Styx (band) Paradise Theatre (1981) and backmasking accusation What happened in 1981? In January 1981, Styx released Paradise Theatre, a concept album that became their biggest hit, reaching No. 1 What was a single off the album? five singles, including the top ten hits "The Best of Times" by DeYoung (#3) and "Too Much Time on My Hands" by Shaw (#9). Did they tour during this time? I don't know.
What is the backmasking accusation?
What is the backmasking accusation?
On the success of "Babe", DeYoung began pushing for a more theatrical direction, while Shaw and Young favored a harder-edged approach. This arguing over musical direction led to a bit of tension in early 1980 after Young and Shaw objected to the ballad "First Time" released as the second single from Cornerstone (1979) album. However, things were quickly smoothed over. Moreover, this song did not chart in the U.S. but became a huge hit single in the Philippines in 1981. In January 1981, Styx released Paradise Theatre, a concept album that became their biggest hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard pop albums chart and yielding five singles, including the top ten hits "The Best of Times" by DeYoung (#3) and "Too Much Time on My Hands" by Shaw (#9). Paradise Theatre became the band's fourth consecutive multi-platinum album. The band was accused by a California religious group and later the Parents Music Resource Center of backmasking Satanic messages in their anti-cocaine anthem, "Snowblind". James Young has denied this charge during his introduction for "Snowblind" when played live. Dennis DeYoung has denied the accusation as well, joking on the In the Studio with Redbeard program "we had enough trouble to make the music sound right forward." Also, James Young quotes, "If we were going to put something Satanic in our songs, we would have put it so it was in the song forward. Not so you would have to buy some $400 tape recorder to hear it." Throughout the 1980s, the band would use the Paradise Theatre (1981) album's opening track, "Rockin' the Paradise" (charted at No. 8 on Top Rock Tracks Chart) to open their shows. CANNOTANSWER
The band was accused by a California religious group and later the Parents Music Resource Center of backmasking Satanic messages
Styx () is an American rock band from Chicago that formed in 1972 and is best known for melding hard rock guitar balanced with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established itself with a progressive rock sound in the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s.

Beginning with Styx in 1972, the band usually released an album every year throughout the 1970s. Styx II (1973) had the sleeper hit "Lady", a power ballad which reached No. 6 in the US, helping the album make the top 20. "Lady" was also a top 20 hit in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Equinox (1975) and Crystal Ball (1976) reached the US top 70 with the first featuring "Lorelei", a No. 6 hit in Canada, while the second marked the addition of Tommy Shaw to the band.

Styx's commercial breakthrough in North America came with The Grand Illusion (1977), which peaked at No. 6 in both the US and Canada, and became the first of four straight triple-platinum albums in the US for Styx. It featured the single "Come Sail Away", a top 10 hit in both countries. The band's follow-up, Pieces of Eight (1978), was another No. 6 hit in the US, but peaked higher in Canada due to the top 10 hits "Renegade" and "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)". In 1979, Styx's Cornerstone went to No. 2 in both countries on the strength of the cross-border No. 1 hit ballad "Babe". The album became their breakthrough album in Australia and New Zealand, reaching the top 20, with "Babe" peaking at No. 3. "Babe" was a No. 6 hit in the UK, their first and only top 40 hit there, leading Cornerstone to be their first album to chart there (at No. 36).

In 1981, Styx's Paradise Theatre was a No. 1 album in the US and Canada, while also reaching the top 10 in Scandinavia and the UK (their biggest album there) and the top 30 in Australia and New Zealand. "The Best of Times" off the album reached No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in the US, and the top 30 in several other countries, while "Too Much Time on My Hands" was also a top 10 hit in North America. Kilroy Was Here (1983) was Styx's last major hit album, reaching the top 3 in North America and the top 10 in Scandinavia, although it was less successful elsewhere. Its lead single, "Mr. Roboto", became Styx's third chart-topper in Canada, was a No. 3 hit in the US, and was their biggest hit in Germany (No. 8). After a seven-year break, Styx returned with Edge of the Century (1990), which reached No. 63 in the US with its single, "Show Me the Way", becoming a top 3 hit in North America in early 1991.

Overall, Styx had eight songs that hit the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as 16 top 40 singles. Seven of their eight top 10 singles were written and sung by founding member and lead singer Dennis DeYoung, who has not been part of the band since 1999. Styx sold over 20 million records for A&M between their signing in 1976 and 1984.

History

Band formation and the Wooden Nickel Years (1961–1974)
In August 1961, at 12 years of age, twin brothers Chuck (bass) and John Panozzo (drums) first played music together with their 14-year-old neighbor Dennis DeYoung who played accordion and sang, while living in the Roseland, Chicago area, eventually using the band name The Tradewinds. Chuck left to attend seminary for a year but returned to the group by 1964. Tom Nardini had been brought in to replace Chuck Panozzo on guitar, so he decided to play bass guitar when he returned to the band. John Panozzo was the drummer, while DeYoung had switched from accordion to keyboards. In 1965, the Tradewinds name was changed to TW4 (There Were 4) after another band, the Trade Winds, achieved fame nationally. By 1966, the Panozzo brothers had joined DeYoung at Chicago State College and kept the group together by performing at high schools and fraternity parties while studying to be teachers. In 1969 they added a college friend folk guitarist, John Curulewski, after Nardini departed. Hard rocker guitarist James "J.Y." Young came aboard in 1970, making TW4 a quintet.

In 1972 the band members decided to choose a new name when they signed to Wooden Nickel Records after being spotted by a talent scout at a concert at St. John of the Cross Parish in Western Springs, Illinois (James "JY" Young's hometown). Several suggestions were made and, according to DeYoung, the name Styx was chosen because it was "the only one that none of us hated."

The band released four albums: Styx (1972), Styx II (1973), The Serpent Is Rising (1973), and Man of Miracles (1974). These albums contained straight-ahead rockers mixed with prog rock flourish with a lot of guitars, drums, keyboards, percussion, and vocals solos. They established a fan base in the Chicago area, but were unable to break into the mainstream, though the song "Best Thing" from Styx charted on September 16, 1972, and stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 6 weeks, peaking at No. 82. Then, the power ballad "Lady" (from Styx II), began to earn some radio time, first on WLS in Chicago in 1974 and then nationwide. In the spring of 1975, nearly two years after the album had been released, "Lady" hit No. 6 in the US, and Styx II went gold soon after. "Lady" is considered by many classic rock critics as being the first power ballad with Dennis DeYoung being referred to as the "father of the power ballad." With the success of "Lady," a follow up single on Styx II, "You Need Love," was re-released, but only barely cracked the hot 100. For Styx to achieve mainstream success, they would need to sign with a national record company.

Early A&M Years and addition of Tommy Shaw (1975–1978)
On the heels of its belated hit single, Styx signed with A&M Records and released Equinox (1975), which sold well and yielded a minor hit in "Lorelei," which reached No. 27 in the U.S. More importantly, it contained the rock anthem "Suite Madame Blue," which gained the band considerable recognition and airplay on FM radio in the relatively new Album Oriented Rock (AOR) format. Following the move to A&M, guitarist John Curulewski suddenly left the band as they were to embark on a nationwide tour in December 1975, due to his desire to spend time with his family. After a frantic last-minute search, the band brought in guitarist Tommy Shaw as Curulewski's replacement.

