There was a time in my life when I probably could have listened to Dr. Dre repeatedly. Maybe not nonstop, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week, but, pretty regularly.
We’re talking the days of Dre’s 2001. Actually, I revisit 2001 from time to time. For nostalgic purposes, I suppose.
Apparently, the music of Dr. Dre - along with that of Eminem, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, and David Gray, with some Sesame Street and Barney thrown into the mix for good measure - has been used as torture devices at Guantanamo Bay:
Ruhal Ahmed, a Briton who was captured in Afghanistan, describes excruciating sessions at Guantanamo Bay. He said his hands were shackled to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.
“You’re in agony,” Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004, told Reprieve. He said the agony was compounded when music was introduced, because “before you could actually concentrate on something else, try to make yourself focus on some other things in your life that you did before and take that pain away.
“It makes you feel like you are going mad,” he said.
On one hand, the musicians aren’t taking it lightly. Christopher Cerf, Sesame Street music writer, says he doesn’t want his music being a part of it, and some artists like Massive Attack (responsible for the House theme - love it) and Tom Morello are launching a campaign in retaliation. If I read the article correctly, it will involve moments of silence during music festivals and concerts.
David Gray also shared his thoughts:
“What we’re talking about here is people in a darkened room, physically inhibited by handcuffs, bags over their heads and music blaring at them,” Gray says. “That is nothing but torture. It doesn’t matter what the music is - it could be Tchaikovsky’s finest or it could be Barney the Dinosaur. It really doesn’t matter, it’s going to drive you completely nuts.”
On the other hand, some musicians, like Drowning Pool’s Stevie Benton, are honored.
Free music in prison may sound like a perk, but clearly too much of any good thing is a bad thing.
What do you think? Should musicians feel offended about their songs being used to mentally break inmates? Would you?
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Intriguing post… I think the torturing quality of music in these situations arises more from the effects of repetition within contexts designed to be anxiety provoking, than to any inherent qualities in the music itself.
@ Hyblis - I think you’re probably right. In reality, the music the prisoners are being forced to listen to over and over is probably just something from the prison guards’ own collections, ha. Well, maybe not the Barney and Sesame Street stuff 
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