The Psychological Power of Sound as a Weapon
SIEGE MUSIC: SOUND AS A WEAPON
As we all know, musical taste is a very personal affair. What I may love another may hate. And yet on a daily basis we are subjected to a barrage of music, in shops, elevators, and when put on hold by a telephone operative. Parents for generations have been subjected to repeated bouts of Elvis through to Slipknot, heard through the muffled floor of their living room.
This compulsion to play music to others is one which can be interpreted in different ways. For instance you will never here a fast paced song being played in a shopping mall, as this quickens our pace and we are less likely to linger and buy something we never intended to. Of course this will never do, so pan piped covers of the Beatles and Frank Sinatra numbers are force-fed to us as we consume.
On 20th September 1989 Operation Just Cause was executed in Panama by the Psychological Operations Division (PSYOP) of the U.S armed forces. This involved blasting extremely loud rock and pop music at the Vatican Embassy compound where General Noriega, a known opera lover, was under siege.
The songs played were chosen by soldiers surrounding the compound. Songs included ‘ I Fought the Law and the Law Won’ by The Clash, and ‘Nowhere to Run’ by Martha and the Vandellas. Of course, this was not the first time music had been used by the military, and historically armies have often marched into battle with a band playing. The difference in Panama was that rather than music being used to rally the troops it was being used as a weapon against Noriega, with the same tracks being played over and over again, ad nauseum.
The same tactic was later used in Waco, Texas, against David Koresh and the Branch Davidians who were under siege at the Mount Carmel Centre. Here ‘Behind the Crooked Cross’ by Slayer and ‘You’re no Good’ by Linda Ronstadt, mixed with teeth being drilled and rabbits being slaughtered, were the weapons of choice. In this instance, you could argue that the use of this tactic was a flawed one, as the repeated playing of loud music is an attempt to keep the people under siege awake, and therefore do the will of those playing the music. One slight oversight in Waco was that a large part of brainwashing is conducted by sleep deprivation, and the people inside Mt. Carmel were effectively rendered more susceptible to David Koresh’s intentions than those of the U.S. government surrounding them.
More recently there have been reports that Metallica and Barney the Dinosaur have been used by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib as torture instruments (weapons of mass distraction).
While the antics of shopping malls piping bad cover versions over tinny shopping mall speakers, or kids annoying their parents with a new CD is nowhere near the PSYOP unit’s manipulative mind control plans, they do have similarities. Underlying the military, the company and the teenager’s intentions is an assertion of identity. This is our music and it defines us, whether you like it or not. Just before I left home my chosen weapon was Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name of’, with the suitable line, ‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’. I played it repeatedly. Just loud enough for it to be heard throughout the whole house. In hindsight, I don’t think I really liked the track, or the album for that matter, but what it did do was sum up my teenage angst-ridden feelings. I also knew that played often enough really annoyed my parents. Perhaps the PSYOP units are in fact the teenagers of the U.S. forces, and instead of bedrooms, they have compounds. And a captive audience.
Words: Andrew Marsh
Illustration: Miles Donovan
Originally appeared in issue 21 of Fused Magazine