Crystal Ball (1976), the first album to feature Shaw, was moderately successful, but was overall a disappointment, failing to achieve the sales of its predecessor. The album showcased the band's newest member, as Shaw's "Mademoiselle" was another minor hit, reaching No. 36, and the album's title track, also written and sung by Shaw became another minor AOR hit.

Styx's seventh album, The Grand Illusion, was released on July 7, 1977, and became their breakthrough album, reaching Triple Platinum certification. It spawned a top-ten hit and AOR radio staple in the DeYoung-written "Come Sail Away," which reached No. 8 in 1978. Shaw's "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" was a second radio hit and reached No. 29 the same year. The title track also received significant airplay.

Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band enjoyed its greatest success. Their 1978 album Pieces of Eight found the group moving in a more straight-ahead hard-rock direction and spawned three Shaw sung hit singles "Renegade" (No. 16 in the US) and "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" (No. 21 in the US), plus a minor hit "Sing for the Day" that stopped just short of the Top Forty at No. 41.

1980s and Superstardom 
Their 1979 album Cornerstone yielded their first No. 1 hit, the DeYoung ballad "Babe." By early 1980, "Babe" had become the band's biggest international hit and first million-selling single, reaching No. 6 in the United Kingdom. The album also included the No. 26 DeYoung hits upbeat "Why Me" and the rocker "Borrowed Time," which was co-written with Shaw, plus Shaw's folksy "Boat on the River" (1980), which was a hit in much of Europe and Japan. The popularity of the album, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, helped win the band a People's Choice Award for Best New Song in 1980. At the 22nd Grammy Awards, Styx was a nominee for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Cornerstones engineers Gary Loizzo and Rob Kingsland were nominated for a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording. The band was also named the most popular rock band in the U.S. in the 1980 year end Gallup Poll.

With the success of "Babe," DeYoung's push for a more mainstream direction gained momentum, while Shaw and Young favored a more rock oriented approach. This arguing over musical direction led to ongoing tension in early 1980 after Shaw objected to the ballad "First Time" being released as the second single from Cornerstone. Although the song was generating substantial airplay in some major markets, A&M pulled the plug on the single's official release, replacing it with "Why Me." The argument resulted in DeYoung being briefly fired. However, things were quickly smoothed over. While “First Time” did not chart in the U.S. (because it wasn't released), it became a huge hit single in the Philippines in 1981. In January 1981, Styx released Paradise Theatre, a concept album that became their biggest hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard pop albums chart and yielding five singles, including the top ten hits "The Best of Times" by DeYoung (No. 3 Billboard, No. 1 Radio & Records) and "Too Much Time on My Hands" by Shaw (No. 9), his only top 10 single as a member of the band. Paradise Theatre became the band's fourth consecutive multi-platinum album. Based on yet another Dennis DeYoung concept, the Paradise Theatre was a historic Chicago theatre that had been built in the 20s only to fall on hard times and close a mere 30 years after it opened. DeYoung used the Paradise as a metaphor for the United States in the late 1970s/early 80s.

An ambitious year long world tour commenced in 1981 in support of the album and was one of the top grossing tours of the year. The tour had numerous Broadway and movie infused elements, including a dramatic opening featuring a theatre sweep and DeYoung by himself next to a player piano and the show ending with traditional movie credits. Throughout the tour and throughout the 1980s and beyond, the band would open their shows with "Rockin' the Paradise," the opening track from Paradise Theatre which charted at No. 8 on the Top Rocks Track Chart and whose music video would be among the first to air on the MTV cable channel.

The band was accused by a California religious group and later the Parents Music Resource Center of backmasking Satanic messages in their anti-cocaine anthem, "Snowblind." James "JY" Young has denied this charge during his introduction for "Snowblind" when played live. Dennis DeYoung has denied the accusation as well, joking on the In the Studio with Redbeard program "we had enough trouble to make the music sound right forward." Also, Young quotes, "If we were going to put some message in our songs, we would have put it so it was in the song forward. Not so you would have to buy some $400 tape recorder to hear it."

Kilroy Was Here and first disbandment (1983–1984)
The band continues to follow DeYoung's lead with their next project, Kilroy Was Here (1983), another more fully realized concept album, embracing the rock opera form. It is set in a future where performing and playing rock music has been outlawed due to the efforts of a charismatic evangelist, Dr. Everett Righteous, played by James "JY" Young. Kilroy Was Here featured DeYoung in the part of Kilroy, an unjustly imprisoned rock star. Tommy Shaw played the part of Jonathan Chance, a younger rocker who fights for Kilroy's freedom and the lifting of the ban on rock music. This future society is served by robots. Called Robotos, these automatons perform many jobs, and several serve as Kilroy's prison guards.

Part of the impetus for the Kilroy story was the band's reaction to the backmasking accusation. The album included Young's song "Heavy Metal Poisoning," which includes lyrics sarcastically mocking the allegations against the group. Its introduction intentionally included a backward message, the Latin phrases, "annuit coeptis" and "novus ordo seclorum," from the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. Referring to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, these are translated, "Annuit cœptis - He (God) favors our undertakings, and Novus ordo seclorum - A new order of the ages." Both choices also served the Kilroy story, because the villain is an evangelist that seeks to expand his Vision of Morality movement via mass demonstrations.

The album Kilroy Was Here went Platinum in 1983, boasting two Top Ten hits written and sung by DeYoung, the synthesizer-based "Mr. Roboto" (No. 3 US) and power ballad "Don't Let It End" (No. 6 US). The album earned a nomination as Best Engineered Recording for engineer and long-time friend Gary Loizzo and fellow engineers on the album Will Rascati and Rob Kingsland, for the 26th Grammy Awards (1983).

In 1983, the band mounted an ambitious stage show in support of Kilroy Was Here featuring theatrical presentations of three songs utilizing instrumental backing tracks, including "Mr. Roboto," which featured DeYoung singing live while disguised as a Roboto, "Heavy Metal Poisoning" with Young as the evangelist Dr. Righteous singing while the Panozzo brothers acted as his henchmen on stage, and "Haven't We Been Here Before" with Shaw as Jonathan Chance and DeYoung (as Kilroy in Roboto costume) duetting. The elaborate show was expensive to produce and was not as profitable as previous tours.

Kilroy Was Here brought the creative and competitive tensions within the band beyond the breaking point. Shaw departed the band for a solo career at the conclusion of the tour. In 1984, the band released its first live album, Caught in the Act. The project featured one studio track, "Music Time," which became a Top 40 hit. The concert was also filmed and released on VHS under the same title (and on DVD in 2007). By the time of the album's release, the band had already parted ways.

Reformation, Edge of the Century, second disbandment and reformation (1990–1996)
Styx reformed in 1990, bringing in Glen Burtnik as a new guitarist, as Shaw was by then committed to Damn Yankees.

The new line-up released one album, Edge of the Century, featuring the Dennis DeYoung ballad "Show Me the Way," which received an additional boost just prior to the first Persian Gulf War. Some radio stations edited the Top Three hit to include the voices of children, whose parents were deployed in Saudi Arabia between 1990 and 1991. The song went all the way to No. 3 on both the Hot 100 and at Adult Contemporary radio and notably remained in the top 40 for 23 weeks and AC for 31 weeks. With the huge success of the song "Show Me the Way," Styx joined a handful of musical acts to have top 10 singles in three different decades and under four different presidential administrations.

