Metallica Used As Torture

Of course, at that point they'd probably attach the electrodes.

Erm, while I agree with Ned's "no worries" stance, FYI there is a Search link down there at the bottom.

Music As Torture/Music As Weapon

The Torture Playlist

Songs used include:

Fuck Your God - Deicide
Die MF Die - Dope
Take Your Best Shot - Dope
White America - Eminem
Kim - Eminem
Barney Theme Song
Bodies - Drowning Pool
TV Commercial - Meow Mix
Sesame Street Theme Song
Babylon - David Gray
Born In The U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen
Shoot To Thrill - AC/DC
Hell's Bells - AC/DC
Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
All Eyez on Me - 2Pac
Dirrty - Christina Aguilera
America - Neil Diamond
American Pie - Don McLean
Click Click Boom - Saliva
Cold - Matchbox 20
Swan Dive - (Hed) P.E.
Raspberry Beret - Prince

Also, Rage Against the Machine and a Janeane Garofolo audio book. Can't imagine either of them (or Springsteen!) would be happy to learn this. But on the audio track, the author of the article says Metallica are psyched that they're being used in this way because they believe it contributes to the war effort.

from Democracy Now:

Steve Asheim, the drummer of the group Deicide said, “It’s cool. If we’re up to military standards of audio abuse, it makes me feel like Deicide’s doing our part for the troops.”

Subjecting anyone to Dope, Saliva, or Drowning Pool in any situation should surely be considered torture.

I'm sure there is absolutely nothing they could do from a legal standpoint, but I'd love to see Springsteen or RATM make an issue out of this.

I would play that "You're Beautiful" song. that's fucking torture.

"The Barney Theme Song" ---- that's just sick and wrong.

Why is "Raspberry Beret" in there?

Yeah, she keeps her head covered!

Here's a Nation article that looks to be a source for some of the Mother Jones piece: Disco Inferno

Metallica's James Hetfield did comment on the phenomenon to Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Asked about a BBC report that described his band's music being blared during Iraqi interrogations, he responded with "pride" that his music is "culturally offensive" to Iraqis. Hetfield said that he considers his music "a freedom to express my insanity.... If they're not used to freedom," he said, "I'm glad to be a part of the exposure."

Cold - Matchbox 20

?!

When you're forced to stand up for days on end, locked inside a metal container that reaches nearly 120-degrees, it's safe to say any music cranked for hours is torturous, especially when you're an Iraqi listening to Western music!

The Mother Jones article also mentions some book on tape from Stiller/Garofalo.

Can they collect royalties?

Hetfield's comments are painfully ironic, considering his band wrote a song based on one of the most intense anti-war books ever written.

How many of these people being subjected to this can even understand the words.
Whats the point of playing Fuck Your God, America, or Born in the USA to a non english speaker. Wouldn't a noise band like Wolf Eyes or Hair Police make more sense.
Also is this considered commercial use and are royalties being paid.

Can they collect royalties?

A couple of legal bloggers' attempts to answer that question:

http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2007/03/using-copyright-against-torture.html

http://legalpad.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2007/03/27/tormenting-gitmo-detainees-with-copyrighted-music-is-torture-a-fair-use/

Thanks for the links.

Apparently Spin had an article on this practice in December 2006. Compare and contrast the responses of Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine:

"The fact that our music has been co-opted in this barbaric way is really disgusting. That particular kid of interrogation has rightly been cited by Amnesty International as torture. If you're at all familiar with ideological teachings of the band and its support for human rights, that's really hard to stand."

And Steve Bennon of Drowning Pool:

"People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that, played over and over, it can physiologically break someone down. I take it as an honor to think that our song could perhaps be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that. ... If they detain these people and the worst thing that happens is they have to sit through a few hours of loud music--some kids in America pay for that. It doesn't seem all that bad to me."

http://jonahwalters.blogspot.com/2007/03/music-as-torture-at-guantanamo-bay.html

Hetfield's comments are painfully ironic, considering his band wrote a song based on one of the most intense anti-war books ever written.

-- QuantumNoise, Thursday, 6 March 2008 20:18 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

How are his comments painfully ironic? Were Metallica big on state owned Iraqi radio back in the day?

Were Metallica big on state owned Iraqi radio back in the day?

I don't know. I'm just commenting of the fact that one of the band's biggest hits is -- on the surface, at least -- anti-war. Yet he takes pride in Metallica's music being used as a torture device during war. Maybe irony is the wrong word.

<i>Apparently Spin had an article on this practice in December 2006</i>

It was written by the same idiot who was just caught up in the fabrication of Black Crowes and Nas reviews at Maxim.

Morello's quote:"That particular kid of interrogation has rightly been cited by Amnesty International as torture."

I call bullshit on that. I'd like to see a cite.

More reaction from Christopher Cerf, one of the songwriters for Sesame Street, though best known to me through his work for National Lampoon. He wrote the immortal Furry Happy Monsters for REM to sing.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1290449

Morello's quote:"That particular kid of interrogation has rightly been cited by Amnesty International as torture."

I call bullshit on that. I'd like to see a cite.

