Music as Torture / Music as Weapon

Abstract

"Acoustic weapons" have been in development by Department of Defense contractors since at least the 1997 creation of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Task Force, accounting for a third of the Task Force's budget in 1998-9. Theorists of battlefield use emphasize sound's bodily effects, while theorists of the interrogation room focus on the capacity of sound and music to destroy subjectivity. The practices and ideologies of classical music listening suggest that such music-induced ecstasy is produced by intense attention to the relationships among the sounds themselves. Nearly every story in the mainstream US press about music's use to "torture" detainees has prompted responses in the virtual world known as the blogosphere. The practices and ideologies of classical music listening suggest that such music-induced ecstasy is produced by intense attention to the relationships among the sounds themselves.

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