Allegations of Satanism in popular culture have been made by various groups, most notably starting in the early eighties in the United States.
In particular, it has been claimed that young people are being corrupted by hidden occult messages in seemingly harmless products of
commercialized youth culture.
These ideas are certainly not held by all Christian Fundamentalists, but they are held by a certain vocal number.
In the general population, these claims are widely held unbelievable, except perhaps as
urban legend.
Trends that can be seen with suspicion can sometimes be associated with some dark themes, like
fantasy or some forms of
rock and roll, or sometimes may be totally devoid of such associations.
Fantasy
Dungeons and DragonsHarry PotterMagic: The Gathering card gameSmurfsMusic
The alleged link between backward messages and heavy metal alluded to in
Neal Stephenson's novel
Zodiac, in which the protagonist, Sangamon Taylor, comes home to find a series of death threats on his phone's answering machine.
When he rewinds the machine's tape, his flatmate enters the room and asks when Taylor started listening to heavy metal music.
Heavy metalBackward messages in songsBlack metal and death metalThe song Aserejé from the Spanish group Las Ketchup is portrayed as Satanic in an email chain-letter [545].The Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia. Led Zeppelin's song 'Stairway To Heaven' apparently contains a hidden message when played backwards.Other
Procter & Gamble logo controversyAleister CrowleySee also
Satanic ritual abuseFurther reading
David Bromley (Editor), Joel Best (Editor) (1991).
The Satanism Scare (Social Institutions and Social Change).
ISBN 0-202-30379-9Bill Ellis (2003).
Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture.
ISBN Bill Ellis (2000).
Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media.
ISBN 0-8131-2170-1David Frankfurter (2006).
Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History.
ISBN 0-691-11350-5Debbie Nathan, Michael R.
Snedeker (2001).
Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt.
ISBN 0-595-18955-5Jeffrey S.
Victor (1993).
Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend.
ISBN 0-8126-9192-XExternal links
Aserejé ja de huh?! by Andoi Instances of religious intolerance and cultural paranoia related to anti-Satanism
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