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The Torture Playlist Stickers

James David wrote this post at 10:11 am on July 15th, 2008.

Mother Jones’s Torture Playlist includes the music used in American military prisons to torture detainees, and ranges from Christina Aguilera to Sesame Street.  I’ve developed the stickers below to raise awareness about this form of torture

Used in Torture CD Sticker

Using address labels - sized 2.25″ x 0.75″ - you can affix these stickers to CDs in your local record shop and make a small political statement about state violence. Download the PDF here.

There’s no copyright on these, so feel free to spread widely, with and without permission.  If you take some pictures of your work, let us know!

For your convenience, here’s the Torture Playlist:

Discuss (9)

#1 posted by Brent V, July 15, 2008 4:57 pm

I’m not sure what statement this is going to make. By sticking these stickers on CDs, there seems to be an implication that the artists knew about and/or condoned the torture. In other words, this seems like a protest against the artists not a protest against torture.

Brent, I’m glad you posed the question. I thought it was ambiguous myself, and I agree that it warrants explaining. Many of the artists know about the playlist, and some are outraged. The goal is not to disparage them. (Metallica, though, deserves the criticism for James Hetfield’s comments.)

The effort is simply an awareness raising campaign about the use of torture by the American military. By placing the stickers on CDs, where they are unexpected, it interrupts an otherwise routine act (buying an album) with a bit of activism.

#3 posted by Bryce, July 15, 2008 5:52 pm

This sends no message but “The person that put this here is mad and doesn’t know who to take it out on.”

Seriously, this is not a message - it’s a scream of anger. But you’re screaming at the wrong people.

You do realize that jackasses–like me, for one–will gladly put these on their own recordings, especially if some of it is written to be nasty and discordant.

Congratulations, you just created the next Parental Warning sticker, which most artists regard as a badge of pride when they find it affixed to their CDs.

#5 posted by Anonymous, July 15, 2008 11:43 pm

#3, I sincerely hope you are bluffing, as I see a gigantic difference between being proudly against censorship and proudly supportive of music being used for torture.
Only the most terrible of people would enjoy knowing that their art has been used to break people of their spirits, their minds, and their wills to live.

Well, hell, if I was one of those artists I’d be seriously pissed if I knew that the military was doing that with my music. In fact I would be taking serious legal action against them. Especially the childrens shows!

I think this action is quite clever because it shows the artists and their representation that consumers are making associations between the military and their music. Now some bands might not care, good on them, let their fans decide if they agree with them.

The comparison between this and the ‘Tipper Sticker’ is ludicrous. The parental warning stickers were an arbitrary attempt at censorship. These stickers are an overt attempt at anti-torture grass roots activism.

Oh and the spam captcha words I got for this comment were ‘almost freedom’ which I find quite ironic!

xox

#7 posted by taras, July 17, 2008 9:05 am

These really “stick” it to the Man! And aren’t those artists going to be so pissed when they find out! He he he!

Those stupid store workers who will have to peel off the stickers should know better than working for evil corporations! Tee hee, isn’t activism fun! I’m off to read some Chomsky now, later!

#8 posted by Justine Sharrok, July 17, 2008 3:54 pm

I’m the one who originally put together the songlist for Mother Jones. The sticker campaign is great! Using the music aspect seems like a good way to raise awareness about the issue–especially since it might reach people who don’t normally follow the details about Guantanamo etc. My only fear is that it could further people’s perception that we aren’t really “torturing”–ie all we are doing is playing music. I’m so glad to see the conversation here hasn’t gone in the direction of making light of it, as it has elsewhere all too often.

I think we might have something similar to say - just in different ways.

Apathy doesn’t work. Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1EFAXT2CvA

Hope you guys get in touch with us.

-ism
ism@ismmusic.com
http://www.ismmusic.com

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