Yesterday M and I were checking out the new CBC Radio 2, and tuned in during a show called Inside the Music. Their topic was the use of music to torture – by the States, natch. Apparently, endless loud loops can eventually drive people to lose their identity (and sanity). One guest complained that music lovers and musicians should be protesting more loudly about this. I don’t think it’s worth separating out in terms of what gets our scorn or our protest, really: torture’s torture. But using music to torture is a lot like rape, isn’t it?
And it’s not a new idea: bagpipes were intended to scare the living shit out of enemies. American troops used blasting music to get Noriega out of the Vatican embassy in Panama in 1989, and it was gross then.
It all made me think of a Kate Bush song – the new track on her 1986 hits record The Whole Story, Experiment IV. And it all made me think that our glorious and beautiful human selves are maybe exactly as evil as we are good.
Here’s the video.
(bad) monkey X 