn-writer Charles
Wesley, a prominent figure in the Methodist movement of the 18th century, wrote about 6,500
hymns during his lifetime. The tune of most of Wesleys hymns was lifted directly from a great
number of popular tunes current at that time. This was mainly due to the fact that Wesley lacked
any formal musical training and ability. The same is true of Luthers hymns. The late historian
and educator Benjamin Brawley observed that With the Gospel Hymns came a more popular
tone and greater effort to reach the man in the street; and out of the social forces at work a little
later a demand for a hymnody specially adapted to the needs of the new age.
20
In other words,
the same worldly motivations to accommodate popular mediums that gave rise to Contemporary
Christian Music in the early Seventies were in essence the same as those that produced the
hymns congregations consider as sacred and transcendent over pop culture. But a look at history
shows they are anything but transcendent; they too are a product of lowbrow popular culture.
Hart addresses these points and attempts to offer a counterargument near the end of his
book. He quotes Luthers own words: These songs were arranged in four parts to give the
young who at any rate should be trained in music and other fine arts something to wean them
from love ballads and carnal songs and teach them something of value in their place, thus
combining the good with the pleasing as is proper for youth.
21
Hart comments, This doesnt
sound like a man who borrowed drinking tunes to make into hymns!
22
But Hart is clearly
missing the point; Luther certainly had an antipathy toward tavern tunes, and no one contests
this. But Luther did see in love ballads and carnal songs an opportunity to introduce the youth
of his day to music with sacred themes, and he appropriated them for that purpose. Hart also
conveniently leaves out the remainder of Luthers words on the subject. Luther went on to write,

19
Lowell Hart, otoos Moslc xposeJ (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1981), p. 11.
20
Benjamin Brawley, History of the English Hymn (New York: Abingdon Press, 1932), p. 234.
21
MarLln LuLher, as quoLed ln uwlghL CusLafson, hould acred Muslc wlng?" Faith for the Family Jan/Feb 1975,
p. 40.
22
Hart, otoos Moslc xposeJ, p. 177.
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Nor am I of the opinion that the Gospel should destroy and blight all the arts, as some of the
pseudo-religious claim. But I would like to see all the arts, especially music, used in the service of
Him who gave and made them.
23

Unlike Hart, who certainly does wish to destroy and blight all musical arts except classical,
hymns and Sousa marches, Luther had no qualms about borrowing the popular musical styles of
his day and writing new words to their tunes. Hart again completely misses the point when he
writes that to equate todays rock music, with all of its heavy syncopated rhythms and dissonant
harmonies, with the simple hymn tunes and folk melodies of two or three centuries ago is to
stretch the comparison beyond the breaking point.
24
The fact that todays style of rock music
obviously did not exist in Luthers and Wesleys day does nothing to invalidate the argument
that Luther, Wesley and others did in fact borrow the prevailing styles of pop music in wide use
among those who did not frequent traditional church environments.
Even though Harts book is over thirty years old and out of print, Christians today who
have a bone to pick with those who mix their otherworldly haunts with sinful, dirty rock music
continue to cite him as a source. Fundamentalist Christian blogger Cody Watters drags in Hart as
a source in his diatribe against CCM. In an unabashed display of ethnocentrism, he writes,
Why dirty the name of Jesus Christ by dragging him into Rock and Roll? The beat of Rock and
Roll stems from African music and Paganism. Rock and Roll has been used to glorify sex, drug,
alcohol, immodesty and the Devil, so why use it for God? God is not pleased with people that
dirty His Holy name.
25

The fears of the most tradition-bound believers, even those who rely on obscure, out-of-print and
largely-forgotten tirades, is well justified. The Contemporary Christian Music scene has
undergone many changes since the days Swaggart, Hart and others railed against it, and all these
changes absorb more and more of the market. Today, most churches are so heavily marketed
toward the pop culture and toward mainstream audiences that many now feature full-blown rock
and roll shows. Todays churches make use of many electric instruments, and many have bands
that are actually very talented. They feature full lighting, fog, multiple multimedia screens, and

23
Martin Luther, as quoted in Robin A Leaver, lotbets lltotqlcol Moslc. ltloclples ooJ Implications (Grand Rapids,
MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007), p. 37.
24
Hart, otoos Moslc xposeJ, p. 176.
25
Cody WaLLers, 1he Lvlls of CCM," Ruckmanite 1611 (blog) 28 May 2012,
http://ruckmanite1611.blogspot.com/2012/05/evils-of-ccm.html (accessed 20 October 2012).
10

stadium seating. Attending many churches today can in fact be a very concert-esque experience.
The key to this evolution of church environment lies in advanced marketing techniques.
The modern church is very adept at getting secular audiences into their doors and in drawing out
the emotions of the audience during the course of their over-the-top religious shows. In fact,
everything is designed to manipulate the emotions every dimming of the lights, every pause in
the music, every tap of the cymbal, every strum of the guitar so that when each person leaves,
they feel as if they have been touched by something literally out of this world. Rather than being
a new phenomenon, the emotional manipulation in todays high-tech religious worship services
is merely an advanced level of previously-existing emotional manipulation in religious music. As
the late Congregational minister and musicologist Erik Routley observed,
[H]ymn-singing is, as a matter of fact, the most insistent and clamorous of all the ways in which
the Christian faith and worship makes impact on the world around it . . . You can close your eyes;
you can stay away from the church and so neither taste nor see that the Lord is good. But you
cannot close your ears, and if a group of Christian people chose to sing a hymn under your
windows you are defenceless.
26

