Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Fri, 10 Apr 1992 09:46:15 EDT
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Subliminal Tapes

On Wed, 8 Apr 1992 14:38:49 PDT Michael M. Masuda said:
>To anyone who uses subliminal tapes:
>Is there any truth to the fact that there are
>actual messages imbedded into the music of
>subliminal tapes?
>How is the signal processed electronically?

I only heard a couple of these things. One I remember was a tape that was
basically a huge mass of overdubbed synths, playing this cloying 6th chord,
and one of the synths, playing the third of the chord, was run through a
vocoder and had spoken text imposed on it that way. It was practically the
only contrasting element in the whole tape. I think I remember one other,
where the music had more of a beat to it (i.e. any), basic salad bar new age,
and the spoken text was just a whisper mixed in, not foreground but clearly
audible over headphones.

>Is it all a hoax?
>Is it all a psychological trip--
>   the words are printed on the lining of the cassette box
>   you read the words
>   you associate the music with the words
>   the words sink in as you listen to the music
>   simple self hypnosis

I don't know much of the literature on subliminal cues. The idea is that the
message bypasses the censors in your ego and superego, and directly stimulates
the id, where all your self-gratification impulses are supposed to come from
anyway. This presupposes that your id isn't smart enough to tell the difference
between a genuine pleasure, like sex or chocolate, and an externally defined
pleasure, like a new piece of music product. I think that, like hypnosis, how
well it works depends on how suggestible you are. It can't make you do anything
you're dead set against-- subliminal advertising won't make you suddenly enjoy
New Kids on the Block or anything like that. These assholes that claim heavy
metal makes kids kill themselves or their parents are purely full of shit, but
that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone here.

>Or are we all slowly undergoing sonic mind control by
>   some elite and arcane underground cabal?
>If this is actually possible to do, what's stopping the
>   television industry from feeding our minds with
>   subliminal (i.e., consciously unheard) messages?

Actually the people responsible for television advertising devotely hope that's
how it works. They're aware of how many households just have the TV blaring in
the background, and they hope that messages to buy corn flakes penetrate from
that blare to affect the people doing their dusting or working on their stamp
collections or whatever.

>Or what's stopping CD manufacturers from putting
>   messages onto their CDs (e.g., "buy more from this label")?

Your typical record buyer has effectively no brand loyalty, which is an endless
disappointment to major label promotion exec's. I don't see that it matters at
that level anyway, as the A&R departments are all chasing exactly the same sound
all the time. It's more germane at indies, run by people who decide to get into
the incredibly painful record business because there's a certain sound they like
to hear, and they propagate that sound: SubPop is the leading example, where if
you really like the Nirvana flavor of grunge, you'd probably be quite happy with
Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and Tad too.

>Hey, is there a conspiracy going on here?

Probably several, starting with the one to re-elect George Bush, despite the
dismal economy and the massive hoax that was the Gulf war. Anything that makes
people go out and spend money is probably going to work to the benefit of the
corporations that skim the cream off the real economy-- and IMHO constitute
the constituency Bush really serves as president.

>Michael M. Masuda.
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