Why Criminals Are Afraid of Classical Music

American Thinker ^ | 07/30/2014 | Enza Ferreri

[SeekAndFind]

Many young people, especially the anti-social, dislike classical music so much that it can be played to discourage them from intimidating, harassing and robbing.

This experiment has been successful over many years in countless locations.

The earliest occurrence was in the mid-1980s, when Canadian outlets of 7-Eleven played easy listening and classical music to disperse teenagers loitering outside. After that, companies from McDonald's to Co-op, transport authorities, housing estates and shopping malls around the world have employed this method.

In the UK, the first to do so was the Tyne-and-Wear Metro system in 1997, following Montreal’s underground system in Canada.

Other British transport providers, including the much bigger London Underground, imitated the scheme. The most effective deterrents were anything sung by Pavarotti or written by Mozart.

Across the pond, whether at New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal, La Guardia, Newark International and John F. Kennedy International airports, and Pennsylvania Station; at Portland, Oregon, light-rail stations; in Seattle's parking lots; or in Anchorage, Alaska, Town Square, classical music has helped even against crimes like drug dealing.

Same in Australia and New Zealand. In Queensland, it reduced vandalism and graffiti.

The evidence seems plentiful. Why, then?

The simplest explanations, in the time-honored scientific tradition of Occam's razor, should be considered first.

Teenagers, especially those with uneducated ears, don't like classical music, and they think it's not "cool" to be seen by their peers listening to it.

Still other explanations are in the nature of classical music itself. Much of it conveys a sense of order, symmetry and beauty, that conflicts with the disorder and ugliness in the minds of hooligans.

[Bigg Red]

Right you are again. I was raised properly by a good mother, also, and I tried to be a good mother to my children.

When my grandsons visit, as they did last week, I have them on a consistent schedule with real meals, a bath time, and a bed time. Children feel more secure when they are raised with a routine.

[Fiji Hill]

I wish shopping malls in my area would play classical music.

I swear, you go in there, and you are confronted with a thumping rock and roll or rap music soundtrack. Thump Thump Thump

I'm amazed at how many businesses play popular songs from decades go--and not just the top 50 "oldies" that everybody knows, but hits that have long been forgotten and misses that have become collector's items.

Yesterday while shopping, I heard the Eldorados' 1955 hit At My Front Door. And at the Sizzler restaurant, I almost fell over when I heard My Mamma Told Me (1963), an obscurity by Barbara Lewis that I figured only collectors would know about.

[SMARTY]

Exactly!

You couldn’t even house break a dog without a routine!
Yet some people think they can bring a child home from the hospital and carry it around everywhere and at all hours just like a hand bag.

[Fiji Hill]

My music presets on Sirius XM are “50’s on 5,” on which about half of the songs are actually from the ‘60’s, “40’s on 4,” and “Willy’s Roadhouse,” which features vintage country/western tunes. I wish they had a ‘20’s station.

[GeronL]

Classical music flows logically while rap “music” is just noise.

[IronJack]

GOOD classical music celebrates the best that Man can create in the arts. It is immortal Art, not the throwaway sonic pollution of today. It is complex and profound and occasionally requires concentration to derive its utmost value. Contrast that with the feral thuds and hollow word goop of today’s pop scene.

[Free Vulcan]

Pat Boone!

At the mall!

In your face!

[huldah1776]

Yup. At the store I worked at they played latino and African American music. NO COUNTRY or classical. LOL There was one song where the girl was whining at the highest pitch that whenever it came on (had to listen to the same crap over and over) I wanted to shoot the speakers.

[TexasRepublic]

“I wish they had a ‘20’s station.”

I can’t help you with Sirius, but there is tons of 20’s music on YouTube and wwww.archive.org. I just downloaded everything recorded by Paul Whiteman from archive.org!

[Gumdrop]

Classical music calms the soul. My nephew tells a story about when his three kids were little, he and his wife decided to play classical music at dinnertime. The kids always remained well behaved during the meal when this music was played. One night his wife forgot to turn on the music and his three-year old boy asked him, “Daddy, can we have some popcycle music again tonight?”

Another thing that calms people is candlelight (a bit off the subject, but true)

[minnesota_bound]

I like classical music but cannot remember the names of the composers (their foreign) or the title of the songs (too long in B minor).

They needed to have names like “Yummy yummy yummy I got love in my tummy”

[Mears]

Funny post. :-)

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