Anyone who visits a McDonald's restaurant on a regular basis can hardly fail to be struck by the widely differing music policies in operation at different sites.
During the day, the soundtrack to your Big Mac and fries is likely to be a selection of fairly bland-sounding modern R&B, noticeable but hardly intrusive.
However, the later it gets, you might notice a subtle change in the tunes being spun by your invisible McDJ.
While some will stick to the daytime formula, others will branch out into classic rock such as AC/DC, while a few will go full-on Classic FM with light classical music.
If it's the latter, beware - the reason for this strange choice of music for a fast-food outlet is that it's being used as a soothing balm to pre-empt any anti-social behaviour.
This wide variation in music is belied by the bland statement posted on McDonald's official website, which states: "The music we play in our restaurants is a background music feed that an external company provides for us.
"Most of the music played in our restaurants is a selection of current tracks being played on mainstream radio."
Back in 2017, the ECHO reported how McDonald's flagship city centre restaurant in Lord Street had started playing classical music in the early hours of the morning to calm down any rowdy behaviour from customers.
A spokesperson said: "Classical music is played daily from early evening onwards at our Lord Street restaurant.
"McDonald's has tested the effects of classical music in the past and played it inside some of our restaurants, and has found it encourages more acceptable behaviour."
But Liverpool is far from being the only place - other branches locally include Liscard in Wirral, while it has also been tried out by franchise owners in Glasgow and London.
Of course, the use of piped classical music to quell yobbish behaviour is nothing new. If nothing else, it discourages young people to loiter in an area, simply because - for the most part - they simply can't stand it.
Tyne and Wear Metro was one of the first to recognise the pacifying force of the great composers when, inspired by the success of schemes operating in Canada, it began playing classical music at some outlying stations.
From here and other places, the five most successful pieces at driving away unruly youths were:
- Rachmaninov Symphony No 2
- Shostakovich Piano concerto no 2
- Williams: Theme from Schindler's List
- Beethoven Pastoral Symphony
- Saint-Saens: The Swan
So rather than investing in expensive state-of-the-art CCTV equipment, perhaps we should all take a leaf out of McDonald's book when it comes to dealing with anti-social behaviour - and blast out some Beethoven.