Unfortunately, there is nothing of substance in the experience.
The Roll and Thump of the Voodoo Drum
The antipathy of the most hidebound fundamentalists toward Christian rock music and
other forms of Contemporary Christian Music is a clear indication of the fact that the offense
they take at rock music in general goes beyond the edgy lyrics characteristic of secular rock and
pop. So, what is it about the music itself that makes religious fundamentalists so angry?
Generally speaking, most Christians today look back on their fellow believers in earlier
generations and shake their head in embarrassment at the panic their forebears manifested in
anti-rock writings and lectures. But back in the 1980s, ministers and many lay believers came out
of the woodwork to warn entire congregations, as well as television audiences who watched talk
shows with low guest standards, that the beat of secular rock songs utilized some kind of satanic
drumbeat.
As evidence, these ministers often claimed that rock music emulated the same beats used
by African music tribes when they called upon spirits for guidance and to incite warriors into

26
Erik Routley, B.D., D.Phil., Hymns and Human Life (New York: Philosophical Library, 1952), pp. 2-3.
11

violent frenzy.
27
In several of his seminars, conservative Christian minister Bill Gothard has
agreed, saying that rock music is used by African natives to call up evil spirits.
28
Michael R.
ODoonan, a retired Christian radio singer and former vocal music instructor at Faith Baptist
Bible College, claimed that the same melodic and rhythmic styles found in rock music existed
in Africa centuries before classical music appeared in Europe.
29

The notion that rhythm in music was able to take control of brain function was to some
extent encouraged by some practitioners of scientific research that was peer-reviewed but
nevertheless flawed. In the early 1960s, neurophysiologist Andrew Neher proposed that ritual
drumming the kind that the fundamentalists cited above were afraid of drove alpha waves in
the human brain into a possession trance state.
30
This proposition was embraced uncritically by
many anthropologists as definitive proof that drumming can induce trances, but Nehers
experimental evidence and theory has been shown to be seriously flawed.
31

The claimed presence of African styles of rhythm and melody in rock music has been
highly problematic for many fundamentalists. In Satans Music Exposed, Lowell Hart offers the
following bit of fundamentalist anthropology: Have you ever wondered why in pagan cultures
men can dance for hours, sometimes all night, seemingly without becoming exhausted? Not
discounting the reality of demonic activity, rhythm plays a major role. Pagan dances and rituals
are always accompanied by the incessant beat of drums.
32

Indeed, the antipathy of the more ethnocentric naysayers of rock toward the rhythm and
beat of the music is especially pronounced. According to Terry Watkins fundamentalist website,
With all the many references to musical instruments, there is one instrument that is NEVER
mentioned! The DRUM! Why is that? The drum was a very common instrument in Egypt and the
lands around Israel. And yet the DRUM is NEVER mentioned in a King James Bible.
Did the Lord just forget to include the DRUM or is there another reason?

27
Dennis Corle, 1be lleJ llpet of kock Moslc (Milford, OH: J.P. Printing Ministry, 1985), p. 63.
28
Baker, Contemporary Christian Music, p. 178.
29
Mlchael . C'uoonan, Why Not Christian Rock? (Ankeny, IA: Laudamus Press, 1987), p. 2.
30
Andrew neher, A hyslologlcal LxplanaLlon of unusual 8ehavlor ln Ceremonles lnvolvlng urums," Human
Biology 34, no. 2 (May 1962): 151-160.
31
Gilbert Rouget, Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations between Music and Possession (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 172-176.
32
Hart, otoos Moslc Exposed, p. 76
12

Is it because drums are associated with voodoo, shamanism, paganism and magic rituals?
33

There is nothing new in the religious fear of and hostility toward popular music. Back in the
1930s, English clergyman Montague Summers, who professed belief in witches, vampires and
werewolves, noted that some acute observers have shrewdly scented the devils own orchestra
in jazz music. In his 1937 work A Popular History of Witchcraft, he cites the authority of one
Father Philip De Ternant in support of his condemnation:
[De Ternant] justly and in good time condemns the Voodoo Cult imported into our Dance Halls
without protest, and points out how young people are being corrupted by the roll and the thump
of the Voodoo Drum which responsive to subtle manipulation not far removed from black
magic, plays a most hypnotic part in the obscene, murderous, and wholly diabolical Voodoo
cult. Quite unwittingly, no doubt, to-day many dancers are exercising their steps to the music of
the witches. Dreary pushing and pulling about the floor with almost aimless steps have now
taken the place of dancing.
34

