By Edd McCracken, Arts Correspondent

Any debate about music and violence regurgitates the same names: Eminem, Marilyn Manson, Scandinavian black metal. But according to a new book, instead of expletive-laden tracks with thudding bass lines, a much more widespread malevolence is lurking in the collection of your average middle-aged MOR fan.

It is the likes of Bing Crosby, Cliff Richard, Whitney Houston, and Tammy Wynette we should be worried about.

In Dark Side of the Tune: Popular Music and Violence, University of Glasgow academics Bruce Johnson and Martin Cloonan argue that songs involved in violent acts rarely contain offensive lyrics. Tunes such as White Christmas and I Will Always Love You were more likely to be culpable. Violence springs from whoever is controlling how music is played, they say, rather than from the words or the tune.

"We want to get away from the usual suspects," said Cloonan, a senior lecturer in music at the university. "When people say music and violence most people would say rap and metal. We would say it is a bit more problematic than that. There is no form of music that is inherently violent. On the other hand, there is no form of music that doesn't have the potential for violence."

He added: "Music is not only the food of love, it can be measured malice. We tend to think of music as a good thing', but it does have a dark side."

Cloonan and Johnson's research began 15 years ago when they began hearing about music being used as torture in the conflict in the Balkans. The technique of repeatedly playing a song at extreme volume was recently used by American forces at Guantanamo Bay. Barney the Purple Dinosaur and Sesame Street songs were notable choices.

Music's negative power has historical precedence. In Biblical times, Joshua brought down Jericho's wall with the blast of a trumpet. In antiquity, mythical sirens lured sailors to their doom through song. Modern parallels are found in Iraq where American soldiers pounded Fallujah with Metallica before engaging insurgents, "like contemporary Joshuas", according to Cloonan.

The most surprising finding in their research, however, was that music as torture is not the preserve of American military prisons. Guantanamo can be found in the high street.

"It isn't at all exotic," Cloonan said. Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe and Iraq are all safely distant. And then we realised this is going on in my house, next door, as I walk down the street, in a shopping mall. This is not a problem for them over there, but here and now for everyone."

For example, recently the shop workers union, USDAW, raised the issue of how piped-in Christmas music on repeat caused staff distress. In Austria, retail workers sought compensation for the "psychological terror" of looped festive songs. Repetition is part of torture. As is volume.

According to Cloonan, the most common example of music-related violence is in neighbours playing their music too loudly. "We don't have trouble finding examples of this," said Cloonan. The soundtrack of terror includes Jim Reeves, Riverdance and Tammy Wynette. Rap and metal are mere bit players.

"If you look at the fact that we are living in ever more crowded environments, at the same time as the capacity to make noise has been expanded exponentially through technology, it's no surprise that those clash sometimes. It is a small step from me playing Whitney Houston a bit too loud for the people next door, they complain, then I do it deliberately. There is a potential for this to be as bad as any other form of violence."

Other forms of "everyday" musical violence include tinny ringtones played loudly on buses and shopping centres playing classical or easy listening music to deter young people from gathering.

"They do this partly because young people have caused trouble, but it is also about denying public space to teenagers," said Cloonan. "That is a form of musical violence. It is part of the same spectrum as torture in Guantanamo or forcing dissidents to sing in Zimbabwe."

While music may be "morally neutral", songs can still be designed for negative and malicious ends. Cloonan cites the hate music of white supremacists in the US as an obvious example, along with the case of Rwandan folk singer Simon Bikindi, recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for using his music to incite violence against Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.

"There is a thin line between that and praise songs," he added. "For example in Yugoslavia in the 1990s each side used music to promote their own cause and denigrate others."