The Happy Listener's Guide to Mind Control
Ken Freedman, longtime station manager of the wonderful and stalwartly independent New Jersey radio station WFMU, made this compilation as a fundraising promo back in 1991 (until 2005, it was only available as a little white cassette tape). “The Happy Listener’s Guide…” is a collection of “corporate, religious and political propaganda”—it offers a head-slapping, eye-rolling, sometimes simply horrifying overview of 20th century propaganda techniques, including delirious pro-corporate pop songs distributed to Exxon employees, demoralizing Nazi big-band broadcasts, stentorian all-American spoken-word records, and an eerie in-house motivational tape from a ritzy fashion boutique.