A follow-up single, “Love At First Sight," peaked at No. 25 on the Hot 100 and No. 13 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Styx toured across the US in the spring and summer of 1991, but their success was short-lived, as they were dropped after A&M Records was purchased by PolyGram Records, ending an over-fifteen-year relationship. The popularity of Grunge was a major factor in PolyGram letting the band go.

A set of demos titled Son of Edge were completed and shown to other record labels. But with grunge now dominating the rock press, video channels, and airwaves, and with singles from pop/rock bands being phased out, there was little interest from major record companies, and by fall 1991, Styx disbanded once again.

The band reunited once again in 1995, with guitarist Tommy Shaw returning to the fold, to re-record "Lady" for Styx Greatest Hits. Session drummer Todd Sucherman filled in for John Panozzo, who was unable to participate due to liver problems caused by years of excessive drinking, which eventually claimed his life the following year on July 16.

The 1996 "Return to Paradise" tour, with Sucherman as a full member, was successful. The reunion tour was documented with a two-disc live set, 1997's Return to Paradise, which featured three new studio tracks: "On My Way," "Paradise" (a soft rock ballad that also appears in another version on Dennis DeYoung's 1998 The Hunchback of Notre Dame album), and "Dear John," a tribute to the late Panozzo that has become a cult favorite among Styx fans. And later on it was documented on DVD. The Return to Paradise album was a surprise success in 1997, achieving gold status and the single “Paradise” briefly charting on the Adult Contemporary chart at No. 27. Following the release of the album, Styx embarked on another tour, this one to mark the 20th anniversary of The Grand Illusion.

 Brave New World and departure of DeYoung (1999–2000) 
Two years later, in 1999, the band released its first new studio album in almost a decade: Brave New World. The album received a lukewarm reception and sold very slowly, and the single, "Everything Is Cool," failed to chart.

Once again, during work on the album, personality conflicts drove the band members apart. While Tommy Shaw's material attempted to bring the band into the next century and JY's songs attempted to convey a hard rock vein, Dennis DeYoung's more pop and Broadway-style leanings led to divergent sounds on Brave New World. According to DeYoung, another crucial difference was that he was not the overall producer on this album, as he had been on the others.

Arguments over which songs to release as singles, the album's artwork, the track sequencing, the slow album sales, and the omission of DeYoung's vocals and keyboards from many of the Shaw-Young tracks fueled the fire. The band was further hindered by a viral illness contracted by DeYoung, which temporarily made his eyes sensitive to light. DeYoung asked his bandmates to delay touring, but they refused and decided to go forward without him. DeYoung was replaced by Lawrence Gowan, a classically trained pianist, who had achieved platinum success as a solo act on Sony Canada. Gowan's song "A Criminal Mind" was incorporated into their tour set list, and was still performed into the 2010s.

Bassist Chuck Panozzo was sidelined in 1999 due to health problems related to his battle with HIV/AIDS. His public "coming out" occurred in 2001 at the annual Human Rights Campaign banquet, with James "JY" Young in attendance for support.

On June 6, 1999, the group reunited briefly to perform for the Children's Miracle Network Telethon as DeYoung's final performance with the band. Glen Burtnik filled in for Chuck Panozzo on bass.

On June 9, 2000, Styx made an appearance with REO Speedwagon at the Riverport Amphitheatre. A 2-CD recording of the concert was released as Arch Allies: Live at Riverport, with one disc of each band's set, and both discs concluding with performances of the two bands collaborating on jam versions of Styx's "Blue Collar Man" and REO's "Roll with the Changes."  Each band also released their set as a separate album, with additional tracks; Styx's version was At the River's Edge: Live in St. Louis.

With Chuck Panozzo concentrating on his health problems, Glen Burtnik returned to Styx in 1999 to fill in for him on bass, with Panozzo participating on a part-time basis, sitting in as his health permitted.

Cyclorama and Big Bang Theory (2003–2009)

Styx's new lineup released several live albums and released the studio album Cyclorama in February 2003, which reached No. 127 on the Billboard 200 album charts. A single "Waiting for Our Time" hit No. 37 on the Billboard mainstream rock chart for 1 week. Styx toured extensively during this period and released additional live albums. Styx also was part of the Super Bowl pre game entertainment in San Diego prior to the Oakland Raiders vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They played a short set in the parking lot, as well as on the field right before the game, playing Queen's "We Are the Champions."

Burtnik left Styx in September 2003, to spend time with his family and to pursue a solo career and release the album Welcome to Hollywood. He was replaced by Ricky Phillips, formerly of the Babys and Bad English. Panozzo continues to play bass for some shows with Phillips on rhythm guitar, while Phillips continues as a stand in bassist for Panozzo during shows without him. Burtnik would go on to join up with DeYoung for numerous tour dates over the next several years.

On June 5, 2004, Styx participated in Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival covering songs by Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Slim Harpo with Jeff Baxter as a special guest.

In 2005, Styx released an album of cover tunes, Big Bang Theory, which reached the Billboard Top 50 on the album charts, their highest charting album since 1990. Their version of the Beatles song "I Am the Walrus" received some radio play, and a video was made for the song, which was subsequently featured in their live shows. Still, the album had a short life on the charts and failed to make much of a dent.

As of April 21, 2006, according to the RIAA, which awards artists and groups gold/platinum status, Styx ranks number 127 with 17.5 million records sold within the United States. The blurb on Amazon.com about Panozzo's book The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life with Styx states that Styx has sold over 54 million albums.

Continued touring, The Mission and Crash of the Crown (2010–present)
On February 21, 2010, the current incarnation of the band performed before the Sprint Cup Auto Club 500 In Fontana, California. In a North American tour beginning in May 2010, Styx was a co-headliner of United in Rock with Foreigner and special guests Kansas. In July 2010, Styx announced the forthcoming release of Regeneration: Volume 1, a new release featuring six re-recorded hits and a new song entitled "Difference in the World." This coincided with "The Grand Illusion / Pieces of Eight Tour," on which both albums were played in their entirety.

In November 2010, Styx announced that they would be filming their concert in Memphis on November 9 for a DVD. They also announced that they'd be touring the UK with Journey and Foreigner for five dates in June 2011. The landmark concert was recorded at the historic Orpheum Theater, where Styx performed both of their classic albums, 1977's The Grand Illusion and 1978's Pieces of Eight.

In early April 2011, it was announced that Styx would join up with Yes for a "Progressive US Tour" that began on July 4, 2011. On December 15, 2011, they participated in the figure skating show Improv-Ice, which was broadcast on television January 15, 2012. On January 26, 2013, the Palladia Channel premiered the concert filmed in November 2010.On November 22, 2013, they announced a benefit concert with REO Speedwagon titled "Rock to the Rescue" to raise money for the affected families of the tornado in central Illinois.

The summer of 2014 found the band back on the road in a new touring package called Soundtrack of Summer, with Foreigner and ex-Eagle Don Felder. Styx's 2015 summer tour saw them re-uniting with Def Leppard. Along with Tesla, the groups played outdoor venues across the United States. In 2016, Styx announced a series of performances to be held at the Venetian in Las Vegas in early 2017 with Felder.

