Enter Sandman & the War in Iraq

The last time I heard Metallica's ‘Enter Sandman’ played at a level of Spinal Tap proportions was three summers ago at the RDS.

The intro to perhaps their most famous song sparked screams and shouts from the excited audience.

However, in Iraq and Guatanamo Bay, this song will for some, be forever equated with screams and shouts - for very different reasons.

Despite the popularity of music as a method of torture, the treatment of the matter is often trivialised in the media. It has been presented as a rather novel idea and has prompted much black humour around the question of due royalties.

BBC News first reported on the use of music on captives in Iraq mid-2003, at the beginning of the summer in which Metallica played their first Irish concert since 1999.

James Hetfield has since joked about it, "We've been punishing our parents, our wives, our loved ones with this music forever. [.] Why should the Iraqi's be any different?"

However, the role of Metallica's music in torturing detainees has provoked Lars Ulrich to publicly object to the use of their songs for this purpose.

Surprisingly, he has not taken legal action.

There is no official play list for American soldiers and so, personal taste has implicated many acts into this breach of the Geneva Convention.

These include: AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Matchbox 20, Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine (a curious inclusion considering the lyrics to Killing in the Name Of, Take the Power Back (!), Township Rebellion, etc.), Limp Bizkit, Throbbing Gristle, Kris Kristoffeson, as well as theme tunes from childrens TV shows, Barney and Sesame Street.

The use of music in war tactics is not a new concept and has been employed throughout the centuries. This is widely acknowledged.

However, it is only since the 2003 invasion of Iraq that the use of popular and most importantly, copyrighted music as a psychological weapon has been exposed so extensively.

Yet, many are still unaware that whilst they are enjoying a concert, another is having the same music blasted in their ears as they are locked in a shipping box under strobe lighting.

Considering the use of computer games by the U.S. military as a means to psychologically train soldiers for real wars, we can only wonder, how much of popular culture will the U.S. military hijack for exploitative means?

Published in Hotpress, Vol 31, Issue 05

22 March 2007