News

Songs to torture by

4:57 p.m. · February 26, 2008 · by John Zeiss

We all have those songs that we just can't stand. But what songs are so bad they actually qualify as torture? Mother Jones has compiled a "torture playlist" of songs believed to be used by American military interrogators to disorient, shock, and deprive detainees of sleep. Of course there's your requisite metal for assaulting the ears: Deicide, Metallica, Drowning Pool, Saliva. On the flip side, there are children's ditties like the theme songs to "Barney" or "Sesame Street" that would surely drive anyone of double-digit age nuts. But funniest of all have to be those songs that certainly weren't meant to annoy but definitely do. The best of the best? David Gray's "Babylon." Seriously, give me waterboarding any day to having to listen to that dreck. Also included in this category would be "Stayin' Alive," "Cold" by matchbox twenty, "American Pie" (which is hard to get through just once, so imagine the torture of it being on endless loop), and . . . Prince's "Raspberry Beret?" Really? Maybe not His Purple Majesty's best tune ever, but is it torture?

Post away in the comments about what other songs you'd prefer a stress position to.

[Boing Boing]