EVER since recorded music took off in earnest, claims have been made that a hidden message of some form is hidden in a song; for example, some have claimed that certain rock bands hide dark messages in their songs if they're played backwards.
That said, have there ever been instances where a song was written specifically to contain a hidden message?
VERDICT:
TRUE
Yes, a pop song was written to hide a message – one written in Morse Code – and it was the Colombian song "Better Days", which was written, performed and sung by session musicians Natalia Gutierrez Y Angelo.
The song had been commissioned by Colonel Jose Espejo, an officer in the Colombian army to send a message of hope to soldiers who had been captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC to be held as hostages for ransom.
Espejo had devised the idea along with an award-winning team of advertising experts led by Juan Carlos Ortiz; the brief that Ortiz was given was that a message of hope had to be sent to the soldiers, but hidden in such a way that FARC guerrillas would not be able to detect.
The team, which included local advertising experts Rodrigo Bolivar, Alfonso Diaz, Mario León, and Luis Castilla, caught on a key point – that FARC militants usually allow hostages access to radios as it keeps their minds off the idea of escape.
Additionally, it was a common practice to use radio shows to get messages from loved ones to hostages. An example of this was the "Voices of Kidnapping" on Bogota's Caracol Radio which allows families of victims to call in to send messages to their family member in FARC captivity.
Following this, various suggestions were tossed out until Diaz suggested using Morse code.
When pitched to Espejo, the colonel liked the idea as many soldiers were trained in Morse code, something that FARC guerrillas could not understand.
It was at this point the musicians were brought in and the experimentation began and as producer Carlos Portela said in an article by the portal The Verge, his team had been approached by the military to hide a message in a song.
He said that at the time they'd never worked with Morse code before, let alone tried to hide it in music, adding that their experiments began by trying with a keyboard and percussion instruments.
Portela said that after trial-and-error found that what worked best was to hide 20 words in the chorus of a song and then teamed up with a military policeman skilled in Morse code.
Ultimately, the team came up with a message that read "19 people rescued. You are next. Don't lose hope."
The song with the message was played on over 130 government-controlled radio stations broadcasting into FARC-held areas and by 2010, it was being heard across the rainforests of Colombia.
So, was it effective? The answer is "yes", as a former hostage was able to confirm that it was heard, deciphered and the message of hope passed from soldier to soldier, from captive to captive.
As for Ortiz? He won a Golden Lion in Cannes for "Better Days" and the message it sent.
SOURCES:
1 https://www.theverge.com/2015/
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?
