# "Rock music and the Christian" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168 "2011-08-18T14:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/1 "2011-08-18T14:41:19Z")
Back in college (1991-ish) a friend of mine gave me a cassette tape called “Rock music and the Christian”. It was a recording of a 60-90 minute presentation about backward masking in rock 'n roll music, presented by a Christian Fundamentalist-type guy who’s name now escapes me, but I _think_ it was Mike Adams. Anyways, notwithstanding the guy’s agenda, it was without a doubt the **best** presentation of ‘Satanic’ rock ‘n roll backward masking’ I’ve ever heard, and included a lot of pretty interesting history of occultism in the rock 'n roll industry as well. (We’ve all heard about supposed backward masking and hidden messages, but this was an actual presentation of categorical examples - _awesome_.) Has anyone else ever heard of this guy (I’m not 100% certain about the name ‘Mike Adams’) or the presentation (I _am_ 100% certain about the title ‘Rock music and the Christian’)? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/2 "2011-08-18T19:26:00Z")
I picked up this book, [Why Knock Rock?](http://www.amazon.com/Knock-Rock-good-really-matter/dp/0871234408) by Dan and Steve Peters, at a thrift shop, and really got a bang out of it. When I first read your OP, I thought it might be the same, but I guess not. I always suspected they might be the ones who gave a presentation at the private Christian school I went to…maybe it was this Mike Adams guy. It was fascinating. I remember being warned against: Fleetwood Mac (particularly the song _Little Lies_) George Harrison’s _My Sweet Lord_ (pagan gods) KISS (Kids in Satan’s Service, of course) Ozzy (bat-eating, etc.) The Starland Vocal Band’s _Afternoon Delight_ (it ain’t about skyrockets) This would have been the early eighties. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/3 "2011-08-18T19:28:00Z")
There is no such thing as backwards masking. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/4 "2011-08-18T19:32:49Z")
The same type of people who claimed there was “Backward Masking” in rock music are the same type who are hearing ghost voices in the white noise and static of un-tuned radios. If artist knew about subliminal backward masking, it would say stuff like “Buy our Records”, or “See our Shows and buy a T-shirt” ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/5 "2011-08-18T19:38:51Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > There is no such thing as backwards masking. [del]Dio, why don’t go go shit in someone else’s thread, eh? Thanks.[/del] Thanks, Dio. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/6 "2011-08-18T19:46:37Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I picked up this book, [Why Knock Rock?](http://www.amazon.com/Knock-Rock-good-really-matter/dp/0871234408) by Dan and Steve Peters, at a thrift shop, and really got a bang out of it. When I first read your OP, I thought it might be the same, but I guess not. > > I always suspected they might be the ones who gave a presentation at the private Christian school I went to…maybe it was this Mike Adams guy. It was fascinating. I remember being warned against: > > Fleetwood Mac (particularly the song _Little Lies_) > George Harrison’s _My Sweet Lord_ (pagan gods) > KISS (Kids in Satan’s Service, of course) > Ozzy (bat-eating, etc.) > The Starland Vocal Band’s _Afternoon Delight_ (it ain’t about skyrockets) > > This would have been the early eighties. Yeah, the one I’ve got doesn’t talk about KISS, but he hits the other three you mention. Also, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven (in particular) and a lot about Jimmy Page. The backward masking segments definitely required something akin to suspension of disbelief, because (as our old pal Dio so helpfully pointed out), there’s really no such thing as backward masking. I think yanceylebeef is right - if rock stars were going to beam subliminal messages into our brains it would no doubt be geared more towards increased record sales than Satanism. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/7 "2011-08-18T19:47:59Z")
There is such a thing as backwards masking, but when played normally, it just sounds like jumbled noise. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/8 "2011-08-18T19:54:03Z")
It must be scary to live in such a demon-haunted world. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/9 "2011-08-18T19:55:16Z")
I wonder what they’d make of Crimson Thorn, one of the heaviest bands I’ve ever heard(and quite serious Christians, too). I’m not sure if my link here is really to their heaviest song, but it gives a taste of them. [Crimson Thorn - Withered](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhqkdD_r1BA) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/10 "2011-08-18T19:58:50Z")
I can tell you that Mike Adams is far from the only fundamentalist Christian who believes that Satan is all over rock & roll. I grew up in the 80’s when such talk was all the rage. It seems to have died down quite a bit now, if not entirely. There are lots of Christian acts that are rock & roll, heavy metal, etc. Most (all?) of those who oppose rock & roll on Satanic grounds don’t give a pass to Christian musicians doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/11 "2011-08-18T20:03:44Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > There is no such thing as backwards masking. If you read this post backwards, you get “Satan does jumping-jacks with Ralph Nader in Waukegan.” ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/12 "2011-08-18T20:20:10Z")
