Beating bad behavior
Posted by Joshua Claybourn on 9 January 2005 | 8 responses
The most recent edition of The Economist has a fascinating brief on classical music and social control. A grocery store trying to stop youths from loitering in front of the store and annoying customers decided to play classical music where they congregate. The result? The kids left. Now some are finding that it has even greater effects preventing grafiti and vandalism in underground stations. In London, for instance, classical music fills 30 stations.
The most effective deterrents, according to a spokesman for Transport for London, are anything sung by Pavarotti or written by Mozart.
The key factor, according to Adrian North, a psychologist at Leicester University, is its unfamiliarity.
When the targets are unused to strings and woodwind, Mozart will be sufficient. But for the more musically literate vandal, an atonal barrage probably works better.
8 Responses to “Beating bad behavior”
Ahhh. Schoenberg, Berg or von Webern.
If they want atonal, that ought to fix ‘em.
For the really hardcore, there’s always Harry Partch. Give him a listen, especially ‘And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma‘. Some might find it a little, ummmm, different. Heh, heh.
I’m not a vandal, but atonal garbage would keep me away, too.
Some music that might ordinarily be very calming or soothing makes me very anxious. I think it must have been played quite a bit in the dentist’s office, particularly when I was a child.
I wonder what might happen if they played some Ornette Coleman?! Or maybe Steve Reich?
Ahhhh c’mon Zach!! Beauty is in the ear of the beholder, eh?
I don’t see how Steve Reich could frighten anyone away. Maybe it’d hypotize them, freezing them in place like deer in front of oncoming traffic until the cops got there.
How about Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring?
Some taverns allow you to put more money into a juke box and jump your song to the head of the line. We use this feature to play Frank Sinatra music. It generally empties the place.