Hidden Messages in Music
It is not difficult to imagine the places of application of knowledge of how to implicitly share some information introduced into the artifacts of mass culture. Today, in most cases, there is absolutely no practical need for hiding any messages in music - these are just nice bonuses for especially ardent fans of musical groups. The interweaving of messages in the words of songs and the changing colors of drawings in the design of music albums are, of course, not considered here.
Let's start with simple methods that are not related to computer science and computer technology. It is most obvious to impose such sounds that when playing a phonograph record in the opposite direction on a household electric player or special equipment will give legible human speech.
Backmasking
The potential of such a technique was also seen by Thomas Edison, the inventor of the phonograph, and for the first time it was used by pioneers of electronic music in the 50s of the last century, although, of course, we owe Beatles to popularize backmasking techniques. In particular, under the influence of marijuana, Lennon scrolled the films backwards, and the resulting sound was very interested in him. The first song with a hidden message was Rain .
Censorship was thus circumvented, for example, by Frank Zappa, whose record label did not miss some lines.
Better look around before you say you don't care.
Shut your f ... ing mouth 'bout the length of my hair.
How would you survive, if you were alive, shitty little person?
Less well-known is the technique of superimposed or slowed down human speech used by Jimi Hendricks for the song Third Stone from the Sun. If you speed up the version of the track in The Jimi Hendrix Experience: 1966–1967 twice (or play the record 33⅓ rpm at a speed of 45), you can hear a distinct dialogue of space aliens portrayed by Jimi and his manager.
Hendricks: Star fleet to scout ship, please give your position. Over.
Chandler: I am in orbit around the third planet of star known as Sun. Over.
Hendricks: May this be Earth? Over.
Chandler: Positive. It is known to have some form of intelligent species. Over.
Hendricks: I think we should take a look. (Jimi makes onomatopoeic spacecraft)
The decline in interest in hiding messages in the opposite direction or in playing with increased speed is associated, first of all, with the transition to digital media, whose players do not always have the functionality of reversing playback and accelerating it. Do not hide the creation in the late 80s of California and some other states of the bills against putting messages in music: the fanaticism of the search for Easter eggs helped to find the "messages of the Antichrist" almost everywhere. Beginning of the rumors about the death of Paul McCartney laid backmasking.
Spectrogram patterns
It is easy to get a spectrogram; is it possible to restore sound from a spectrogram? Yes, but with significant approximations, which doesn’t hurt to create music that you don’t need to listen to, you will still get a terrible metallic ringing, but watch. Such music is, for example, the track of side B of the single Windowlicker of British electronic musician Aphex Twin, most often called "Equation" or "Formula", but with a more shocking title:
Skip to 5:30 to see Richard's patented grin. The reception was not new even in the 99th year: for example, here is the end of the Windowlicker track:
It is easy to guess what will be on the Look track of the glitch album Songs About My Cats.
Using media features
It is possible to print two tracks on vinyl plastic, as it sometimes happened. For example, in the original 1973 edition of The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief , not only were the sides of the records not signed and there was no list of tracks, but also two concentric tracks parallel to each other were plotted. To listen to a hidden song on a “tripartite” record, only a successful needle installation was needed.
Mad Magazine did the same thing on It's a Super Spectacular Day, there were only 8 tracks. Each of them colorfully signaled the troubles that might happen to you today. Recordings in several tracks were popular back in the 50s, but, as a rule, they were used only in records with audio stories for children, which made it possible to get several different stories from one double-sided record.
The data format of the CD described in the Red Book allows the so-called pregap - indent from the first track. By default, it lasts two seconds and contains silence. Many musiciansplaced audio materials in the pregap. Unfortunately, the update in Windows 95 made it impossible for the system to access the pregap of the first track, apparently in order to support the CD-Extra format. However, digital data can be placed in the following way.
Vinyl, modem signal, ZX Spectrum and software
How to record a text file on a vinyl record? The American Information Society team could easily do this: track title 300bps N, 8, 1 (Terminal Mode or Ascii Download) of Peace and Love, Inc. explicitly indicated how their message could be read. A 300 baud modem provided a text file containing the group’s story about the pressure exerted on them by Brazilian government agencies. It is not clear why they chose such a strange format for the story.
Hidden text
Atz Ok Atx3dt Connect 300
So we’re supposed to play in curitiba in 18 hours, but our bus is being held hostage by the local promoters. they’ve formed some unholy alliance with the brazilian counterpart of ascap: the prs. Rently the prs has the legal power to arrest people, and they want a piece of the national tour promoter’s money. the local security force, “gang mexicana”, has been bought out for 180 Zados and a carton of marlboros each. the only faction still operating in our defense is “big john”, our personal security man, and he’s hiding in his room because a local gang is out Is blood because of a 1982 knifing incident in which he was involved. our 345-pound road manager, rick only had this to say: “you wanted the life of a rock star!”. paul, jim and I real That this was one situation we were going to have to get out of ourselves.
