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Sex
Drugs
False Religion
Rebellion
Satan
Backmasking
What YOU can do!
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Pop Paranoia
by Carolize Jansen
Every nation has its national pastime and sometimes it seems like the national pastime of white South Africans is looking for satanism. And if you know where to look, satanism is alarmingly easy to find.
During the eighties one of the favourite haunts of the cloven-hooved one was in pop and rock music. He had supposedly always resided there, since it has been claimed that music was thrown out of heaven with Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:13-15), but it was in the paranoid period of the eighties that pastors and laymen alike excelled in finding his hoof prints riddling pop music and consequently, the tender minds of the youth of South Africa. However, it has to be said that their concern was primarily for the white youth of South Africa since they targeted the music that white teenagers listened to and black teenagers were part of the Communist danger anyway.
When I was at school, anti-pop preachers toured the country, frequenting (white) schools and churches and warned against the grave danger facing South Africa. "Christians are in a full-scale war and many do not even know it. The world of rock music is projecting 5 major themes - sex, drugs, rebellion, false religions and Satan. These can be found in the lyrics of songs, in the beat of the music, in the performance of the various groups and in the album cover art. We can't cover all of the rock scene but we can give a general perspective of the groups that are pushing the message of the Adversary through the air waves," proclaimed one such preacher named Mike Hills. All over South Africa teenagers burned their Iron Maiden posters and KISS records (which might not have been such a bad thing). I refused to attend the lecture when it came to my small town since the fire and brimstone sermons bordering on hysteria scared me more than any Iron Maiden poster ever could. When I did listen to tapes of these lectures for the purposes of this article, I had bad dreams for a few nights.
Since these preachers have conveniently divided the evil world of pop, rock and disco into 5 categories, we might as well follow their lead and look at the pop paranoia phenomenon from those aspects. The sources are three anti-pop preachers - Mike Hills, an unknown preacher whose tape on the subject dates from 1980, and Rodney Seale, the prince of pop paranoia in South Africa. By 1990 Seale had apparently been making a full-time study of pop, rock and satanism for 7 years, had reached more than 3 milion teenagers, received 200 letters a week and could speak meaningfully on the subject for 18 hours - if anyone could stand listening to him for that long. And to clinch the argument: "If he isn't an expert on this subject, why has he been contacted by the Presidential Council and also a number of ministers at various occasions for his testimony in this matter?"
"Let's go through some of the recent ambiguous, perverted, blunt, sexual songs that you've heard on the radio . . ."
SEX
Sex is one of the Adversary's strongest weapons against Christianity and is rampant throughout pop and rock. It already starts with 'Jailhouse Rock' by Elvis Presley when "the bomb of rock 'n roll was dropped on America one dark Wednesday night . . . he sings about male convicts - could they have been singing about homosexuality already?!" The Beatles have "turned the United Kingdom including every other known nation upside down and they are all still suffering from the earthquake caused by the Fab Four" and all of their songs are scrutinized for signs of sex and Satan (since Aleister Crowley and Karel [sic] Marx are on the cover of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and they did visit Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada).
More examples of sex in pop and rock are extremely easy to find and the anti-pop preachers are at no loss to find other instances of lewd and lascivious behaviour, lyrics and album covers. Then they turn their gaze to the gay revolution with the immortal words: "We do not want to judge or damn homosexuality, but..." and the rapid spread of the gay revolution is attributed to pop and rock music. They are sometimes a bit confused as to which pop stars are gay and which are bisexual - Lou Reed, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Rod Stewart are classed as gay while Elton John is seen as bisexual. At least they got it right in the cases of Boy George, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Village People. All forms of transvestism, even the wearing of mascara by male artists, are condemned. Sometimes their examples are startlingly non-mainstream, like Wayne Country [sic] even if their spelling isn't always too accurate.
You don't know what your children listen to until your daughter comes home and says: 'I want to shack up with another girl, I'm a lesbian'. Only then may you realise what danger you brought in your home.
DRUGS
Here we get the usual arguments such as 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' referring to LSD, marijuana leaves around the coffin on the 'Sgt. Pepper' album cover and an ingenious, if botanically muddled interpretation of 'Strawberry Fields' - strawberry fields is a reference to marijuana, which is often planted in strawberry fields because their leaves look so similar! But you can't argue with the pictures of Sid Vicious spiking himself or the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
FALSE RELIGIONS
From the outset it should be made clear that all religions outside of Protestant Christianity are false religions. It is easy to find examples of pop and rock stars who are followers of false religions because Protestantism just isn't as hip in music circles as it used to be.
Once again this section is littered with the name of The Beatles and their well-known involvement with Hare Krishna. Simon & Garfunkel are slammed for the line "Heaven holds a place for those who pray" in 'Mrs Robinson' because: " Heaven does not hold a place for those who pray - Catholics pray, Mormons pray, Christian Scientists pray, even Hindus pray." In 'American Pie' Don McLean commits blasphemy by mocking the Holy Trinity. Yoga, meditation and vegetarianism also fall under this section. Despite their intolerance, it still comes as a surprise to hear that Rastafaris are involved with the occult because of "one of their cults, Jah".