Not to be outdone by the moral crusaders of yesteryear, Jacob Aranza, writing in the 1980s, goes
even further. He asserts that rock music was invented by the angel Lucifer at the time of his
rebellion against God in heaven, presumably before the earth was created. Lucifer is the only
angelic being mentioned in the Bible to possess a musical ministry, he writes. At one point in
time, he used his musical abilities for Gods purposes, but now he uses them to exalt evil and
draw men away from God. Having been created with musical abilities, it is not hard to believe
that Satan indeed influences music today . . . Party music goes back a long way! Ever since
Lucifers fall, music that incites the flesh to fulfill its lusts, and encourages mankind to sin has
always been played.
35
Aranza even cites the account of the Israelites singing and worshipping
the golden calf in the absence of their desert-wandering leader Moses (as told in the Old
Testaments Book of Exodus) as one of the very first rock concerts in human history!
36

Pastor Fletcher Brothers agrees with this highly-imaginative interpretation. He notes that
in Exodus 32:17, Moses is said to have heard the Israelites shouting as he descended the
mountain on which he had sojourned alone with the desert god Yahweh. The verse also speaks of

33
Dial-the-1ruLh MlnlsLrles, 8lble Culdellnes for ChrlsLlan Muslc," AV1611.org,
http://www.av1611.org/cqguide.html (accessed 5 September 2012, italics and bold font in original).
34
Montague Summers, A Popular History of Witchcraft (London: Kegan Paul, 1937), p. 153.
35
Aranza, More Rock, Country and Backward Masking Unmasked, pp. 18-19, 20.
36
Ibid., p. 20.
13

the noise of war in the camp. Brothers wonders to what this passage could possibly be
referring, since there were no guns or bombs at that time in history. His proceeds to speculate
that the verse referred to the beating of drums, such as when used in war. He notes the references
to dancing in verse 19 and to singing in verse 18. He also highlights the passages that speak
of the mischief and corruption of the Israelites and concludes,
Could this have been the first recorded rock concert? Who knows? But we do know it was
music or singing. We do know that the people had corrupted themselves. They were naked, and
. . . leave the rest to your imagination. We know the singing sounded more like screaming
and screeching. Whatever was going on was bad news, because as you read on you will find
that many people lost their lives.
37

One wonders if Aranza and Brothers had spent a bit too much time listening to the thrash metal
band Exodus while high on the drug of religious fundamentalism (I am sure metal lovers would
love to see a music video in which the bloody massacre of the calf-worshipping heretics at the
hands of Moses soldiers is set to Exoduss song Bonded By Blood I know I would).
The first recorded rock concert interpretation of the 32
nd
chapter of Exodus is a prime
example of the practice common among biblical inerrantists and literalists of superimposing
ancient biblical narratives onto modern-day issues and interpreting said issues accordingly. But
in fact, the highly-imaginative alternate-history rendering of Exodus 32 indulged in by these
evangelists is certainly an unwarranted hermeneutical stretch. If self-professed rock experts
such as Aranza and Brothers can find rock music in the Old Testament, it is little wonder that
they also found diabolical satanic messages hidden in rock records, messages which yield
themselves only when records are reversed and played backwards.
!nataS liaH: The Myth of Backward Masking
In the 1986 horror film Trick or Treat, directed by Michael Martin Smith and written/conceived
by Rhet Topham (and featuring special appearances by rock gods Gene Simmons and Ozzy
Osbourne), a devil-worshipping rock star named Sammi Curr meets an untimely death in a
mysterious hotel fire. His biggest fan, a high school student with no friends and an obsession
with heavy metal music, finds consolation in being the sole recipient of the only copy of Currs

37
Brothers, The Rock Report, p. 140.
14

final, hitherto unreleased album. He is shocked to discover that he can communicate directly
with the deceased rock star when the acetate disc is rotated backward and played in reverse. He
finds he can use this otherworldly communication to his advantage, calling on the diabolical
power of Sammi Curr to torment and terrorize the bullies who victimize him on a daily basis.
For many fundamentalist Christians in the 1980s (and even to some today), the movie
Trick or Treat may as well have been a documentary. To them, rock albums are not just harmful
to young people when played normally on listening devices. According to the moral crusaders
against popular culture, rock albums contain evil and dangerous messages when they are played
in reverse. Backward masking, a perceived phenomenon which in the 1980s captured the
imagination of credulous, rebellious youth and anti-rock evangelists alike, is the process of
playing music albums backwards to find the hidden, subliminal messages hiding in the grooves.
According to evangelist Jacob Aranza, backward masking is a technique that rock groups are
using to convey satanic and drug related messages to the subconscious.
38
The main thesis of his
1983 book Backward Masking Unmasked is that backward masking is the missing link as it
were, the elusive factor that directly ties rock music to the occult. This [backward masking] was
to become a channel for satanically infiltrating the minds of unsuspecting people!
39
Jack Chick,
infamous for his fundamentalist comic books and religious tracts presented in comic-book style
form, added backmasked rock music to his list of evils to be combated. His 1978 comic book
entitled Spellbound? tells a lurid tale in which Satan recruits witches and Druids to implant
actual demonic entities inside rock records, which then serve as a vehicle to consign the souls of
those who listen to music into eternal damnation.
40

