Backmasking

[Sleepyjack]

Backtracking, or backmasking is the form of inserting hidden messages into tracks which can only be consciously heard when played backwards. Most of the time these messages are inserted purposefully, sometimes by accident, some people even believe that the subconscious can actually pick up these messages. But the nature of the backtracked messages in many modern pop songs is so sinister as to leave no doubt to the intentions and affiliations of these singers.

http://www3.telus.net/jefmil/stairwaybackwards.htm

link to flash file:
http://www3.telus.net/jefmil/backmasking.swf

The britney spears one is hilarious, and the Led zeppelin one is pretty cool too. Some are pretty far fetched though....

[Grasshopper Green]

That was pretty interesting. The Pink Floyd one actually sounded like it was put in purposefully, the Queen one was pretty distinct, but the rest were kind of up in the air in my opinion. Cool link, though!

[drakers]

The stairway to heaven sounded more coincidental than purposeful.

[MSD]

You never know what you're hearing unless you get it from the CD. I've recorded backwards messages in various popular songs and let them loose on P2P networks. If you ever wonder whether the Backstreet Boys or really are pledging their allegiance to Satan in one of their hit songs, sorry to rain on your parade, but it's probably because I'm an asshole; you haven't discovered the secret to their success.

[kurtisj]

i think i've been to that sight before.
interesting story though, my friend was messin around at a gfs house and there was an old little kid record player and an old peter pan birthday record for little kids from like the 40s and when it got to a certain point, this narrator guy came on and said "well it's getting late so its time for us to leave", and he was spinnin the record and it played backwards as "you must have a mass suicide", its pretty creepy and very obvious....Charlie Manson must have gotten the same record as a kid, subliminal messages got to him

[samcol]

The only weird ones are the ones that make sense lyrically, forwards and backwards. That rules out backmasking unless I am missing something.

Stairway to Heaven is the only one that I can't figure out. Most of the other ones are obviously backmasked, or don't make sense at all. However, Jimmy Page definetly dabbled in the occult.

[DJMala]

The Pink Floyd one was obviously done intentionally as a joke...

I think "I'm So Tired" is also intentional. I'm pretty sure the Beatles got a kick out of leaving clues to feed the whole "Paul is dead" rumor.

Stairway to Heaven I'm not sure about. Pagey certainly had the technical know-how to engineer something like that, and he is known to be a genuinely weird dude.

The rest of them are just concidence, caused by the rearrangement of syllables that occurs when speech (or singing) is reversed. Sort of like the aural equivalent of looking at a Rorschach inkblot or seeing shapes in clouds, your brain tries to impose familiar patterns on what is essentially random.

[Spire]

that shit was halarious man i knew something was up with pokemon

[Munku]

I can only understand one of all of those. So much for that!

[thatoneguy]

Well, personally, unless I see/hear an artist say that they intentionally did this on an album, I don't think I buy any of them. Maybe some of them are legit, but I'm pretty skeptical. I listened to them the first time without the "reverse lyrics" listed and I couldn't get anything out of it, but once you have the lyrics in front of you, it's easy to hear what you want to hear. Like I said, I could very well be wrong, but I just don't buy into it.

[TexanAvenger]

Hate to be the jerk here, but:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...ht=backmasking
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...ht=backmasking