Here's an Amnesty International Report that points out that international law prohibits "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment":

http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511082005?open&of=ENG-YEM

Select passages:

The descriptions of treatment in the "modern" secret US detention facility suggest the use of psychological ill-treatment to obtain information. As with the previous facility, western music was piped into the cells 24 hours a day making it impossible for the men to concentrate on reading or prayers or to sleep properly.

Walid al-Qadasi said that in Kabul the prisoners were only fed once a day and that loud music was used as "torture". He said that one of his fellow detainees "went insane".

So basically what anyone who's ever lived in a Halls of Residence has had to put up with, then.

I didn't realize until I read some of these articles that Muslims were prohibited from listening to music. No booze, no drugs, no nudity, no music. I wouldn't last too long.

That's not entirely true, about Muslims not being able to listen to music.
Read this book.

Only very extreme islamists like the Taliban have ever tried to prohibit music altogether. And even with them, some religious music is allowed, because according to their definition it's not music per se. I strongly doubt the Qur'an says music is wrong, and most of the Islamic world listens to mundane/non-religious music just like most Christians do.

Update: A lawyer who represents Guantanamo detainees intends to sue on the basis of copyright infringement.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/03/7452_mad_mad_respons.html

Seems like Lars Ulrich doesn't see eye to eye with Hetfield on this:

He says, "I feel horrible about this. No one in Iraq has ever done anything to hurt me and I don't understand why we have to be implicated in that bullshit."

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=12677

I'm not surprised Ulrich and Hetfield would differ on this. If James really wants to torture people, he should release a deluxe version of St. Anger, including remixes.

amirite

*listening to The Slits' 'FM' while reading this thread*

Seems like Lars Ulrich doesn't see eye to eye with Hetfield on this:

When I read Hetfield's comments, I was wondering if Ulrich felt differently.

Khaled al-Maqtari, on his detentions at Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan:

"It was not really music but noise to scare you, like from one of those scary movies."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7292974.stm

Amnesty says his eyes were covered and ears stuffed with cotton before they hooded him and put on noise-reducing headphones. Presumably when those were removed he was far more sensitive to the effects of blasted music and lights.

http://www.amnesty-eu.org/static/html/pressrelease.asp?cfid=12&id=349&cat=4&l=1

I didn't realize until I read some of these articles that Muslims were prohibited from listening to music. No booze, no drugs, no nudity, no music. I wouldn't last too long.

-- Bill Magill, Thursday, March 6, 2008 5:14 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

what does the quran say about killing a hooker?

More from Clive Stafford-Smith on psy-ops at "the disco" at Guantanamo Bay. He interviews Binyam Mohamed, who says psyops like music torture at Guantanamo are in some ways worse than when the CIA rendered him to Morocco, where his torturers took a razor blade to his penis. He also interviews David Gray about Haj Ali (the hooded man at Abu Ghraib), who was stripped and handcuffed while Gray's song "Babylon" was played at loud volumes:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/19/usa.guantanamo?gusrc=rss&feed=39

More on Mohamed by Stafford-Smith:
http://www.newstatesman.com/human-rights/2008/06/music-binyam-torture-british

Mohamed's diary: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/aug/02/terrorism.humanrights1

Alex Ross on "futility music":
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/goingson/2008/05/futility-music.html

*listening to The Slits' 'FM' while reading this thread*

OTM.

The Suzanne Cusick essay cited by Alex Ross is the most comprehensive account I've seen of the weaponization of music in US detention camps, particularly strong at showing how the practice was officially authorized, and describing the relationship between "futility music" and "gender coercion" - the sexual humiliation of Muslim men. Available here:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=SAM&volumeId=2&issueId=01#

Reprieve's campaign against music torture: http://zerodb.org/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3705755/Bands-complain-about-their-songs-being-used-in-torture.html

I got to thinking about this the other day, because I was watching an unbearable mid-90s episode of Superman with my gf's kid.

(Ah, thanks youtube)

To clarify, the old lady and I were joking about how you could ship the cartoon over to iraq to use in interrogations.

I wonder why they use pop music and not like, infrasonic tones or something. Is it more effective, or is the U.S. Army just cheap?

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nations_music_snobs_protest

The Onion's take- "Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners"

They could have at least picked an excerpt from Dream Theater's A Change Of Seasons EP to play at 120 decibels for 14 hours a day," Frere-Jones continued. "If I were handcuffed to a chair with something as tired as Tupac's 'Keep Ya Head Up' blasting in my face, I'd probably pass out from boredom, despite the painful sleep deprivation stress positions."

A small but especially vocal contingent tirelessly lobbied for the inclusion of at least one selection from Steely Dan's 1977 tour de force Aja, preferably the song "Peg."

"Blatantly dismissing what the U.S. government has done to these men is an unconscionable miscarriage of justice," Pitchfork.com contributor Andy Ragazzo said. "I've been here for nearly six hours, and I haven't heard one person other than myself so much as mention the groundbreaking work of minimal techno and microhouse artist Ricardo Villalobos."
"It almost makes me ashamed to be an

It almost makes me ashamed to be an American," Ragazzo added