To Jack Chick, the premise and storyline of his Spellbound? comic book is not fantastic
fiction la Lovecraft or Topham. He believes it to have a basis in reality. His publishing
company produced a book entitled The Devils Disciples: The Truth about Rock by author Jeff
Godwin, a comprehensive condemnation of rock music which purports to expose it as part of
Satans global master plan to enslave the minds of everyone on earth. In this book, Godwin
declares that the voices we hear on these songs in reverse are actually the sounds of the demons
themselves! As proof of this, Godwin offers the following anecdotal account from a woman

38
Jacob Aranza, Backward Masking Unmasked: Backward Satanic Messages of Rock and Roll Exposed (Lafayette,
LA: Huntington House, 1983), p. 1.
39
Ibid., p. 12.
40
Jack Chick, Spellbound? (Chino, CA: Chick Publications, 1978).
15

identified only as Elaine, who claimed to be a former Satanist who was personally involved in
implanting her dark lords destructive message on music records:
Satan is real! Demons are real! . . . Like so many other things, the whole movement of Rock
music was carefully planned and carried out by Satan and his servants from its very beginning.
Rock music didnt just happen, it was a carefully masterminded plan by none other than Satan
himself. . . .
I attended special ceremonies at various recording studios throughout the U.S. for the specific
purpose of placing satanic blessings on the Rock music recorded. We did incantations which
placed demons on every record and tape of rock music that was sold. At times we also called up
special demons who spoke on the recordings the various backmasked messages. Also, in many
of the recordings, we were ourselves recorded in the background (masked by the overall noise of
the music) doing chants and incantations to summon up more demons every time one of the
records or tapes is played. As the music is played, these demons are summoned into the room to
afflict the person playing the music and anyone else who is listening. The purpose of all of this?
Mind control!
41

Did the anti-rock crusaders who promoted the backward masking claims have more sober and
credible sources than Chick and Elaine to turn for support? They thought they did. Backward
masking or metacontrast, suggested an academic named Wilson Bryan Key, is another
technique which, though not purely subliminal, does affect both conscious and unconscious
perception.
42

Key, the late psychologist and communications theorist, was responsible for first
popularizing the notion of subliminal messages in media content, especially in advertising.
43
Key
believed the word sex, as well as various taboo four-letter words, was embedded in nearly all
advertisement media and in many other places as well. The paperback cover of the 1981 Signet
reprint of Keys 1973 book Subliminal Seduction featured a photograph of an ice-filled cocktail
with the caption Are you being sexually aroused by this picture? He claimed to have observed
the image of a naked woman copulating with a dog embedded in an ice-cube emblazoned on a

41
Jeff Godwin, 1be uevlls ulsclples. 1be 1totb oboot kock (Chino, CA: Chick Publications, 1985), pp. 343-344.
42
Wilson Bryan Key, obllmlool eJoctloo. AJ MeJlos Moolpolotloo of o Not o loooceot Ametlco (New York: New
American Library, 1973), p. 34.
43
lor a crlLlcal assessmenL of key's work, see 1homas L. Creed, ubllmlnal Deception: Pseudoscience on the
College LecLure ClrculL," Skeptical Inquirer 11, no. 4 (Summer 1987): 358-366.
16

Sprite ad. He also thought he saw skulls, beasts, devils, and male and female genitalia hidden in
Sears catalogues and boxes of Ritz crackers, on the NBC evening news and on the Sistine
Chapel.
44

Many fundamentalist Christians looked to Keys work in their search for what they
thought was reputable scholarly confirmation of their irrational fears of rock music. Key asserted
that the insertion of subaudibles into rock records influenced listeners to crank the volume up
in order to hear them. He said that the Oscar-winning soundtrack to the movie The Exorcist
incorporated subliminals, cleverly mixing in sounds of buzzing bees and of squealing pigs at
various frequencies.
45
Of particular interest to many of these culture warriors was Keys
borderline dualistic account of brain function:
Experiments have demonstrated that humans can receive, process, and transmit information
which makes no conscious appearance at any stage of its passage through their nervous system.
Indeed, the unconscious can operate quite independently from the conscious mechanism in the
brain. The two perceptual systems often appear to be operating in opposition to one another.
46

As with all arguments that lean toward a dualistic account of consciousness and its operation,
Keys account lacks both predictive and explanatory power. Key does not tell us what specific
experiments he is referring to, and he does not explain how humans can receive, process, and
transit information subliminally if the unconscious and conscious are indeed operating
independently of each other. How is interaction between conscious and unconscious mechanisms
possible in such an independence model? If Keys followers want to say there is no interaction,
they can have no basis for asserting that subliminal messages in rock music, for example, have
any harmful effect on its listeners, for in order for such alleged effects to be observable and
measurable, they must manifest on a conscious level.
Back in the early 1990s, Robert D. Hicks, a criminal justice analyst for the state of
Virginia, commented on the tendency of promoters of the backward masking notion to avoid
such explanations:

44
1lmoLhy L. Moore, clenLlflc Consensus and LxperL 1esLlmony: Lessons from Lhe !udas rlesL 1rlal," Skeptical
Inquirer 20, no. 6 (November/December 1996), 32-38.
45
Key, Subliminal Seduction, pp. 31-32.
46
Ibid., p. 38.
17