We convened a hasty conference in the hotel lobby. paul suggested contacting our national tour promoter in sao paulo, but we remembered that he was in recife with faith no more, who had just arr For their brazilian tour. we thought about contacting our brazilian record company in rio, but they weren’t home. our ever-diligent american manager was arranging help of numerous forms, but he N new york, and just too far away to get anything moving in time.
And there were 6000 kids in curitiba who just wouldn’t understand.
We knew it was time for action. paul went up to the prs guys and invited them into the bar to discuss it like civilized men over a few brazilian drinks, offering each of them a cigar on his way. Amused prs heavies seemed to like the idea of a few free drinks, even if they knew they would never give us our bus back. when paul winked at jim and I on his way in, we went into action.
I stole off to my room to prepare while jim went into action. creeping carefully through a service duct, he managed to gain a vantage point some three meters above the bus, and dropped carefully The roof. after using his all-purpose swiss army knife (affectionately known as the “skit knife”) to jimmy open the roof hatch, he went through the darkened inside of the bus and remo He inside engine service panel. using some spare electronic parts he found while on an island in the amazon, he wired the entire bus for remote control, not unlike a remote control toy car.
At this point, he asked himself “now how shall I get out of here? !? “
Paul was having difficulties of his own.
“couldn’t you see your way clear to letting us fulfill our contractual obligations in curitiba? think of the kids!”
Through our translator, fabio, the prs man, aldo, said:
no. you americans think you own the world. hah! we’ll burn down our rain forest if we damn well please. we need room for cows!!! we want a mcdonald’s on every… oh, sorry, yes anyway, no. Ed 40% of your concert receipts to give to david bowie,” he said, winking to the local promoter, phillipe.
As paul continuted this elaborate distraction, jim effected an escape from the heavily guarded bus by crawling down into the cargo bay, cutting a hole in the floor with the swiss army knife’s ar Der, slipping into the manhole cover situated under the bus, and walking up to the hotel’s basement from there. jim called up to me in my room and gave the signal. we were now to meet at the bac Rance, with our tech guys. but first, paul would need some help getting away from his unwelcome guests, as things were getting ugly.
“he says he has lost his patience, and that he can think of other ways of extracting payment from you kurt and jim physically,” our trembling interpreter said.
The moment had come. jim began operating the bus from his back entrance vantage point. as the remote-controlled bus lurched towards the parking lot exit, the superstitious security youths fled i Ror. paul was pulling anxiously on his collar as the prs man began describing his collection of world war ii nazi ceremonial knives when a sudden crash split the tableau.
Jim had purchased me the gift of a complete black ninja stealth assassin outfit in aracaju. I had been gearing up and crawling through the air conditioning ducts all this time. as I crashed thro He cheap imitation-styrofoam hung ceiling tiles, skates first, I flashed ninja stars all about me. in the ensuing panic, paul escaped to the pre-arranged bus pick-up point. unfortunately, my ska Ere a poor choice of foot gear for escaping over the broken glass of the table I had landed on. were it not for the confusion and the ninja-star-inflicted-wounds delivered to the bad guys, I wou Ve been set upon while floundering on the glass-strewn carpet. as it happened, however, I leapt through the open door of the careening bus as it departed the city of maringa forever.
If only we had managed to get our equipment in the bus, too...
Every word of this story is true.
So we’re supposed to play in curitiba in 18 hours, but our bus is being held hostage by the local promoters. they’ve formed some unholy alliance with the brazilian counterpart of ascap: the prs. Rently the prs has the legal power to arrest people, and they want a piece of the national tour promoter’s money. the local security force, “gang mexicana”, has been bought out for 180 Zados and a carton of marlboros each. the only faction still operating in our defense is “big john”, our personal security man, and he’s hiding in his room because a local gang is out Is blood because of a 1982 knifing incident in which he was involved. our 345-pound road manager, rick only had this to say: “you wanted the life of a rock star!”. paul, jim and I real That this was one situation we were going to have to get out of ourselves.
We convened a hasty conference in the hotel lobby. paul suggested contacting our national tour promoter in sao paulo, but we remembered that he was in recife with faith no more, who had just arr For their brazilian tour. we thought about contacting our brazilian record company in rio, but they weren’t home. our ever-diligent american manager was arranging help of numerous forms, but he N new york, and just too far away to get anything moving in time.
