History

The History of Backmasking

Backmasking is the art of hiding messages in audio by dubbing backwards messages into a recording. Though the use of Backmasking is meant to cause subliminal thought there is no evidence that it does. The proof would lie in whether or not the human mind has the capability to subconsciously understand backwards English.

Backmasking, as far as the public eye knows, began in the early 80’s with a band called Judas Priest. In famous court case involving one of their songs, Beyond Realms, Judas Priest was charged with subliminally persuading a kid to commit suicide. The message was heard by playing their record backwards.

Since then, the use of backmasking has risen. Likewise, there has been an increase in the general awareness of its existence. Modern bands have purposefully added backmasked messages to their work intending for it to be found by fans. From this, bands even started to make backmasked messages that were meant to mock bands that put serious backmasked messages in their songs. Ozzie Osborne, Def Leppard, Queen, Led Zeplin, The Eagles and other bands have backmasked messages in some of their songs and are most famous for them. Most of the time, however, only backmasked messages featuring Satanic material receive attention.

Backmasking has caused quite a bit of sensationalism among some fan communities. When backmasked messages were found in a couple Beatles songs, fans believed them to be true and the rumors were spread throughout the world. Even when the Beatles Anthology album was released, the two new songs were analyzed for John Lennon’s’ backmasked messages from beyond the grave. In the case of the Beatles, it is hard to tell if the backmasked messages were added intentionally or if they were an eerie coincidence.

Backmasked Music continues to live today in pop music. Songs such as the Bloodhound Gang’s “Lift Your Head Up”, Choking Victim’s “Hate Your State”, and even Britney Spears’ “Oops, I Did It Again,” a song geared towards young teenage girls, have backmasked messages in them. The use of backmasking is still very much alive and well today.

The History of Backmask Online

The site originally went online circa 1999 with a couple dozen clips.  It looks like those original pages may be lost to the sands of time, but the Wayback Machine has a few snapshots of the old pages:

Our site in 2004-2008

Our site in 2008-2014