Cult cops cite backmasking claims as factual, and proven. Interestingly, they never address the
crucial questions: How does your average consumer manage to play the messages backwards on a
common record player or tape recorder? Assuming the messages are there, what mechanism
allows a listener to perceive them, consciously or unconsciously, when the music is played
forward at the correct speed? Even assuming that a listener somehow absorbs the messages
subliminally, so what? What effects do such messages have? Cult cops never bother to raise such
questions, and neither do those who claim to have studied the backmasked comments . . . neither
the cult cops nor their fundamentalist Christian sources will ever cite definitive scientific studies
that address the crucial questions and demonstrate that such messages, if they do exist, influence
peoples behavior.
47

The question of whether backmasked and subliminal messages have the effect that the anti-rock
crusaders ascribe to them is more important than the question of whether or not such
backmasked messages actually exist. In a 1985 research report, cognitive psychologists John R.
Vokey and J. Don Read, of the University of Lethbridge in Canada, show the fallacy inherent in
the presence implies effectiveness notion. Is there any evidence to warrant assertions that
such messages affect our behavior? Across a wide variety of tasks, we were unable to find any
evidence to support such a claim.
48
And the specific role played by suggestion in the finding of
hidden satanic lyrics was carefully examined by Stephen B. Thorne and Philip Himelstein of the
University of Texas at El Paso. Their findings were summarized as follows:
When large numbers of listeners report that they can indeed hear the demonic hymns, a
reasonable hypothesis is that suggestion is playing an important role. There is ample experimental
evidence to suggest that, when vague and unfamiliar stimuli are presented, [test subjects] are
highly likely to accept suggestions, particularly when the suggestions are presented by someone
with prestige or authority.
49


47
Robert D. Hicks, In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991), p. 305
(emphasis added).
48
John R. Vokey and J. uon ead, ubllmlnal Messages: 8eLween Lhe uevll and Lhe Medla," American Psychologist
40, no. 11 (November 1985): 1231.
49
Lephen 8. 1horne and hlllp PlmelsLeln, 1he ole of uggesLlon ln Lhe ercepLlon of aLanlc Messages ln ock-
and-oll ecordlngs," Journal of Psychology 116 (January 1984): 246. For a very humorous demonstration of the
fact that suggestion is primarily responsible for hearing alleged words on reversed songs, see the online video
lck oll eversed lnLerpreLed," uploaded by AverageCuy8 roducLlons on YouTube.com
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcuGXkd4afI, accessed 22 October 2012).
18

The most notorious claimed instance of sinister backward masking is arguably the one allegedly
contained on the Beatles 1968 record known as the White Album. When the song Revolution 9
is played normally, we hear the words Number nine, number nine, number nine chanted over
and over. But when the song is played in reverse, the promoters of the hidden messages notion
tell us we hear chanted words that are entirely different from the songs forward-moving lyrics:
Turn me on, dead man; turn me on, dead man . . .
50
At the time the recording was released,
Beatles fans were provoked by persistent rumors that Paul McCartney had died, and they began
to search in earnest for any confirming clues they could find as to the details of Pauls alleged
secret demise. Thus, the self-described Experts on the occult found in the fertile imagination of
Beatles fans a great opportunity to come up with an utterance which, once suggested as being
implanted backwards in the record, would catch on quickly and readily be believed by the Paul
is dead clue-seekers. But of course, there is no evidence to suggest that the phrase turn me on,
dead man is in fact what we are really hearing.
The cultural anxiety occasioned by the backward masking mythology was interpreted by
some anti-rock Christians as a failure to properly prioritize concern, especially in light of the
conspicuous lack of evidence for psychological effects of backmasking. Many albums by some
of the biggest names in the industry contain lyrics that are much more offensive to Christian
sensibilities when played in the normal forward direction. Many of the faithful found enough
shock-and-awe to be concerned over in the actual recorded lyrics. As Paul Baker comments,
Other Christians countered that the concern about backward masking, though sincere and well-
meaning, was a general waste of time . . . Why search for satanic messages in reverse, they
maintained, when rock performers such as Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Van
Halen did their antichristian damage blatantly frontwards?
51

Evangelist John Muncy, one of the most vocal promulgators of the backward masking
mythology, had much to say about both the obvious and the subliminal in rock music. In 1984,
Muncy appeared as a guest on Something Beautiful, a Christian television show broadcasting
from KYFC-TV in Kansas City, to present his years of research on the evils of backward

50
Aranza, Backward Masking Unmasked, p. 6.
51
Baker, Contemporary Christian Music, p. 177.
19

masking.
52
Armed with a tape player and his collection of backwards recordings, Muncy played
several back-masked songs for the host, among them a song by Electric Light Orchestra called
Eldorado (a great song familiar to anyone who follows Seventies rock music closely). This is
what Muncy had to say about this song in his book The Role of Rock, published five years after
his appearance on the show:
Eldorado
Electric Light Orchestra, Eldorado
Forward: Here it comes/Another lonely day/Playing their game/Ill sail away on a voyage of no
return, to see, if eternal life is meant to be.
Backward: He is the nasty one, Christ, youre *infernal/Though it is said/were dead
men/Everyone that does have the mark will live.
(*infernal means damnable, hellish, diabolical, accursed, awful, horrendous, terrible, etc.)
53

