« PSYOP : An Anthology » (2011)

‘Without the loudspeaker, we would never have conquered Germany’. Adolph Hitler, «Manual of German Radio», 1938

Nazareth, Hair of the Dog (1975)

Operation Nifty Package was the name of the 1989 US Navy SEALS plan to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega who had taken refuge in the Vatican Embassy. The mission employed a range of psychological weapons. Unexpectedly, the building was surrounded by a bowl of loudspeakers blasting music in order to persuade Noriega to leave. The tracks were mainly chosen for their messages and the selection ranged from soul and r’n’b classics to a line up of high-pitched hard rock tracks. This choice seemed efficient in upsetting the fugitive and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. On January 3 1990, after ten days, Noriega finally surrendered himself.

David Koresh, The Lonely Man (unknown)

The FBI famously blasted music at the Branch Davidians in Waco in 1993. Apparently, the cult leader David Koresh, himself a failed pop singer, began the high-decibel musical exchange by overwhelming the troops with his own recordings.

Nancy Sinatra, These Boots Are Made for Walking (1966)

When the FBI moved in and cut the power to the Waco compound, they retaliated with the fitting lyrics of Nancy Sinatra’s ballad. The rest of the selection was made up of a monotonous mix of Tibetan chants, cavalry bugle beats and 1950s-style Christmas carols and continued nonstop for nearly seven weeks. Other tactics included using loudspeakers to play sounds of animals being slaughtered, drilling noises and clips from talk shows about how much their leader, Koresh, was hated. The pitch of the songs and speech was often obviously accelerated or slowed down.

Deicide, Fuck Your God (2004)

The use of music to create fear and prolong capture shock was among a host of interrogation tactics authorised by Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, then a US commander in Iraq, in a memo dated September 14, 2003. From this date, it has been more and more common in US Military Prisons - especially in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan - to play, loudly and incessantly, songs that could be culturally offensive. These practices were part of a wider programme, which the US called the Psychological Operations Company (PSYOP), that aims to find tactics to break prisoners’ resistance. According to the «Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms»: Psychological operations are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.

AC/DC, Hell’s Bells (1986)

The songs were deployed by the 361st PSYOP company trough a Long Range Acoustic Device. The LRAD is a weapon capable of projecting a strip of sound at an average of 120 dB that will be intelligible for 500 to 1,000 meters depending on which model is used. The LRAD is designed to hail ships, issue battlefield or crowd-control commands, or direct an alarming and highly irritating deterrent tone in order to modify behaviour. It was deployed during the siege of Falluja in November of 2004 where the device was first armed with AC/DC’sHell’s Bells and Shoot to Thrill.

Studies for a catalogue / a study for an exhibition of violence in contemporary art (1964/2011) Metallica, Enter Sandman (1991)

One detainee in Abu Ghraib testified that Metallica’sEnter Sandman was among titles that were played very loud and repeatedly during interrogations. These interrogations took place inside shipping containers that were commonly called The Disco.

Boney M, Rivers of Babylon (1978)

Haj Ali Shalal, mayor of Abu Ghraib and known as the «man behind the hood» in the infamous photographs, was forced to listen loudly and constantly to the same loop of Psalm 137 taken from Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon: By the rivers of Babylon / there we sat down, yea / we wept, when we remembered Zion / For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song / How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land ?

Britney Spears, …Baby One More Time (1998)

Ruhal Ahmed remembers pop music being introduced as a tool for torture in Guantanamo Bay: I can bear being beaten up, it’s not a problem. Once you accept that you’re going to go into the interrogation room and be beaten up, it’s fine. You can prepare yourself mentally. But when you’re being psychologically tortured, you can’t. From the end of 2003 they introduced the music, and it became even worse. It makes you feel like you are going mad. You lose the plot, and it’s very scary to think that you might go crazy because of all the music, because of the loud noise, and because after a while you don’t hear the lyrics at all, all you hear is heavy banging.

Eminem, Slim Shady (1999)

Binyam Mohamed, also detained in Guantanamo Bay, described his unbearable experience: It was pitch black, no lights on in the rooms for most of the time. They hung me up for two days. My legs had swollen. My wrists and hands had gone numb. There was loud music, Slim Shady (by Eminem and Dr Dre) for 20 days. Then they changed the sounds to horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds. At one point, I was chained to the rails for a fortnight. The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night. Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.

Barney & Friends, I Love You (1992)

It is absolutely ludicrous, said the composer Bob Singleton after he had learned that his track was regularly played in PSYOP schemes. A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point.

A playlist compiled by Joël Vacheron

Joël Vacheron is a freelance writer based in London. He currently teaches Visual Culture at ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne) and is Web Editor of the music magazine Vibrations.

Studies for a catalogue / a study for an exhibition of violence in contemporary art (1964/2011)