00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be looking at the most prominent songs that have
00:07been used to drive prison inmates up the wall, with the goal of breaking them down.
00:18The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, Bee Gees
00:27The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack is one of the best-selling albums of all time, hence
00:32there are undoubtedly millions who have listened to it over and over and over again, however
00:42most of those people did so of their own volition and at a volume that was generally safe for
00:48their eardrums.
00:50Unfortunately, the opposite was true for a number of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay
00:54Detention Camp.
00:55Multiple former detainees have written about the prison's use of loud music as a torture
01:00and interrogation tool.
01:01According to one report, inmates were locked inside wooden boxes and force-fed the entire
01:07Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack night after night.
01:10Just the thought of it gives us night fevers.
01:17The Meow Mix Jingle Declassified CIA reports have revealed two
01:28criteria used by the agency when selecting songs to wear down prisoners.
01:33They had to be either offensive or just plain annoying.
01:36The Meow Mix Jingle perfectly fits into the latter category.
01:40Sure, it's cute the first time you see the commercial with the singing cats.
01:47And it might even still be charming on a hundredth viewing, but imagine hearing it a hundred
01:52times in a row on a constant loop.
01:55Terrifying right?
01:56Meow Mix might be so good that cats ask for it by name, but listening to the jingle on
02:01repeat is so annoying we wouldn't be surprised if inmates confessed names just to make it
02:06stop.
02:07Take Your Best Shot – Dope If you're someone who has never been subjected
02:24to torture, you may think getting beat up would be far tougher than enduring loud non-stop
02:29music.
02:30But according to former Guantanamo prisoner Ruhal Ahmed, that notion may not be so correct.
02:36It might sound crazy, but as Ahmed told the legal non-profit Reprieve, you can brace yourself
02:41mentally for the physical assaults.
02:44Psychological torture however?
02:46Not a chance.
02:52One of the songs on the Torment playlist in Guantanamo Bay was apparently Take Your Best
02:57Shot by Dope.
02:58Ahmed described prisoners losing their minds from the constant noise, ending up so messed
03:03up that the information they provided was practically useless.
03:12Baby Shark – Pinkfong Any parent of a young child who has been forced
03:21to listen to Baby Shark on repeat has no doubt deemed it cruel punishment.
03:25But in 2023, an Oklahoma County special judge made it official.
03:30Not for parents though, but for four inmates at an Oklahoma jail.
03:34These individuals were forced to listen to the song blasted on repeat as a form of punishment.
03:43In a subsequent lawsuit, they accused two jail officers, Christian Miles and Gregory
03:49Butler Jr. of using harsh techniques like forcing them to stand in stress positions
03:54for long periods.
03:56And of course, subjecting them to Baby Shark at such a loud volume that it was reverberating
04:01down the hallways.
04:08Bodies – Drowning Pool Bodies by Drowning Pool is a song about the
04:16sanctity of the mosh pit and respect for the other individuals in the space.
04:21However, the constant lyrical refrain of let the bodies hit the floor has led to the
04:26track being misinterpreted as condoning violence.
04:35This misunderstanding got it pulled from the radio after the 9-11 attacks.
04:39Despite this temporary ban, bodies was used by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay during
04:44their interrogation of Mohamedou Old Salahi, a suspected terrorist.
04:49The song was reportedly played for 10 days straight while Salahi was also exposed to
04:54variable lighting patterns.
05:02Babylon – David Gray Babylon, a tune about a love that is lost
05:12and found again, has been referred to as the signature song of British singer-songwriter
05:17David Gray.
05:18However, it gained an unexpected reputation as one of the favorites in the CIA's music
05:23torture playlist at Guantanamo Bay in the 2000s.
05:32This disturbing fact was first revealed in 2008 when prisoner Haj Ali told of his experiences
05:39being stripped, handcuffed, and force-fed the song at a mind-numbingly loud volume.
05:44Needless to say, Gray was not happy with the misuse of his work and he stepped up to
05:49advocate against the broader practice of using music for torture.
06:00Enter Sandman – Metallica Enter Sandman, Metallica's song about a
06:06child's nightmares, became a real-life nightmare for many Iraqi prisoners during the War on
06:12Terror.
06:13Many U.S. interrogators used the metal classic to break captives, and Metallica lead singer
06:18James Hetfield wasn't that upset by it.
06:28At a 2017 interview with Thrasher Magazine, he admitted that once their music is released
06:33into the world, they have no control over how it is used.
06:36He added,
06:37I'm honored my country is using something to help us stay safe, if they are.
06:41Although if the CIA and the U.S. military had downloaded the song illegally, we're
06:46sure Hetfield would have been furious about it.
06:52Dirty – Christina Aguilera, featuring Redman
07:00The use of music as a tool of psychological torture wasn't just about playing a song
07:05really loud.
07:07The choice of song was often a key part of the plan, as was the case with Christina Aguilera's
07:13Dirty, which was used on Mohammed Al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker of the 9-11 attacks,
07:19to offend his observant Muslim sensibilities.
07:27The over-sexualized lyrics fit in with other such tactics, which also included female interrogators
07:33going topless and giving forced lap dances to the prisoners.
07:37They even smeared red liquid on the detainees, claiming it was menstrual blood.
07:46The Real Slim Shady – Eminem
07:51There are conflicting reports as to whether it was Eminem's song The Real Slim Shady
07:55or his entire sophomore album, The Slim Shady LP, that was played on a loop for up to 20
08:01days.
08:02The answer was both.
08:08What really matters, though, is that according to some CIA operatives, when discussing this
08:12song, as well as others, the music was so foreign to them, it made them frantic.
08:18Frantic seems like an understatement when you hear what one former Guantanamo prisoner
08:23said.
08:24Discussing the relentless background music, Binyam Mohamed detailed how it got so bad
08:29that it reportedly even drove some of the prisoners to harm themselves.
08:52The Barney and Friends Theme Song – The C.I.A.
09:00The C.I.A. used this famously annoying children's show theme song to aggravate prisoners so
09:06much that it became their most overused torture song, according to The Guardian.
09:11The idea of this tune being used in that way seemed laughable to its composer, Bob Singleton.
09:22It seemed so ludicrous that something totally innocuous for children could threaten the
09:26mental state of an adult, he said.
09:29He also added that while it might be annoying, it wouldn't break me down and make me confess
09:34to crimes against humanity.
09:36Fortunately, he's never had to endure it blasted on repeat at deafening volumes.
09:47Speaking of children's show theme songs, we have to mention another torture favorite,
09:51the Sesame Street Song.
09:58What do you think about these songs, and how they were used?
10:02Let us know in the comments.
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