Muncy played his backward recording of this ELO song on Something Beautiful. The garbled
rendering was still indistinct, so Muncy stopped the tape and said, Tell you what Im gonna do,
Im gonna play this again to slow it down just a little bit more. Watch how clear these phrases
come out. He proceeded to do so, this time repeating back to the viewing audience exactly what
they were supposed to be hearing as the recording played. In contradiction to his need to engage
in blatant suggestion with the recording proceeding at a slower pace, Muncy went on to state,
Now, you got to remember, thats playing backwards. That is remarkably clear when you take
in consideration thats backwards! He went on to proffer an explanation:
If you had set down on a piece of paper and write out those words and read it backwards, it
wouldnt say, it wouldnt make any sense. But its the way phonetically it was being pronounced.
These guys just went into a recording studio and just started singing a song thats really kind of . .
. doesnt make much sense. But when that song [Eldorado] was played backwards, it comes out
a whole different thing.
54


52
This episode of Something Beautiful is available for viewing on YouTube.com in a series of 9 videos called
8ackward Masklng & ubllmlnal Messages ln ock Muslc"
(http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL18EEB90E8F21391D, accessed 21 October 2012).
53
Muncy, The Role of Rock, p. 272.
54
!ohn Muncy, 8ackward Masklng and ubllmlnal Messages #6" (vldeo, 9:33), YouTube 12 August 2011,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAJ_xPJ2ncg&feature=relmfu (accessed 21 October 2012).
20

This is the only evidence Muncy offers to support his claim that the backward message on
Eldorado was the result of supernatural, demonic manipulation of the recording of which the
musicians and studio techs were ignorant.
Using his own studio, equipment and team of researchers, journalist and physicist William
Poundstone investigated this claim, along with nineteen other alleged cases of backward
messages on a total of sixteen record albums. Of the Eldorado song rumors he writes,
Reversed, this passage [on a voyage of no return to see] becomes the expected syllable salad
no one hearing it cold would describe it as anything but reversed music. Only if you listen while
reading along with what youre supposed to hear will you get anything.
55
Personally, when I
read and consider that alleged backward phrase He is the nasty one, Christ, you're infernal .
. . Everyone that does have the mark will live I find it far more plausible and likely that this
phrase originated in the fertile imagination of a religious moral crusader who harbors certain
distinctive theological notions. As Poundstone goes on to note, There is no in in what is taken
to be infernal. The line that is supposed to be Everyone who has the mark will live isnt even
close, though the syllable count is about right.
56

In his book The Role of Rock, Muncy implicates a total of 26 songs in the act of
backmasking sinister messages, 14 of which he claims are completely unintentional and
therefore manipulated by supernatural demonic forces unbeknownst to the musicians and
recorders. Muncy is far less interested in the 12 deliberate instances of backmasking, for obvious
reasons, but to his credit he does acknowledge them.
There are in fact several instances of intentional and deliberate backmasking. Prior to the
arrival of digital technology, backmasking was rarely used, owing mainly to the high engineering
costs and painstaking work required to successfully pull off the effect. With the advent of digital
technology, it became much easier to embed intentional messages. In fact, the high expense of
analog effects likely constituted the main reason religious conservatives posited backward
masking, as opposed to other methods of masking, as the means by which evil propaganda was
spread through music. The online Rational Wiki entry on backward masking nicely touches on
this point:

55
William Poundstone, Big Secrets: The Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know
(New York: William Morrow and Company, 1983), pp. 203-204.
56
Ibid., p. 204.
21

Out of hundreds of possible maskings for a song, why did the religions choose backwards
masking? Why not a flanger, stutter or AM modulation on 666MHz? The answer is as simple as it
is stupid (cheap). Back in the days, when music was on LP records, or worse, on tapes, digital and
analog effects tended to be pretty expensive. A decent AM modulator could cost several hundreds
of dollars, which is not productive when you try to alarm the sheeple. Reproduction of the evil
sound must be easy and cheap so that everyone can become scared.
With a tape recorder, it is rather simple to backmask by simply spooling the tape in reverse on the
disk. LP players, being mechanical devices, can be easily tricked to spin the other way around.
With a band driven player one can loop the band in an 8 and voila, backmasking for dummies
was born. Given the human mind's tendency to recognize patterns, and notoriously bad quality of
hacked mechanical LP players, it's not difficult to force any song into producing satanic lyrics if
you prep someone to hear satanic lyrics beforehand and tell them what to listen for.
57

Muncy and other prophets of backmasking probably are not too appreciative of the fact that most
of these purposeful uses of encryption responded in a tongue-in-cheek manner to the fear-
mongering directed toward imagined backmasking, and thus had a distinctly snarky edge to
them.
Pink Floyds song Empty Spaces, when played in reverse reveals the deliberate message,
Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old
Pink, care of the funny farm, Chaford.
58

