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U.S. detainee accounts of waterboarding, temperature extremes and sleep deprivation have reinvigorated the legal and political debate over what constitutes torture. But writer David Peisner describes another all too common U.S. interrogation tool - popular music. He explains the history and application of sonic suffering.
I am listening to your story.
A few years ago, I attended a small, local "Burning Man" style event of about 100 people. We were camped out in tents out in the desert.
Among the different contingents there, was a tent blasting techno music to a group of "rave" kids. When all the other music had quieted down, the steady BMP!-BMP!-BMP! beat of the techno music kept on and on, occasionally quieting down for a merciful moment, only to slam right back in a few moments later.
This was about 2 o'clock, and I tried to go to bed, exhausted. A little while later, I realized that this music was LOUD, and was NOT STOPPING. I tried to ignore it. Still it continued pounding on.
I really did start to feel a little bit crazy--how was I ever going to stop this? It had total power over me--over my ability to rest. I couldn't get away from it. And no matter what I thought, no matter what I did, or didn't do, no matter where I went, it was still there, not stopping.
Finally, at about 5 am, I walked out into the desert, away from the noise.
I really did feel that I had been abused by this music. It had dominated my consciousness so that I did not have control over my ability to rest, or get away from it, NO MATTER WHAT I DID. Thinking back on this experience, which lasted just ONE NIGHT, I am really horrified to imagine how it must have been for the man in the story, to be subjected to this sort of thing 24 hours a day for 20 days. Our ability to control being able to rest,is so taken for granted, that I don't think most people can imagine what it must be like to have such a basic thing taken away from them.
And to think that--from what I have read--the likelihood that this person did anything to deserve this, is actually rather small.
The interesting aspect of this On the Media segment was that the creative artists are not being paid, not that they: (a) have a choice in how their music is being used; and (b) that they would gladly accept compensation for this type of use.
Artists rights are not tangible, like a bottle of soda or a box of detergent, hense the term intellectual property. If the US Army was to use a bottle of Coke or a box of Tide, they would have to purchase it. Here they have made an end run around purchasing the intellectual properlty of the artists.
If Coke ot Tide was used as part of "interrogations," and it became known, I have a good feeling that both of these Fortune 200 companies may have had something to say. Yet, Neil Diamond gets both no compensation and little to say about how his music is used, or should I say approriated. Artists have rights, but as this segment confirms, they are weak at best.
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