In February 2017, it was announced that Styx and REO Speedwagon would join forces in a tour entitled "United We Rock" with special guest Felder, which was in large concert venues throughout the US. On April 21, 2017, Styx announced a studio album entitled The Mission, simultaneously releasing the single "Gone Gone Gone." The album was released on June 16, 2017, and is a concept album about a mission to Mars.

On April 7, 2021, Styx announced via social media that they would be releasing an EP titled The Same Stardust EP, which would feature two new tracks, as well as some live recordings. The EP was released on vinyl on June 12, 2021 exclusively in indie record stores as a part of RSD Drops for Record Store Day 2021. This is the first Styx release to use their original band logo since The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings in 2005.

From April 30, 2021, through May 5, 2021, Styx posted artwork on social media that included a countdown in the corner that would eventually lead to the revealing of their new album Crash of the Crown, revealed on May 6, 2021. With the reveal, they released the album's title track on streaming platforms. The Prog Report reviewed the album saying it "stands as one of the very finest in their catalogue."

Crash of the Crown reached Number 1 in Rock on Amazon after release.

After first producing The Mission and Crash of the Crown and joining Styx on stage in Las Vegas to play The Mission in its entirety on January 23, 2019, guitarist Will Evankovich joined Styx for their 2021 summer tour that found them back on the road.

Band membersCurrent members Chuck Panozzo – bass, occasional backing vocals (1972–1984, 1990–1991, 1995–1999, part-time 1999–present)
 James "J.Y." Young – guitars, lead and backing vocals, occasional keyboards  (1972–1984, 1990–1991, 1995–present)
 Tommy Shaw – guitars, lead and backing vocals, occasional mandolin (1975–1984, 1995–present)
 Todd Sucherman – drums, percussion, occasional backing vocals (1995–present)
 Lawrence Gowan – keyboards, lead and backing vocals, occasional acoustic guitar (1999–present)
 Ricky Phillips – bass, backing vocals, guitar (2003–present)
 Will Evankovich - guitar, backing vocals (2021–present)Former members John "J.C." Curulewski – guitar, backing and lead vocals, keyboards (1972–1975; died 1988)
 Dennis DeYoung – keyboards, lead and backing vocals (1972–1984, 1990–1991, 1995–1999)
 John Panozzo – drums, percussion (1972–1984, 1990–1991; died 1996)
 Glen Burtnik – guitar, backing and lead vocals (1990–1991, 1999–2003); bass (1999–2003)Timeline 
 

 

DiscographyStudio albums'''

 Styx (1972)
 Styx II (1973)
 The Serpent Is Rising (1973)
 Man of Miracles (1974)
 Equinox (1975)
 Crystal Ball (1976)
 The Grand Illusion (1977)
 Pieces of Eight (1978)
 Cornerstone (1979)
 Paradise Theatre (1981)
 Kilroy Was Here (1983)
 Edge of the Century (1990)
 Brave New World (1999)
 Cyclorama (2003)
 Big Bang Theory (2005)
 The Mission (2017)
 Crash of the Crown (2021)

Consecutive multi-platinum albums
From 1977 to 1981, Styx released four consecutive albums that have been certified Multi-Platinum, for at least 2 million units sold apiece, by the RIAA: The Grand Illusion (1977), Pieces of Eight (1978), Cornerstone (1979) and Paradise Theatre (1981).

A longstanding, oft-repeated claim in the music industry and the mainstream press is that Styx were the first band to release four consecutive Triple-Platinum albums, signifying at least 3 million units sold.liveDaily Interview: Tommy Shaw of Styx   During the period when these albums charted, the RIAA's only certifications were for Gold (500,000 units sold) and Platinum (1 million). Multi-Platinum awards were introduced in late October 1984. Following this development, record companies submitted their most popular artists' sales records to accountants in order to achieve the new thresholds.
Styx did score three Triple-Platinum albums—The Grand Illusion (1977), Pieces of Eight (1978) and Paradise Theatre (1981)—and one Double-Platinum album—Cornerstone (1979)—on the same date, November 14, 1984. Complete and detailed historical sales figures for record albums are not readily available to the public, but the certifications, which can be found at the RIAA site, show that the feat the band actually achieved was being the first group to be awarded four consecutive Multi-Platinum albums with three of those ranking better than Double Platinum. Styx achieved another Double-Platinum album—Greatest Hits (Volume I)''—on August 23, 2005.

See also
 List of best-selling music artists

References

External links

 
 Styx biography by Greg Prato, discography and album reviews, credits & releases at AllMusic.com
 Styx discography, album releases & credits at Discogs.com

 
A&M Records artists
American pop rock music groups
American art rock groups
Hard rock musical groups from Illinois
Arena rock musical groups
Musical groups established in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1984
Musical groups reestablished in 1989
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 1995
Musical groups from Chicago
Progressive rock musical groups from Illinois
Articles which contain graphical timelines
CMC International artists
Universal Music Group artists
Sanctuary Records artists
A hidden message is information that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered or uncovered and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. Although there are many legitimate examples of hidden messages created with techniques such as backmasking and steganography, many so-called hidden messages are merely fanciful imaginings or apophany.

Description 
The information in hidden messages is not immediately noticeable; it must be discovered or uncovered, and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages, and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. There are many legitimate examples of hidden messages, though many are imaginings.

Backward audio messages 
A backward message in an audio recording is only fully apparent when the recording is played reversed. Some backward messages are produced by deliberate backmasking, while others are simply phonetic reversals resulting from random combinations of words. Backward messages may occur in various mediums, including music, video games, music videos, movies, and television shows.

Backmasking 

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. It was popularized by The Beatles, who used backward vocals and instrumentation on their 1966 album Revolver. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for "clean" releases of songs.

Backmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations of its use for Satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burnings and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments. In debate are both the existence of backmasked Satanic messages and their purported ability to subliminally affect listeners.

Phonetic reversal 

Certain phrases produce a different phrase when their phonemes are reversed—a process known as phonetic reversal. For example, "Kiss" backwards sounds like "sick", and so the title of Yoko Ono's "Kiss Kiss Kiss" sounds like "Sick Sick Sick" or "Six Six Six" backwards. Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" backwards was claimed that the chorus, when played in reverse, can be heard as "It's fun to smoke marijuana" or "start to smoke marijuana". The Paul is dead phenomenon was started in part because a phonetic reversal of "Number nine" (the words were constantly repeated in Revolution 9) was interpreted as "Turn me on, dead man".

According to proponents of reverse speech, phonetic reversal occurs unknowingly during normal speech.

Visual messages 
Hidden messages can be created in visual mediums with techniques such as hidden text and steganography.

In the 1980s, Coca-Cola released in South Australia an advertising poster featuring the reintroduced contour bottle, with a speech bubble, "Feel the Curves!!" An image hidden inside one of the ice cubes was controversial. Thousands of posters were distributed to hotels and bottle shops in Australia before the mistake was discovered by Coca-Cola management. The artist of the poster was fired and all the posters were recalled. Rival PepsiCo had a similar accusation in 1990 when their promotional Pepsi Cool Cans was accused of having the word "sex" hidden in their design if two of their cans were placed atop each other.

