Here we go again

[hmvman]

Another case of 'weaponising' classical music:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64458332

Sometimes I feel there's little hope.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Another case of 'weaponising' classical music:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64458332

Sometimes I feel there's little hope.

On the other hand, the over-stimulation of heavy rock music can aggravate violent behaviour, so carefully chosen music of another kind might be beneficial.

That said, I regard any enforced background music in shops/cafes/hotels/waiting rooms to be a bad thing.

[hmvman]

That said, I regard any enforced background music in shops/cafes/hotels/waiting rooms to be a bad thing.

I agree with you on that. Why have background music at all?

[Old Grumpy]

We were in a Cafe/Bistro in Romsey the other day
There was background muzak in common time with a heavy back beat. To cap it all two of the clientele ( of reasonably advanced years started playing videos (of, I suspect, their grandchildren) to their companion, with the sound at full volume. Why do people consider this to be acceptable in an enclosed (or unenclosed for that matter) public space?

[french frank]

On the other hand, the over-stimulation of heavy rock music can aggravate violent behaviour, so carefully chosen music of another kind might be beneficial.

That said, I regard any enforced background music in shops/cafes/hotels/waiting rooms to be a bad thing.

I think it only becomes 'weaponised' when it's announced to the world that that's the intention. If they just quietly did it in the hope that it would be beneficial it would be better. But the cat has been let out of the bag and the genie from the bottle; and this notwithstanding the fact that I agree that unwanted background music is an intrusion. I gather classical music encourages people to spend more in the store than pop does - probably because shoppers don't mind lingering and browsing rather than getting out as quickly as possible.

[mopsus]

On a visit to Germany last year I found it hard to find somewhere pleasant to sit in cafes. Either brave the smokers outside, or put up with loud rock music inside.

[smittims]

The worst music I ever heard was that played in HMV Chester in the late 1990s, where the Classical CDs were in the same space as pop etc. I suppose it was the taste of one influential person there. It made me hurry up finding what I wanted so as to get out as soon as possible.

[Joseph K]

Have they not read A Clockwork Orange?

[Jonathan]

The worst music I ever heard was that played in HMV Chester in the late 1990s, where the Classical CDs were in the same space as pop etc. I suppose it was the taste of one influential person there. It made me hurry up finding what I wanted so as to get out as soon as possible.

I remember that too and had a similar reaction!

[RichardB]

Have they not read A Clockwork Orange?

Quite.

In Serbia, shops and restaurants etc. are instructed by the government to play only classical music when there's some national disaster going on (like the floods in 2014, or the deaths of "important" personages). It's almost a shame that these things don't happen more often.

[smittims]

Yes, but it depends which classical music is played. Who can forget the 'special programmes' of soothing music on Radio3 following 'yesterday's sad news'.

[french frank]

Yes, but it depends which classical music is played. Who can forget the 'special programmes' of soothing music on Radio3 following 'yesterday's sad news'.

The problem is that they play "classical music" for a specific purpose which they consider circumstantially appropriate or useful. Not for the music itself.

[ahinton]

Deplorable thought this is, it's almost as much so that the report omits all details as to what "classical music" has been relayed there, who chose it and on what grounds; given that the decision maker/s might at least have somewhat different ideas as to what constitutes "classical music" - and whatever might be the assumed responses and outcome of doing this - it seems (to me, at least) inconceivable that more or less identical results would have been noticed had the execrable McDonald's subjected those in its immediate vicinity to Byrd, Webern, Haydn, Reger, Chopin, Ferneyhough, Shostakovich, Schmitt, Xenakis...

[french frank]

Deplorable thought this is, it's almost as much so that the report omits all details as to what "classical music" has been relayed there, who chose it and on what grounds; given that the decision maker/s might at least have somewhat different ideas as to what constitutes "classical music" - and whatever might be the assumed responses and outcome of doing this - it seems (to me, at least) inconceivable that more or less identical results would have been noticed had the execrable McDonald's subjected those in its immediate vicinity to Byrd, Webern, Haydn, Reger, Chopin, Ferneyhough, Shostakovich, Schmitt, Xenakis...

Point very well made, musically, though the only McDonald's I've ever entered was Corsa Porta Nuova, Verona, where they had an excellent fresh salad bar. You don't have to eat any of the other stuff. And when there's nowhere else …

[Serial_Apologist]

I think it only becomes 'weaponised' when it's announced to the world that that's the intention. If they just quietly did it in the hope that it would be beneficial it would be better. But the cat has been let out of the bag and the genie from the bottle; and this notwithstanding the fact that I agree that unwanted background music is an intrusion. I gather classical music encourages people to spend more in the store than pop does - probably because shoppers don't mind lingering and browsing rather than getting out as quickly as possible.

In the case of Brixton tube station, piped classical music was successfully used to disperse groups of kids gathering inside the entrance. Not sure if that is still being done. The only "comparison" I can think of was of a loud recording of a distressed bird played outside the front of the large Sainsbury's in Lower Sydenham in order to deter starlings, though last summer I noted that some of them had returned, apparently wise to the ruse.