This might be two questions, but I remember in the 80s and even before, there was a certain element of fanatical fear about subliminal messages in advertising and music. When I was growing up, my friends told me that their parents told them to never listen to certain music, because if you heard it played backwards there were subliminal messages that would tell you to do horrible things.
My question is, why would anyone think this? Why would someone think that briefly flashing words during a TV advertisement, TV show or in a movie would have any effect whatsoever on influencing people to do anything at all, other than think that was kindof strange - if they even noticed it? Why would anyone think that a song, even if played backwards with different speech than if played forwards, would have any effect on anyone, other than again, someone going, "well, that's kinda odd..."
Did anyone ever seriously believe subliminal messaging worked?
Rock musicians and bands like the Beatles were occasionally accused of 'backwards messages' into their songs for satanic or nefarious reasons. What was the source of these accusations, and did any musicians ever actually do something like this, either as a joke or for other reasons? by u/hillsonghoods touches on this idea in relation to music, focusing on the actual history and technical aspects; with a brief mention of the 80s near the end