In response to allegations of satanic backmasking levied against their song Eldorado, Electric
Light Orchestra band leader Jeff Lynne shot back a year later and took pains to show what
intentional backmasking really sounds like. ELOs song, Fire on High, from the 1975 album
Face the Music, contains the deliberate backmasked message, The music is reversible, but time
is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!
59

Satirist and parodist Weird Al Yankovic recognized the potential the perceived phenomenon of
backmasking had for cultural commentary. His song Nature Trail to Hell, from the 1984 album

57
8ackward Masklng," Rational Wiki, http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Backward_masking (accessed 22 October
2012).
58
R. Gary Patterson, Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses (New York: Fireside,
2004), p. 179.
59
Ibid., p. 173.
22

In 3-D, contains the hidden message, Satan eats Cheez Whiz.
60
On the 1996 Bad Hair Day
album, Yankovic conceals a hidden message in a gibberish-filled bridge of the song I Remember
Larry. Reversed, one hears, Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands.
61

At the end of his sexually-provocative song Darling Nikki, the rock star known as Prince
placed a deliberate backwardly-hidden message that invoked Christian theology: Hello. How are
you? I'm fine. Cause I know that the Lord is coming soon. Coming. Coming soon.
62

Even the Christian rock group Petra made a tongue-in-cheek jab at the backmasking controversy.
Between two songs on their 1983 album More Power to Ya, they inserted this phrase backward:
What are you lookin' for the devil for, when you oughta be lookin' for the Lord?
63

When the B-52s song Detour Through Your Mind is played in reverse, Fred Schneiders voice
can be heard scolding the Satan-seekers: I buried my parakeet in the backyard. No, no, youre
playing the record backward. Watch out, you might ruin your needle.
64

By far, the vast majority of claimed instances of satanic backward masking are those out of
which believers strain to find evil messages. These are the ones believed by most of the prophets
of backmasking to be unintentional and thus entirely demon-orchestrated. Tom McIver, in a
1988 Skeptical Inquirer article on the subject, surveys some of the more well-known cases:
Black Oak Arkansas has a song [When Electricity Came to Arkansas] with the backward
message Satan, Satan, He is God, He is God.
Another one bites the dust, a song by Queen, sounds like decide to smoke marijuana,
marijuana when played backward.
A song by Styx about cocaine [Snowblind] says Satan, move in our voices backward.
A Child is Coming, by Jefferson Starship, has the words Son of Satan backward.

60
Welrd Al naLure 1rall Lo Pell" onllne aL Ieff Mlloets 8ockmoskloq collectloo,
http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking/nature-trail-to-hell-backwards.html (accessed 20 October 2010).
61
Zachary uresch, Welrd Al ?ankovlc's 'l emember Larry' ln everse" (vldeo, 0:33), YouTube 1 May 2007,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PNL1IYc3A7k (accessed 20 October 2012).
62
Patterson, Take a Walk on the Dark Side, p. 178. uarllng nlkkl" ls Lhe song responslble for lnsplrlng Mary
LllzabeLh 1lpper" Core, wlfe of Lhen-Senator and later Vice President Albert Gore, to push for legislation requiring
arenLal Advlsory" labels Lo be placed on record albums conLalnlng lyrlcs deemed offenslve by 1lpper Core's
organization Parents Music Resource Center. See Bathroom Reader InsLlLuLe, 1lpper vs. Muslc," ln uocle Iobos
Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music (Ashland, C: 8aLhroom eaders' ress, 2007), p. 242).
63
Baker, Contemporary Christian Music, p. 177.
64
Patterson, Take a Walk on the Dark Side, p. 174.
23

Heres to my sweet Satan is what the words theres still time resemble backward in the Led
Zeppelin song Stairway to Heaven. A song on their Houses of the Holy album [Over the
Hills and Far Away] contains the words Satan is really Lord in reverse.
The lyrics This could be heaven or hell in an Eagles song [Hotel California] turn out to be:
Yes, Satan, he organized his own religion. . . . It was delicious. . . . He puts it in a vat and fixes it
for his son and gives it away backward.
Pat Benatars song Evil Genius says, in reverse, Oh-h, Satan, thats why I want you to hear my
music. The voice that makes my money.
I love you, said the Devil appears backward in a Rolling Stones song [Tops].
Motley Crues Shout at the Devil album supposedly contains the backward phrase Backward
mask where you are, oh, lost in error, Satan.
Venoms Welcome to Hell album has Its better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven
backward.
65

The belief that songs contain sinister hidden messages that are revealed only when played in
reverse is a great example of what Michael Shermer calls patternicity in action. In February
2010, Shermer presented a short lecture for the prestigious Technology, Entertainment, Design
(TED) series on the subject of self-deception and the tendency of humans to seek out patterns,
whether they exist or not. Essentially, said Shermer, we are pattern-seeking primates. We
connect the dots: A is connected to B; B is connected to C. And sometimes A really is connected
to B, and that's called association learning. Shermer elaborates:
I call this process patternicity that is, the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both
meaningful and meaningless noise. When we do this process, we make two types of errors. A
Type I error, or false positive, is believing a pattern is real when it's not. Our second type of error
is a false negative. A Type II error is not believing a pattern is real when it is.
Now the problem here is that patternicities will occur whenever the cost of making a Type I error
is less than the cost of making a Type II error . . . We have a pattern detection problem; that is,
assessing the difference between a Type I and a Type II error is highly problematic, especially in
split-second, life-and-death situations. So the default position is just: Believe all patterns are real
all rustles in the grass are dangerous predators and not just the wind . . . there was a natural

