I was amused this week at the news coming out of New Zealand, generally known as a peaceful, forward-thinking country. Apparently the protests in Ottawa and then at the Ambassador Bridge linking the US and Canada have inspired more than one copycat incident, including in Paris. There, protesters were met with fines and arrests. Ontario police obtained a court injunction to halt the extremist protests there.
How did the New Zealand authorities deal with the crisis?
They played Barry Manilow.
Nooooo! Anything but that!
Seems music has been weaponized a number of times in recent decades. Guantanamo detainees were taunted with heavy metal, rap, and even children's songs. Israeli forces also used heavy metal to draw Palestinian occupiers from the Church of the Nativity.
US forces, having heard that Panamian dictator Manuel Noriega was fond of opera, tried to force him from his hideout at the Papal Nunciatura using hard rock.(Noriega is said to have "slept soundly through the clamor.")
At this writing it's unclear as to how effective the Manilow Method is, after multiple arrests and turning on the Parliament water sprinkler system to deter the anti-vaxer/anti-restriction protesters. It was the Parliament Speaker's idea to bully them with Barry, with a 15-minute loop including songs like "Mandy" and "Could It Be Magic" along with the Macarena (don't ask me).
Perhaps more than any other cultural marker, musical taste is largely subjective and defined by lots of factors such as cultural environment and upbringing. No doubt studies have been conducted, but it's fascinating and mysterious to me how one person can be all over a particular artist or musical genre and the next person, even a sibling, can be moved by a completely different sound.
So here's the question: what music could be used to torture you or bring you to confess or surrender? Just leave your comment here!