If you want to believe in Krishna, fine. You'll still go to hell.
REBELLION
In a country like South Africa where public peace and stability were tenuous at best during the eighties, any form of rebellion was regarded with suspicion. In an adroit leap of logic, the anti-pop preachers 'proved' that pop and rock were tools of Satan, the Arch-rebel, and consequently of the Communists. Jerry Rubin, author of 'Do It' is quoted as saying that rock, sex and drugs are used to introduce Marxism into America unchallenged. Pop and rock strove for the complete overthrow of all forms of authority and encouraged young people to become criminals with "aggressive songs about racism, oppression, women's rights and homosexual liberation".
It is extremely telling that the very first picture in Seale's book 'Rock Music - The Right to Know' is of an article calling Midnight Oil's financial contribution to the ANC "a shock revelation." A further incrimination, probably one of the worst in their eyes, follows:
Rock stars regard themselves as champions in the fight against racism.
White fear and paranoia shine clearly through in statements like:
Bob Marley is against all white people, he wants to kill every single white and take over. They smoke marijuana . . . (1980).
There's no proof yet that ABBA are giving money to Russia but I'm still looking.
SATAN
As mentioned previously, music apparently fell out of heaven with Lucifer and ne'er the twain shall be severed. One hardly knows where to start in this plethora of 'evil' kitsch and self-promotion - Venom, Black Sabbath, KISS, Alice Cooper, Jethro Tull, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC . . . All the hoary old arguments of bands being possessed by demons when writing and performing songs, Jimmy Page living in Aleister Crowley's house, various references to hell in songs and then the contradictory interpretations of satanist names - KISS could be either Knights or Kings or Kids in Satan's Service. There is still uncertainty about AC/DC - is it After Christ/Devil Comes or After Christ/Devil's Church or perhaps both? And this was in the days before the bands Christian Death and Deicide!
But if in doubt, just follow the golden rule: 'The vast majority of the most popular rock groups are involved in some kind of Satan-glorifying religion.'
Rock stars have to sell their souls to Satan to attain success.
BACKMASKING
As if all the straightforward evil elements weren't enough, evil was found in listening to the music backwards! It's usually done with tape, although it can be done by manually forcing a record the other way around (although Seale is considerate enough to warn you that it is disastrous for your needles). The advent of CD must have been pretty disastrous for the backmasking trade - could that be the reason that the popularity of pop paranoia has waned?
On a tape optimistically called "Top Secret" all the hidden secret messages in rock 'n roll are thoughtfully laid bare for us. It starts with this warning: 'Teenagers, grandma, uncles and cousins, families of South Africa, we ask you one thing particularly - do not listen to this, if possible, individually. Try to listen to this cassette as a complete unit, one whole family. This cassette is sent out to shock you, but also to warn you, that something is here to stay - pop, rock, and especially disco music.'
After a few objective questions like "Is it COINCIDENTAL?" we proceed to "24 eye-opening examples of Backward Masking." It starts with the Queen lyric 'Another one bites the dust' which says, backwards, 'It's fun to smoke marijuana.' Fortunately before each example is played we are already told what it says backwards and it is played a number of times until we too can hear the hidden evil message. Then follow other examples like Michael Jackson's satanist testimony in "Thriller": 'Believe in Satan, people all worship', 'Have a mind of Satan' in "Hotel California" and the words 'Number 9, number 9, number 9' in "Revolution 9" which actually refers to, you guessed it, 666. Led Zeppelin is especially milked for hidden messages and it would appear that "Stairway to Heaven" is riddled with ditties such as 'The Lord turned me off', 'I sing because I live with Satan' and 'He will * give you 6-6-6' (where * presumably stands for a swear word). Satan plants the seed of evil in your brain with these backward messages and, in another confused application of botany, will turn that seed the right side up at some unspecified time so that it can grow.
Backward masking applies to all kinds of music. Seale assures us that Christian music that is played backwards still contains holy messages, but unfortunately he never seems to have any examples at hand.
Backward Masking is best heard by reading the words on the insert as the cuts play.
WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO?
Well, here the anti-pop preachers differ somewhat. Rodney Seale advocates the hardline approach: he quotes Acts 19:19 where Christains burned books about magic worth 50,000 silver shekels (eerie in a country which banned thousands of books) and then proudly proclaims that he has burned many records in his life and goes on to give three guidelines to the repentant teenager:
- Burn your records.
- Resist temptation, avoid evil places.
- Ask for forgiveness.
The anti-pop preacher on the 1980 tape advises you to do the exact opposite. He will gladly relieve you of your evil load: 'If you have any LPs, singles, eight tracks, posters, don't burn them please. Phone or write to me. I need them for more information so we can warn the people of South Africa.' Such dedication, such sacrifice . . .
If you have a pop record in your house, you have given a chair and a bed to Satan.
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