I’m going to shoot this over to CS since it seems just a bit better suited for that place. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/13 "2011-08-18T20:57:32Z")
[The late David Wilkerson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wilkerson) of _The Cross and the Switchblade_ fame was a well known anti-rock crusader, but there were plenty of others in the 70s and especially the 80s. I once went to a seminar led by a guy who claimed to be a roadie for all kinds of rock bands in the late 70s and 80s and “exposed” all kinds of things about backward masking and submliminal messages on album cover art. Alice Cooper is posessed by a demon! Rush promotes communism! “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a Satanic ritual! ETA: I forgot he also told us D&D (which I played) was a tool of the occult and I was opening the door to demonic infestation. Whee! ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/14 "2011-08-18T21:18:48Z")
Could it have been Paul and Jan Crouch’s son (whose name escapes me)? When I was a kid/teenager my mom used to watch TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) which was full of televangelists with big hair, bad suits, and scary eyelashes. I do remember sitting down with her to watch the presentation on rock music, though–I thought it was interesting even though I was convinced it was utter hogwash. He talked about Highway to Hell, Stairway to Heaven (discussing various pagan imagery in the song), Blue Oyster Cult, and an ELO (I think) song where if you play it backwards you can clearly hear “The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back!” and several other popular bands/albums from the 70s/early 80s. Does this sound at all familiar? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/15 "2011-08-18T21:39:12Z")
I forgot who it was, but IIRC, one rock dude said something to the effect of “if backward masking worked, we’d have told them to buy more of our records, plus studio time is too expensive to mess around with that, anyway”. I would venture that the percentage of rock musicians who give a crap about Satan is negligible. Psychochristians like to tarbaby rock musicians with the Satan thing because a lot of them are simply antiauthoritarian, which of course includes religious authority. The backward masking legend only still bounces around due to the innate credulousness of religious types. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/16 "2011-08-18T21:52:00Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Could it have been Paul and Jan Crouch’s son (whose name escapes me)? When I was a kid/teenager my mom used to watch TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) which was full of televangelists with big hair, bad suits, and scary eyelashes. I do remember sitting down with her to watch the presentation on rock music, though–I thought it was interesting even though I was convinced it was utter hogwash. He talked about Highway to Hell, Stairway to Heaven (discussing various pagan imagery in the song), Blue Oyster Cult, and an ELO (I think) song where if you play it backwards you can clearly hear “The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back!” and several other popular bands/albums from the 70s/early 80s. > > Does this sound at all familiar? It sure does. I’ll try an updated google search - thanks ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/17 "2011-08-18T21:52:03Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > I forgot who it was, but IIRC, one rock dude said something to the effect of “if backward masking worked, we’d have told them to buy more of our records, plus studio time is too expensive to mess around with that, anyway”. Probably Rob Halford, since Judas Priest were at the centre of a big ‘Backmasking’ thing back in the 80s. _wikis_ Yeah, that was Halford. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/18 "2011-08-18T21:54:30Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > The same type of people who claimed there was “Backward Masking” in rock music are the same type who are hearing ghost voices in the white noise and static of un-tuned radios. > > If artist knew about subliminal backward masking, it would say stuff like “Buy our Records”, or “See our Shows and buy a T-shirt” Suddenly, I understand the success of Justin Bieber. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/19 "2011-08-18T21:59:59Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > I forgot who it was, but IIRC, one rock dude said something to the effect of “if backward masking worked, we’d have told them to buy more of our records, plus studio time is too expensive to mess around with that, anyway”. It was someone from Judas Priest, I believe, after a lawsuit claiming that a couple of kids had shot themselves because of subliminal messages in their music. Extensive audio analysis led a judge to say that the claims were complete horseshit and throw the case out. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168/20 "2011-08-18T22:02:50Z")
I recall my mother coming home from a Parents’ Club meeting when I was in probably 7th grade at the local Parish school and asking if I listened to any of the “Heavy Metal” music. Apparently there had been a presentation that night warning them all of the evils of backward masking. I think I told her something along the lines of “yes, mom, I do. And they’re making all of that stuff up”. I even played Stairway to Heaven backwards on my turntable for her. She never mentioned the subject again. And while I’m here, I feel compelled to say: **I snort the nose, Lucifer! Banana, banana!** [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-music-and-the-christian/593168.md?page=2)