Stop, or we wil be Faust to Shostakovich ... a pair of speakers yesterday. Photograph: Getty
Yesterday saw another report about civic authorities using classical music to deter loiterers at bus stations and shopping malls. This time the Tacoma transit authority in Washington State hopes that the 'uncool' qualities of classical music will drive away local gangs.
Over the past few years I have read a dozen such reports. Yet each time I was unsure what was being said. Do the authorities think that classical music will create a pleasant atmosphere and calm everyone down, or do they think it's so repellent that young folk will actively try to get away?
In Washington, it seems that the latter is true. A local police chief said that "by playing classical music, we hope to create an unpleasant environment for criminals and gangster-wannabes".
They've thought ahead about the effects of this unpleasantness, too. "We have some concerns that people who don't like the music will try to vandalize the speakers playing it," said a planner with the group's "bus stop program". "That's why planners are looking at placing the speakers high off the ground atop bus shelter roofs or attached to poles."
"That's a good plan", said Nick Kennedy, a 17-year-old bus patron from Tacoma. "There are plenty of people who dislike classical music besides gangbangers, and any one of them might want to take a bat to one of the speakers."
As a classical musician I've grown used to the idea that the music I like isn't popular with everyone. That's fine with me. There are some types of music I'm not keen on either, though I usually live and let live. But I find it sinister to hear that classical music is consciously being used to make people feel uncomfortable. I refuse to believe that this is anything to do with the music itself - which is so often beautiful and constructive. It feels more as if people are using different types of music as shorthand for tribal allegiances. Whatever meaning classical music has for those who are "repelled", it's a meaning that has been imposed upon it.
There's a big difference between merely not liking a type of music, and feeling so insulted that you want to destroy the innocent loudspeaker. What if we all behaved like this? Background music is everywhere now. When I'm out and about, I often have to endure music I don't like. I don't particularly enjoy being trapped in the hairdresser's chair for an hour listening to rap or garage. I don't relish being stuck in an airport surrounded by McPop. I'm not all that keen on the blaring radio station in my local coffee shop. And now I've had a disquieting thought. I've started to wonder if some committee has deliberately chosen this music in the hope of dispersing me.