Various other messages have been claimed to exist in Disney movies, some of them risque, such as the well-known allegation of an erection showing on a priest in The Little Mermaid. According to the Snopes website, one image "is clearly true [and] undeniably purposely inserted into the movie": a topless woman in two frames of The Rescuers.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had an antipathy towards PETCO, a pet food retailer in San Diego, regarding the purported mistreatment of live animals at their stores. When the San Diego Padres baseball team announced that the retailer had purchased naming rights to Petco Park stadium, PETA was unable to persuade the sports team to terminate the agreement. Later, PETA successfully purchased a commemorative display brick with what appears to be a complimentary message: "Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!" However, if one takes the first letters of each word, the resulting acrostic reads "BOYCOTT PETCO". Neither PETCO nor the Padres have taken any action to remove the brick, stating that if someone walked by, they would not know it had anything to do with the PETA/PETCO feud.

Secretive design language is widely used on web sites as Easter eggs within products as hidden features, such as In-N-Out Burger's secret menu or the new Norwegian passport design for security.

See also 
Apophenia
Pareidolia
Synchronicity

References

External links 
 Audio Reversal in Popular Culture — explanation of backmasking and phonetic reversals
 SHOOSH An easy tool to make an hidden message — visual messages can be hidden in images.
 Hidden subliminal design
secret message link

Audio engineering
Perception
Popular music

de:Rückwärtsbotschaft
fr:Message à l'envers Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

Artists have since used backmasking for artistic, comedic and satiric effect, on both analogue and digital recordings. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for "clean" releases of explicit songs.

In 1969, rumors of a backmasked message in the Beatles song "Revolution 9" sparked the Paul is dead urban legend. Since at least the early 1980s, Christian groups in the United States alleged that backmasking was being used by prominent rock musicians for Satanic purposes, leading to record-burning protests and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments during the 1980s.

Many popular musicians were accused of including backmasked messages in their music. However, apparent backmasked messages may in fact be examples of pareidolia (the brain's tendency to recognize patterns in meaningless data), coincidental phonetic reversal, or as deliberate responses to the allegations themselves.

History

Development
The backwards playing of records was advised as training for magicians by occultist Aleister Crowley, who suggested in his 1913 book Magick (Book 4) that an adept "train himself to think backwards by external means", one of which was to "listen to phonograph records, reversed". In the movie Gold Diggers of 1935, the end of the dancing-pianos musical number, "The Words Are in My Heart," is filmed in reverse motion, with the accompanying instrumental score incidentally being reversed.

In 1959, a vocal group called The Eligibles released a record called "Car Trouble", which contains two nonsense passages. When reversed, they reveal the phrases "And you can get my daughter back by 10:30, you bum!" and (perhaps inevitably) "Now, lookit here, cats, stop running these records backwards!". Peaking at #107 on the Billboard magazine charts that summer, "Car Trouble" is believed to be the first hit record to contain backmasking.

The Beatles, who incorporated the techniques of concrète into their recordings, were responsible for popularizing the concept of backmasking. Singer John Lennon and producer George Martin both claimed they discovered the backward recording technique during the recording of 1966's Revolver; specifically the album tracks "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I'm Only Sleeping", and the single "Rain". Lennon stated that, while under the influence of marijuana, he accidentally played the tapes for "Rain" in reverse and enjoyed the sound. The following day he shared the results with the other Beatles, and the effect was used first in the guitar solo for "Tomorrow Never Knows" and later in the coda of "Rain". According to Martin, the band had been experimenting with changing the speeds of and reversing the "Tomorrow Never Knows" tapes, and Martin got the idea of reversing Lennon's vocals and guitar, which he did with a clip from "Rain". Lennon then liked the effect and kept it. Regardless, "Rain" was the first Beatles song to feature a backmasked message: "Sunshine ... Rain ... When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads" (; the last line is the reversed first verse of the song).

Controversies
The Beatles were involved in the spread of backmasking both as a recording technique and as the center of a controversy. The latter has its roots in an event in 1969, when WKNR-FM DJ Russ Gibb received a phone call from a student at Eastern Michigan University who identified himself as "Tom". The caller asked Gibb about a rumor that Beatle Paul McCartney had died, and claimed that the Beatles song "Revolution 9" contained a backward message confirming the rumor. Gibb played the song backwards on his turntable, and heard "Turn me on, dead man ... turn me on, dead man ... turn me on, dead man ...". Gibb began telling his listeners about what he called "The Great Cover-up", and to the original clue were added various others, including the alleged backmasked message "Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him, miss him", in "I'm So Tired".

The "Paul is dead" rumor popularized the idea of backmasking in popular music. After Gibb's show, many more songs were found to contain phrases that sounded like known spoken languages when reversed. Initially, the search was done mostly by fans of rock music; but, in the late 1970s, during the rise of the Christian right in the United States, fundamentalist Christian groups began to claim that backmasked messages could bypass the conscious mind and reach the unconscious mind, where they would be unknowingly accepted by the listener. In 1981, Christian DJ Michael Mills began stating on Christian radio programs that Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" contained hidden Satanic messages that were heard by the unconscious.

In early 1982, the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Paul Crouch hosted a show with self-described neuroscientist William Yarroll, who argued that rock stars were cooperating with the Church of Satan to place hidden subliminal messages on records. Also in 1982, fundamentalist Christian pastor Gary Greenwald held public lectures on dangers of backmasking, along with at least one mass record-smashing. During the same year, thirty North Carolina teenagers, led by their pastor, claimed that singers had been possessed by Satan, who used their voices to create backward messages, and held a record-burning at their church.

Allegations of demonic backmasking were also made by social psychologists, parents and critics of rock music, as well as the Parents Music Resource Center (formed in 1985), which accused Led Zeppelin of using backmasking to promote Satanism.

Legislation
One result of the furor was the firing of five radio DJs who had encouraged listeners to search for backward messages in their record collections. A more serious consequence was legislation by the state governments of Arkansas and California. The 1983 California bill was introduced to prevent backmasking that "can manipulate our behavior without our knowledge or consent and turn us into disciples of the Antichrist". Involved in the discussion on the bill was a California State Assembly Consumer Protection and Toxic Materials Committee hearing, during which "Stairway to Heaven" was played backwards, and William Yaroll testified. The successful bill made the distribution of records with undeclared backmasking an invasion of privacy for which the distributor could be sued. The Arkansas law passed unanimously in 1983, referenced albums by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Electric Light Orchestra, Queen and Styx, and mandated that records with backmasking include a warning sticker: "Warning: This record contains backward masking which may be perceptible at a subliminal level when the record is played forward." However, the bill was returned to the state senate by Governor Bill Clinton and defeated. House Resolution 6363, introduced in 1982 by Representative Bob Dornan (R-California), proposed mandating a similar label; the bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation and Tourism and was never passed. Government action was also called for in the legislatures of Texas and Canada.

With the advent of compact discs in the 1980s, but prior to the advent of sound editing technology for personal computers in the 1990s, it became more difficult to listen to recordings backwards, and the controversy died down.

