I'm glad classical music is alive and... well... somewhere...
Washington city using classical music to chase gangs from bus stop
I got to thinking about this post in relation to the Society for Ethnomusicology's position statement on music as torture (which points the reader to this very interesting article by Suzanne Cusick titled "Music as torture/music as weapon"). While the city of Tacoma's use of music is perhaps not as reprehensible as the use of music in military interrogation, it certainly makes me wonder (as Cusick also wonders) how we as a society feel about music (classical music in particular) if this is seen as an appropriate use of it.
Cusick's summary of the playlists used in torture and suggested by readers runs the gamut of popular music--from Eminem to Yoko Ono to Barry Manilow. But classical music is not mentioned anywhere. It seems to me that culture obviously plays a big role in the choice of music: many people find Eminem to be offensive, but this assumes that a) the torture victim finds rap music (independent of its lyrics) offensive; b) that the torture victim understands English sufficiently well to be offended by what Eminem is saying. I suspect that most of the music being played in the Tacoma bus terminal is classical instrumental music, which obviously contains no offensive words.
So it would appear that the music itself is believed to be repulsive to the youth of today. What about this music might make it repulsive? Could it be the absence of words (meaning, to some)? Could it be the association with the upper class, the "haves," and the general disdain that urban poor youth have towards that group?
When I was commuting back and forth between Philadelphia and Manhattan during my doctoral work, I spent quite a lot of time in Penn Station, where classical music was pumped in (quite loudly) for the same reason (I suspect). I quite enjoyed it. Other locations in New York City as well as other cities have adopted similar programs using classical music to drive out ne'er-do-wells.
More later...
Washington city using classical music to chase gangs from bus stop
I got to thinking about this post in relation to the Society for Ethnomusicology's position statement on music as torture (which points the reader to this very interesting article by Suzanne Cusick titled "Music as torture/music as weapon"). While the city of Tacoma's use of music is perhaps not as reprehensible as the use of music in military interrogation, it certainly makes me wonder (as Cusick also wonders) how we as a society feel about music (classical music in particular) if this is seen as an appropriate use of it.
Cusick's summary of the playlists used in torture and suggested by readers runs the gamut of popular music--from Eminem to Yoko Ono to Barry Manilow. But classical music is not mentioned anywhere. It seems to me that culture obviously plays a big role in the choice of music: many people find Eminem to be offensive, but this assumes that a) the torture victim finds rap music (independent of its lyrics) offensive; b) that the torture victim understands English sufficiently well to be offended by what Eminem is saying. I suspect that most of the music being played in the Tacoma bus terminal is classical instrumental music, which obviously contains no offensive words.
So it would appear that the music itself is believed to be repulsive to the youth of today. What about this music might make it repulsive? Could it be the absence of words (meaning, to some)? Could it be the association with the upper class, the "haves," and the general disdain that urban poor youth have towards that group?
When I was commuting back and forth between Philadelphia and Manhattan during my doctoral work, I spent quite a lot of time in Penn Station, where classical music was pumped in (quite loudly) for the same reason (I suspect). I quite enjoyed it. Other locations in New York City as well as other cities have adopted similar programs using classical music to drive out ne'er-do-wells.
More later...