And there were 6000 kids in curitiba who just wouldn’t understand.
We knew it was time for action. paul went up to the prs guys and invited them into the bar to discuss it like civilized men over a few brazilian drinks, offering each of them a cigar on his way. Amused prs heavies seemed to like the idea of a few free drinks, even if they knew they would never give us our bus back. when paul winked at jim and I on his way in, we went into action.
I stole off to my room to prepare while jim went into action. creeping carefully through a service duct, he managed to gain a vantage point some three meters above the bus, and dropped carefully The roof. after using his all-purpose swiss army knife (affectionately known as the “skit knife”) to jimmy open the roof hatch, he went through the darkened inside of the bus and remo He inside engine service panel. using some spare electronic parts he found while on an island in the amazon, he wired the entire bus for remote control, not unlike a remote control toy car.
At this point, he asked himself “now how shall I get out of here? !? “
Paul was having difficulties of his own.
“couldn’t you see your way clear to letting us fulfill our contractual obligations in curitiba? think of the kids!”
Through our translator, fabio, the prs man, aldo, said:
no. you americans think you own the world. hah! we’ll burn down our rain forest if we damn well please. we need room for cows!!! we want a mcdonald’s on every… oh, sorry, yes anyway, no. Ed 40% of your concert receipts to give to david bowie,” he said, winking to the local promoter, phillipe.
As paul continuted this elaborate distraction, jim effected an escape from the heavily guarded bus by crawling down into the cargo bay, cutting a hole in the floor with the swiss army knife’s ar Der, slipping into the manhole cover situated under the bus, and walking up to the hotel’s basement from there. jim called up to me in my room and gave the signal. we were now to meet at the bac Rance, with our tech guys. but first, paul would need some help getting away from his unwelcome guests, as things were getting ugly.
“he says he has lost his patience, and that he can think of other ways of extracting payment from you kurt and jim physically,” our trembling interpreter said.
The moment had come. jim began operating the bus from his back entrance vantage point. as the remote-controlled bus lurched towards the parking lot exit, the superstitious security youths fled i Ror. paul was pulling anxiously on his collar as the prs man began describing his collection of world war ii nazi ceremonial knives when a sudden crash split the tableau.
Jim had purchased me the gift of a complete black ninja stealth assassin outfit in aracaju. I had been gearing up and crawling through the air conditioning ducts all this time. as I crashed thro He cheap imitation-styrofoam hung ceiling tiles, skates first, I flashed ninja stars all about me. in the ensuing panic, paul escaped to the pre-arranged bus pick-up point. unfortunately, my ska Ere a poor choice of foot gear for escaping over the broken glass of the table I had landed on. were it not for the confusion and the ninja-star-inflicted-wounds delivered to the bad guys, I wou Ve been set upon while floundering on the glass-strewn carpet. as it happened, however, I leapt through the open door of the careening bus as it departed the city of maringa forever.
If only we had managed to get our equipment in the bus, too...
Every word of this story is true.
Track name CLOAD "Q" from Information Retrieved Pt. B is the command to download the Q file in BASIC TRS-80, a personal computer in the early 80s. As you can see, for some reason, the Pinback indie group placed a game for an outdated computer on the album.
In the early years of the spread of personal computer technology, sound for recording ZX Spectrum cassettes was broadcast even on television. There were also tracks that were entirely programs, and if these were vinyl albums, they had to be re-recorded onto a tape. Most often, this technique was used by teams from the UK.
For example, the sixth track of the British editions of the album XL1Pita Shelley contained pulsations of sounds that, being uploaded to the Spectrum, were rudimentary graphics and lyrics that were played back in sync with the album. For the same informational purposes, the Hectic Electric track from the Inner City Unit's New Anatomy album served: the program contained a schedule of performances, a description of the band, tracks, etc. Thompson Twins released a whole video game on vinyl . This is a typical text quest, which is unlikely to be interesting to people who have never left a move map on the notebook sheet after hours of play.
Chris Sivi's Camouflage single included the musician's ugly toy Flying Train . She was only remarkable for her explosions. Chris also wrote a non-album gameThe Biz , which is a simulator of a successful music group experiencing rapid career growth.
The most ironic message for ZX Spectrum was created by the Scottish band Urusei Yatsura: the program simply displayed the message “Praise Satan.” The code also contained comments “Hello, Nick, is Robin with you?”, “Satanic Message No. 3 from the Priest of Judah”, “What is sadder: a) to find it b) to write it.”
One way or another, but the musicians of past years experimented a lot on their fans, which today, unfortunately, is less observed.