Resurgence
Although the backmasking controversy peaked in the 1980s, the general belief in subliminal manipulation became more widespread in the United States during the following decade, with belief in Satanic backmasking on records persisting into the 1990s. At the same time, the development of sound editing software with audio reversal features simplified the process of reversing audio, which previously could only be done with full fidelity using a professional tape recorder. The Sound Recorder utility, included with Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 to Windows XP, allows one-click audio reversal, as does popular open source sound editing software Audacity. Following the growth of the Internet, backmasked message searchers used such software to create websites featuring backward music samples, which became a widely used method of exploring backmasking in popular music.

In January 2014, the first backmasked video was released as part of a Grammy Awards promotional campaign. A customized video player allowed the user to watch a piece of film accompanied by a music soundtrack both forwards and backwards. The backwards content contained a hidden visual story and the words 'music unleashes you' embedded into the reversed audio track.

Use

Backmasking has been used as a recording technique since the 1960s. In the era of magnetic tape sound recording, backmasking required that the source reel-to-reel tape actually be played backwards, which was achieved by first being wound onto the original takeup reel, then reversing the reels so as to use that reel as the source (this would reverse the stereo channels as well).

Backmasked words are unintelligible noise when played forward, but when played backwards are clear speech. Listening to backmasked audio with most turntables requires disengaging the drive and rotating the album by hand in reverse (though some can play records backwards). With magnetic tape, the tape must be reversed and spliced back into the cassette. Compact discs were difficult to reverse when first introduced, but digital audio editors, which were first introduced in the late 1980s and became popular during the next decade, allow easy reversal of audio from digital sources.

Film and television 
In the I Love Lucy episode "Home Movies", Lucy makes an audition film that features clips that are played backwards.

In the 1973 film The Exorcist, a tape of noises from the possessed victim was discovered to contain a message when the tape was played backwards. This scene might have inspired subsequent copycat musical effects. Stanley Kubrick used "Masked Ball", an adaptation by Jocelyn Pook of her earlier work "Backwards Priests" (from the album Flood) featuring reversed Romanian chanting, as the background music for the masquerade ball scene in Eyes Wide Shut.

Backmasking was also parodied in a 2001 episode of the television series The Simpsons titled "New Kids on the Blecch". Bart Simpson joins a boy band called the Party Posse, whose song "Drop da Bomb" includes the repeated lyric "Yvan eht nioj". Lisa Simpson becomes suspicious and plays the song backward, revealing the backmasked message "Join the Navy", which leads her to realize that the boy band was created as a subliminal recruiting tool for the United States Navy.

The Futurama episode "Calculon 2.0" also has a scene where an installation disc is played backward on what looks like an old fashioned gramophone player, with the words "rise from the dead in the name of Satan" coming from it.

Music 
On 19 April 1981, English extreme metal band Venom released the song In League with Satan (recorded January 1981) which included a backmasked message "Satan, raised in hell, raised in hell, I'm gonna burn your soul, crush your bones, I'm gonna make you bleed, you gonna bleed for me." This is perhaps the earliest instance of a true backtracked message referencing Satan.

During the Judas Priest subliminal message trial, lead singer Rob Halford admitted to recording the words "In the dead of the night, love bites" backwards into the track "Love Bites", from the 1984 album Defenders of the Faith. Asked why he recorded the message, Halford stated that "When you're composing songs, you're always looking for new ideas, new sounds."

Backmasking has been used by heavy metal bands to deliberately insert messages in their lyrics or imagery. Bands have utilized Satanic imagery for commercial reasons. For example, thrash metal band Slayer included at the start of the band's 1985 album Hell Awaits a deep backmasked voice repeatedly chanting "join us". Cradle of Filth, another band that has employed Satanic imagery, released a song entitled "Dinner at Deviant's Palace", consisting almost entirely of unusual sounds and a reversed reading of the Lord's Prayer Oingo Boingo has a Christian message promoting salvation through Christ backmasked into one of their songs, "Cry of the Vatos", a satire on claims of Satanism in their music.

At the end of "Before I Forget" by Slipknot, lead singer Corey Taylor's voice can be heard saying "... You're wasting it" which is in reference to how Rick Rubin, the producer of their album Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, wanted Taylor to change the chorus vocal melody because he felt it wasn't catchy; however, Taylor stood his ground and the chorus stayed unchanged.

Artists often use backmasking of sounds or instrumental audio to produce interesting sound effects. One such sound effect is the reverse echo. When done on tape, such use of backmasking is known as reverse tape effects. Backmasking has been used for artistic effect by Missy Elliott ("Work It",), Jay Chou ("You Can Hear") At the Drive-In ("300 MHz"), Klaatu ("Anus of Uranus"/"Silly Boys", and Lacuna Coil ("Self Deception")

A related technique is to reverse an entire instrumental track. John Lennon originally wanted to do so with "Rain", but objections by producer George Martin and bandmate Paul McCartney cut the backward section to 30 seconds.  Danish band Mew's 2009 album No More Stories... contains a track, "New Terrain", which, when listened to in reverse, reveals a new song, entitled "Nervous". Soul duo Gnarls Barkley released a companion version of their album The Odd Couple, an instrumental album called elpuoc ddo eht, consisting of the original album, fused into a single 38:44-long track, and reversed. This album can be legally obtained by owners of the original, as it is meant to complement it, and be a resource to samplers. 

The B-side of the 1966 Napoleon XIV single "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" is a reversed version of the entire forwards record, titled "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT". The forward version reached #3 in the US charts and #4 in the UK.

Seattle-based grunge band Soundgarden parodied the phenomenon of Satanic backmasking on their 1989 album Ultramega OK. When played backwards, the songs "665" and "667" reveal a song about Santa Claus.

Matthew Sweet's 1999 album In Reverse includes reversed guitar parts which were played directly onto a tape running in reverse. For live concerts, the guitar parts were played live on stage using a backward emulator.

The Beatles song "Free as a Bird" was originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording, incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, was released as a new single from The Beatles Anthology 1 project, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after Lennon's death. In a humorous self-parody and tribute to Lennon, the surviving Beatles inserted a backmasked clip of Lennon saying "Turned out nice again" at the very end of the song.

Pink Floyd dropped a backmasked message into "Empty Spaces":
 ... Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont ...
 Roger! Carolyne's on the phone!
 Okay.

The first line may refer to former lead singer Syd Barrett, who is thought to have suffered a nervous breakdown years earlier. 

In "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Nature Trail to Hell", from 1984's "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D, Yankovic's backmasked voice declares that "Satan eats Cheez Whiz". Another early example can be found on the J. Geils Band track "No Anchovies, Please", from 1980s album Love Stinks. The message, disguised as a foreign-sounding language spoken under the narration, is, "It doesn't take a genius to tell the difference between chicken shit and chicken salad." Belgian act Poésie Noire included a satirical backmasked message on their 1988 album Tetra saying "You fucking asshole, play the record in the normal way". Tenacious D includes the backmasked message "Eat Donkey Crap" at the end of "Karate" from their self-titled first album.