65
1om Mclver, 8ackward Masklng, and CLher 8ackward 1houghLs AbouL Muslc," Skeptical Inquirer 13, no. 1 (Fall
1988): 52-53.
24

selection for the propensity for our belief engines, our pattern-seeking brain processes, to always
find meaningful patterns and infuse them with these sort of predatory or intentional agencies . . .
66

During this talk, Shermer displayed a series of pictures on an overhead screen that are somewhat
undefinable and difficult to make out at first glance. He then suggested what should be seen in
the pictures, and those suggested visuals become immediately discernible to the viewer. This is
in fact the technique to which fundamentalist promoters of the backmasking claims resort in their
efforts to convince the public of the dangers of rock music. A very basic fact about pattern-
seeking tendencies applies well to backward masking in music: when we are told what we are
supposed to be listening for, we find it very easy to hear just that, whether the claimed effect is
actually there or not. As Tom McIver notes, the anti-rock crusaders urge us to listen intently as
they tell us exactly what it is we are supposed to be hearing.
67

When our minds are tricked in this way, we attribute what Shermer calls agenticity to the
phenomenon, the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention and agency, often
invisible beings from the top down.
68
In the case of belief in backward masking, people
erroneously and prematurely conclude that what they think we are hearing could not possibly be
there by accident or coincidence. We all possess a tendency to erroneously attribute our
collective pareidolias to what philosopher Daniel Dennett calls the intentional stance:
Here is how [the intentional stance] works: first you decide to treat the objects whose behavior is
to be predicted as a rational agent; then you figure out what beliefs that agent ought to have,
given its place in the world and its purpose. Then you figure out what desires it ought to have, on
the same considerations, and finally you predict that this rational agent will act to further its goals
in the light of its belief. A little practical reasoning from the chosen set of beliefs and desires will
in many but not all instances yield a decision about what the agent ought to do; that is what
you predict the agent will do.
69

Dennett goes on to qualify his description of the intentional strategy. The next task, he
speculates, would seem to be distinguishing those intentional systems that really have beliefs

66
Mlchael hermer, 1he aLLern 8ehlnd elf-uecepLlon" (vldeo, 19:01), TED Talks February 2010,
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html (accessed 26 August
2012).
67
Mclver, 8ackward Masklng, and CLher 8ackward 1houghLs AbouL Muslc," p. 36.
68
Shermer, 1he aLLern 8ehlnd elf-uecepLlon."
69
Daniel C. Dennett, The Intentional Stance (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987), p. 17.
25

and desires from those we may find it handy to treat as if they had beliefs and desires.
70
The
belief that secret messages with sinister meanings lurk in the grooves of rock albums, for the
purpose of seducing youth to Satanism via subliminal indoctrination, is an extreme example of
the failure to appreciate Dennetts distinction. It is also a clear indicator of where a persons or
groups concern really lies. In the research report by Vokey and Read cited above, the authors
conclude that the apparent presence of backward messages in popular music is a function more
of active construction on the part of the perceiver than of the existence of the messages
themselves.
71
McIver, writing for the Skeptical Inquirer, calls backmasking claims the precise
equivalent of Rorschach inkblot interpretations, and concludes:
Thus in most cases the alleged subliminal messages indicate not the secret intent of a music or
advertising conspiracy, but the concerns and obsessions of the interpreter: sex, death, media
conspiracy, and corporate greed for Key; sex, drugs, immorality, rejection of Christ, and Satan
worship for the prophets of backmasking.
72

Again, the list of rock songs cited as containing sinister or subversive backmasked messages is
quite long. Among the groups and musicians routinely accused of embedding satanic messages
backward into their music are the Bee Gees, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Hall and
Oates, and many others. In The Devils Disciples, Jeff Godwin declared, More and more
backmasked Rock abominations are being discovered every week by dedicated Christian groups
and outreach ministries throughout the country. . . . What a backlog of Devil-Rock songs and
albums there must be out there just waiting to be discovered!
73
The lists produced by the
Experts stirred a significant number of credulous parents, teachers and pastors to action; in fits of
righteous indignation, several congregations brought hundreds of rock albums to church, threw
them together in large piles, and literally burned them. In the absence of religiously-based
dogma and paranoia, what otherwise rational person would engage in such wanton destruction of
culture?
The actions that religion drives otherwise-reasonable people to take are nothing short of
astounding.

70
Ibid., p. 22.
71
vokey and ead, ubllmlnal Messages," p. 1231.
72
Mclver, 8ackward Masklng, and CLher 8ackward 1houghLs AbouL Muslc," p. 36 (emphasls added).
73
Godwin, 1be uevlls ulsclples, p. 152.
26

*November 5, 2012