The Torture Playlist
Mother Jones released a list and sampling of what is allegedly some of the music that guards and interrogators use in American military prisons to 'induce sleep deprivation...and disorient detainees during interrogations'.
A visit to this site is not complete without looking at the comments. People have contributed their own songs to be used as torture, question the validity of the list, and praise or discredit the choices ('I would gladly be tortured by those songs' 'DEICIDE!!!').
Whether or not this is a 'real' list, it's fascinating in many ways. One of the interesting things about this list is the 'genres' it includes. Sure, we've got the hard-core stuff that is intimidating just in itself (Metallica, Dope, etc.), but you've also got the Sesame Street and Barney theme songs, the Meow Mix commercial, The Bee Gees, Don McLean (American Pie), Neil Diamond, David Gray (Babylon - interesting choice) and Prince.
A few of these are good 'torture propaganda' songs, I guess, for want of a better word - Eminem's 'White America', for example. ('Born in the USA' is, of course, misused as it always is.) The Deicide and Dope stuff - and I'm guessing the Christina Aguilera - is obviously on the list because the music and/or topics are inherently offensive to most people, but probably thought most offensive to Muslim prisoners.
Let's face it, if you listen to any song at high volume over and over again without sleep and food, you'll go crazy. This kind of activity is, indeed, torture. Beyond everything that's wrong with any kind of torture to begin with, it's especially perverse to use music to torture. (As a side note, what does this say about music and power?)
But here's what's interesting to me. This list is so subjective. Barney and Sesame Street and Neil Diamond and the Bee Gees are a comment on the music itself: 'I hate this, so I'll impose it on you'.
With AC/DC, Deicide and Dope, though, these are very likely from soldiers' own personal playlists - stuff they listen to all the time anyway.
What does using one's favorite music to torture say about its effect on the listener who WANTS to listen to it? We go back to 'I would gladly be tortured by these songs.'
Are we torturing ourselves with our own music?
I'm not against free expression - you can listen to what you want to. In the film 'High Fidelity', the main character Rob wonders whether we're miserable and so listen to pop music, or whether pop music makes us so miserable. I wonder about this sometimes for myself - why am I listening to this? What am I getting from it? How is it affecting me?
When someone surrounds themselves with music like Deicide and Dope, how does that affect them?
Granted - these soldiers are in one of the most horrific man-made situations ever, all the time, every day. Anyone in that situation needs some support, often in whatever form he or she can get it. For me, I know, I use music as a refuge. But why surround yourself with more hate and horror through music? What good can that possibly do anyone, in the war or outside of it?
