Metal and country music were the musical genres used the most by interrogators seeking to extract information from detainees–as prisoners are often gently called. The Guardian reported this back in 2008. The newly released Senate Intelligence Committee torture report adds that “sound disorientation techniques” were a big weapon in the arsenal of American interrogators after 9/11. The mental disorientation this sound technique causes can be as serious as “waterboarding” and some of the more infamous tactics the CIA also used.
The report reveals that the Blues Brothers version of “Rawhide” was used to induce Pavlovian terror in the detainees, stating that the prisoner bin al-Shibh knew “when he heard the music… what is going to happen.” Justine Sharrock at Mother Jones compiled a list of the songs that American interrogators used often:
Deicide: Fuck Your God
Dope: Die MF Die, Take Your Best Shot
Eminem: White America, Kim
Barney & Friends: theme song
Drowning Pool: Bodies
Metallica: Enter Sandman
Meow Mix: commercial jingle
Janeane Garofalo/Ben Stiller: chapter from the Feel This Audiobook
Sesame Street: theme song
David Gray: Babylon
AC/DC: Shoot to Thrill, Hell’s Bells
Bee Gees: Stayin’ Alive
Tupac: All Eyez On Me
Christina Aguilera: Dirrty
Neil Diamond: America
Rage Against the Machine: unspecified songs
Don McLean: American Pie
Saliva: Click Click Boom
Matchbox Twenty: Cold
(hed)pe: Swan Dive
Prince: Raspberry Beret