Electric Light Orchestra and Styx, following their involvement in the 1980s backmasking controversy, released songs that parody the allegations made against them. ELO, after being accused of Satanic backmasking on their 1974 album Eldorado, included backmasked messages in two songs on their next album, 1975's Face the Music. "Down Home Town" begins with a voice twice repeating (in reverse) "Face the mighty waterfall". And the opening instrumental "Fire On High" contains the backmasked message "The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!" (). In 1983, ELO released an entire album, Secret Messages, in response to the controversy. Among the many backmasked messages on the album are: "Welcome to the big show" (2x); "Thank you for listening"; "Look out there's danger ahead"; "Hup two three four"; "Time After Time"; and "You're playing me backwards". Styx also released an album in response to allegations of Satanic backmasking: 1983's Kilroy Was Here, which deals with an allegorical group called the "Majority for Musical Morality" that outlaws rock music. A sticker on the album cover contains the message, "By order of the Majority for Musical Morality, this album contains secret backward messages", and the song "Heavy Metal Poisoning" does in fact contain the backmasked Latin words "Annuit cœptis, Novus ordo seclorum" ("[God] has favored our undertakings; a new order for the ages")—part of the Great Seal which encircles the pyramid on the back of the American dollar bill.

Iron Maiden's 1983 album Piece of Mind features a short backwards message, included by the band in response to allegations of Satanism that were surrounding them at the time. Between the songs "The Trooper" and "Still Life" is inebriated drummer Nicko McBrain doing an impression of Idi Amin Dada: "'What ho', sed de t'ing wid de t'ree bonce [said the thing with the three heads]. Don't meddle wid t'ings you don't understand," followed by a belch. Prince's controversial song "Darling Nikki" includes the backmasked message, "Hello, how are you? I am fine, because I know that the Lord is coming soon." The Waitresses' 1982 EP I Could Rule the World if I Could Only Get the Parts included a backwards masking warning on the cover and a message masked within the song "The Smartest Person I Know": "Anyone who believes in backwards masking is a fool."

Some messages chastise or poke fun at the listener who is playing the song backwards. One such message was included by "Weird Al" Yankovic in "I Remember Larry", from the 1996 album Bad Hair Day, on which Yankovic lightly chastises the listener with the backmasked remark, "Wow, [you] must have an awful lot of free time on your hands". Similarly, the B-52's song "Detour Through Your Mind", from the 1986 LP Bouncing off the Satellites, contains the message, "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle." A similar message comes from the Canadian band Frozen Ghost from their 1987 self-titled debut album: "You are ruining your needle!"

Meanwhile, Christian rock group Petra included in their song "Judas' Kiss", from the 1982 album More Power to Ya, the message, "What are you looking for the devil for, when you ought to be looking for the Lord?" Bloodhound Gang's 1996 controversy-begging track "Lift Your Head Up High (And Blow Your Brains Out)" mocked the Judas Priest controversy directly, and included the backmasked phrase "Devil child, wake up and eat Chef Boyardee Beefaroni". The band Mindless Self Indulgence released a song titled "Backmaskwarning!", which contains the forward lyrics "Play that record backwards / Here's a message yo for the suckas / Play that record backwards / And go fuck yourself". The backwards messages in the song include, "clean your room", "do your homework", "don't stay out too late", and "eat your vegetables".

Devo's hit song "Whip It" has Mark Mothersbaugh saying "Hey come over here!" when the song is played backwards.

Other

WWE wrestler Al Snow had a theme song that had backmasking in it. The song was mostly instrumental, but at one point a clearly audible voice can be heard saying a line of gibberish. When the song is played backward, the gibberish is actually saying: "I AM THE ONE IN CONTROL." The message played on Al Snow's character as an unstable mad man.

Censorship

Backmasking has been used to avoid censorship. On Frank Zappa's track "Hot Poop", from We're Only in It for the Money (1968), the released version contains at the end of its side "A" the backmasked message "Better look around before you say you don't care. / Shut your fucking mouth 'bout the length of my hair. / How would you survive / If you were alive / shitty little person?" This profanity-laced verse, originally from the song "Mother People", was censored by Verve Records, so Zappa edited the verse out, reversed it, and inserted it elsewhere in the album as "Hot Poop" (though even in the backward message the word "fucking" is censored). On the same album, a modified backmasking can be heard in "Harry, You're a Beast" with Madge saying, "Don't come in me, in me" repeatedly before she starts crying. In at least one bootleg version of the album, these words are very clear.

Another example is found in Roger Waters' 1992 album Amused to Death, on which Waters recorded a backward message, possibly critical of film director Stanley Kubrick, who had refused to let Waters sample a breathing sound from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The message appears in the song "Perfect Sense Part 1", in which Waters' backmasked voice says, "Julia, however, in light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we have changed our minds. We have decided to include a backward message, Stanley, for you and all the other book burners."

On the other hand, backmasking can be used to censor words and phrases deemed inappropriate on radio edits and "clean" album releases. For example, the Fugees' clean version of the album The Score contains various backmasked profanities; thus, when playing the album backwards, the censored words are clearly audible among the backward gibberish. When used with the word "shit", this type of backmasking results in a sound similar to "ish". As a result, "ish" became a euphemism for "shit".

Iron Maiden used a similar technique on the radio edit of their "Holy Smoke" single, in which there are two rare instances of profanity in their lyrics, which were reversed to give "Flies around tish/Bees around honey" and "I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin/And I still smell cleaner than the tish you're in".

In Britney Spears' 2011 song "Till the World Ends", Spears says "if you want this good shit". However, on the official version, "shit" is reversed, creating the "ish" sound; therefore, the official version says "if you want this good ish". Backmasking is also used to censor the word "joint" in the video for "You Don't Know How It Feels" by Tom Petty, resulting in the line "Let's roll another tnioj".

Accusations
Artists who have been accused of backmasking include Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Electric Light Orchestra, XXXTentacion Queen, Styx, Judas Priest, the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Starship, AC/DC, Black Oak Arkansas, Rush, Britney Spears, and Eminem.

Electric Light Orchestra was accused of hiding a backward Satanic message in their 1974 album Eldorado. The title track, "Eldorado", was said to contain the message "He is the nasty one / Christ, you're infernal / It is said we're dead men / Everyone who has the mark will live." ELO singer and songwriter Jeff Lynne responded by calling this accusation (and the related charge of being "devil-worshippers") "skcollob", and stating that the message "is absolutely manufactured by whoever said, 'That's what it said.' It doesn't say anything of the sort." The group included several backward messages in later albums in response to the accusations.

In 1981, Styx was accused of putting the backward message "Satan move through our voices" on the song "Snowblind", from Paradise Theatre. Guitarist James Young called these charges "rubbish," and responded, "If we want to make a statement, we'll do it in a way that people can understand us and not in a way where you have to go out and buy a $400 tape player to understand us." The vinyl reproduction of Paradise Theatre had laser etching on side one, spelling out Styx at the top, and two ladies facing each other on the sides. But on side two, the side with the song (Snow Blind) it had a black label with a small hole cut out where you could place the eraser side of a pencil, and play the album backwards to hear the backward message. In 1983, the band released a concept album, Kilroy Was Here, satirizing the Moral Majority.

A well-known alleged message is found in Led Zeppelin's 1971 song "Stairway to Heaven". The backwards playing of a portion of the song purportedly results in words beginning with "Here's to my sweet Satan" (). Swan Song Records issued a statement to the contrary: "Our turntables only play in one direction—forwards." Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant denied the accusations in an interview: "To me it's very sad, because 'Stairway to Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music." Another widely known alleged message, "It's fun to smoke marijuana", in Queen's song "Another One Bites the Dust", is similarly disclaimed by the group's spokesperson.

