Hidden message

Critics of rock-and-roll songs have occasionally claimed that rock musicians have recorded backward messages into their songs, and that these messages contain subliminal commands that encite their listeners to commit acts of violence. The general population (espcially among fans of rock-and-roll music) usually scoffs at the idea that hidden commands are recorded in rock music, and this idea has become an urban legend.

The most famous alleged backward message in a rock and roll song is based on a lyric from the song Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. When the words "...it makes me wonder" are played backwards, the resulting noise is a garbled phrase that some extremists claim is actually the phrase "My sweet Satan."

Several musicians have deliberately recorded backward messages into their songs, as a way of making an artistic statement, and also to have fun at the expense of their critics. On the 1991 album Amused to Death by Roger Waters, Waters deliberately recorded a backward message that was meant to criticize film director Stanley Kubrick.