Subliminal persuasion

Fundamentalist Christian groups
Various fundamentalist Christian groups have declared that Satan—or Satan-influenced musicians—use backmasked messages to subliminally alter behavior. Pastor Gary Greenwald claimed that subliminal messages backmasked into rock music induce listeners towards sex and drug use. Minister Jacob Aranza wrote in his 1982 book Backward Masking Unmasked that rock groups "are using backmasking to convey Satanic and drug related messages to the subconscious." Christian DJ Michael Mills argued in 1981 that "the subconscious mind is being successfully affected by the repetition of beat and lyrics—being affected through a subliminal message." Mills has toured America warning Christian parents about subliminal messages in rock music.

Some Christian websites have claimed that backmasking is widely used for Satanic purposes. The web page for Alabama group Dial-the-Truth Ministries argues for the existence of Satanic backmasking in "Stairway to Heaven", saying that the song contains the backward message, "It's my sweet Satan ... Oh I will sing because I live with Satan."

PMRC
In 1985, Joe Stuessy testified to the United States Congress at the Parents Music Resource Center hearings that:

Stuessy's written testimony stated that:

Court cases
Serial killer Richard Ramirez, on trial in 1988, stated that AC/DC's music, and specifically the song "Night Prowler" on Highway to Hell, inspired him to commit murder. Reverse speech advocate David John Oates claimed that "Highway to Hell", on the same album, contains backmasked messages including "I'm the law", "my name is Lucifer", and "she belongs in hell". AC/DC's Angus Young responded that "you didn't need to play [the album] backwards, because we never hid [the messages]. We'd call an album Highway to Hell, there it was right in front of them."

In 1990, British heavy metal band Judas Priest was sued over a suicide pact made by two young men in Nevada. The lawsuit by their families claimed that the 1978 Judas Priest album Stained Class contained hidden messages, including the forward subliminal words "Do it" in the song "Better by You, Better than Me" (a cover version of a Spooky Tooth song), and various backward subliminal messages. The case was dismissed by the judge for insufficient evidence of Judas Priest's placement of subliminal messages on the record, and the judge's ruling stated that "The scientific research presented does not establish that subliminal stimuli, even if perceived, may precipitate conduct of this magnitude. There exist other factors which explain the conduct of the deceased independent of the subliminal stimuli." Judas Priest members commented that if they wanted to insert subliminal commands in their music, messages leading to the deaths of their fans would be counterproductive, and they would prefer to insert the command "Buy more of our records."

Skepticism
Skeptic Michael Shermer says that the emergence of the "Paul is dead" phenomenon, including the alleged message at the end of "I'm So Tired", was caused by faulty perception of a pattern. Shermer argues that the human brain evolved with a strong pattern recognition ability that was necessary to process the large amount of noise in man's environment, but that today this ability leads to false positives. Stanford University psychology professor Brian Wandell postulates that the observance of backward messages is a mistake arising from this pattern recognition facility, and argues that subliminal persuasion theories are "bizarre" and "implausible." Rumors of backmasking in popular music have been described as auditory pareidolia. James Walker, president of Christian research group Watchman Fellowship, states that "You could take a Christian hymn, and if you played it backwards long enough at different speeds, you could make that hymn say anything you want to"; Led Zeppelin publicist BP Fallon concurs, saying "Play anything backwards, and you'll find something." Eric Borgos of audio reversal website talkbackwards.com states that "Mathematically, if you listen long enough, eventually you'll find a pattern", while Jeff Milner recounts, "Most people, when I show them the site, say that they're not able to hear anything, until, of course, I show them the reverse lyrics."

Audio engineer Evan Olcott says that messages by artists including Queen and Led Zeppelin are coincidental phonetic reversals, in which the spoken or sung phonemes form new combinations of words when listened to backwards. Olcott states that "Actually engineering or planning a phonetic reversal is next to impossible, and even more difficult when trying to design it with words that fit into a song."

In 1985, University of Lethbridge psychologists John Vokey and J. Don Read conducted a study using Psalm 23 from the Bible, Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", and other sound passages made up for the experiment. Vokey and Read concluded that if backmasking does exist, it is ineffective. Participants had trouble noticing backmasked phrases when the samples were played forwards, were unable to judge the types of messages (Christian, Satanic, or commercial), and were not led to behave in a certain way as a result of being exposed to the backmasked phrases. Vokey concluded that "we could find no effect of the meaning of engineered, backward messages on listeners' behaviour, either consciously or unconsciously." Similar results to Vokey and Read's were obtained by D. Averill in 1982. A 1988 experiment by T.E. Moore found "no evidence that listeners were influenced,
consciously or unconsciously, by the content of the backward messages." In 1992, an experiment found that exposure to backward messages did not lead to significant changes in attitude. Psychology professor Mark D. Allen says that "delivering subliminal messages via backward masking is totally and ridiculously impossible".

The finding of backward Satanic messages has been explained as caused by the observer-expectancy effect. The Skeptic's Dictionary states that "you probably won't hear [backmasked] messages until somebody first points them out to you. Perception is influenced by expectation and expectation is affected by what others prime you for." In 1984, S. B. Thorne and P. Himelstein found that "when vague and unfamiliar stimuli are presented, [test subjects] are highly likely to accept suggestions, particularly when the suggestions are presented by someone with prestige and authority." Vokey and Read concluded from their 1985 experiment that "the apparent presence of backward messages in popular music is a function more of active construction on the part of the perceiver than of the existence of the messages themselves."

In popular culture
Backmasking has been satirized in the comic strip Bloom County on several occasions when one "expert" claims to have found Satanic verses hidden in songs recorded by Debby Boone and Billy Joel; and by Milo Bloom investigating the fictional heavy metal group Billy and the Boingers (formerly Deathtöngue).

See also
 List of backmasked messages
 Phonetic reversal
 Programming the Nation?
 Reverse speech
 Subliminal stimuli

References

Notes

Bibliography
 
 
 
  Chapter also available with commentary by Malinda McCall.

External links
 Backmasking—essay on backmasking & a small survey about perception of alleged satanic messages in the song "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin
 Backmask Online—clips and analysis of possible backmasked messages
 Jeff Milner's Backmasking Page—a Flash player with forward and backward versions of songs claimed to contain backmasking; the focus of the Wall Street Journal article
 Subliminal Audio Database— Another flash player with forward and backward versions of songs claimed to contain backmasking
 TalkBackwards.com—allows uploaded music to be reversed
 Hidden and Satanic Messages In Rock Music—1981 radio interview with Michael Mills
 Excerpt with alleged backward messages by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Queen
 "Backwards Messages in Rock Music—Revealed!" podcast featuring The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Rush, Jefferson Starship, Wings, Queen, Phil Collins, Britney Spears, Judas Priest, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Electric Light Orchestra, Xuxa, Prince and Information Society
 Radio program exploring backmasking by announcer Joe Kleon, broadcast on WRQK-FM, with audio samples from Britney Spears, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Styx, Cheap Trick and others
 A Touch Radio podcast made of backmasking, both as a tribute and as an artistic approach

Audio engineering
Perception
Popular music
Religious controversies in music