Classical Music Cudgel Torments the Homeless

Liberty Nation News ^ | January 21, 2023 8:59 am | Sarah Cowgill

[Olog-hai]

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has discovered that homeless people don’t like opera and classical music blaring in their ears as they beg for money, do drugs, or harass the locals. The practice launched in Canada and then San Francisco and several beach locales in Florida followed suit. Now, it’s a mainstream solution for business owners struggling to cope in certain neighborhoods. The immediate problem is that a whole lot of customers who buy Twinkies, lottery tickets, and slushies don’t much like that style of music either. Therein lies the rub.

“Studies have shown that the classical music is annoying. Opera is annoying, and I’m assuming they are correct because it’s working,” said franchise owner Jagat Patel of Austin, TX. Patel has had several complaints about the volume but noted that no police have shown up to tell him to turn it down.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of the capitalist mind: Exploiting a disdain for some music genres, 7-Elevens across the country are practicing this effective dispersal of the homeless — especially in Texas, where people tend to handle their problems without much permission from any government agency. So leave it to the Lone Star folks to use the aggressive and tinny tones of some pieces — like a scherzo from Schubert — to drive the unwashed masses to, say, a local Circle K store playing Barry Manilow’s greatest hits. […]

Neurologists have long touted the benefits of music on the brain. When hearing a pleasant sound, dopamine is released, and mood is enhanced. Everyone knows this. The opposite is also true: Classical music is not everyone’s cup of tea, and when exposed to it, a lot of people avoid souring their pleasure centers by skedaddling. Genius. …

[paint_your_wagon]

Bach’s Coffee Cantata

https://youtu.be/nifUBDgPhl4

[telescope115]

Yes! Have you seen Disney’s Fantasia?

[Olog-hai]

I understand.

I’m still surprised that Gregg Rolie, who was with Neal Schon in Santana (and who sang lead on Santana’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Black Magic Woman) hung around for two more albums with Perry singing lead.

[FamiliarFace]

I forgot to mention that I used mothballs, too. Mothballs and mariachi worked like a charm!

[telescope115]

I love easy listening music. In one shop I worked in the employer would have an easy listening FM station on all day. It was the only good thing about that job.

[FamiliarFace]

I can pick Steve Perry out in a song in 2 notes.

[chajin]

It is the same idiots who claim classical music was really stolen from black people and the greats were all black.

Well, there's Joseph Bologne, George Bridgetower, Francis Johnson, Scott Joplin, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Duke Ellington (yes, he wrote classical music too), and Marcus Norris, among others.

None of them were the equal of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Ives, Copland, or Herrmann, not because they were mixed-race or black, but because they were at the level of Walther, Clementi, Hummel, Grieg, Cui, Shostakovich, or Glass, meaning they were good to very good, but not great.

[chajin]

I wonder if traditional Japanese music and singing would keep the riff-raff away.

Probably not, though enka is an acquired taste (full disclosure: I acquired it living in Japan during the Vietnam war era).

OTOH, Beijing Opera would keep everyone away, and I mean everyone. Try it yourself here. (FYI, it's a guy singing, women were forbidden from the stage.)

[dfwgator]

I wonder if traditional Japanese music and singing would keep the riff-raff away.

Or Yoko Ono.

[A_perfect_lady]

"Vincero! VINCERO!! VINCEEEEE...ROOOOOO!!

[Olog-hai]

I remember reading a magazine article where Perry cites Barbra Streisand as one of his singing influences.

[FamiliarFace]

How funny. I don’t like her either. Figures.

[Organic Panic]

I have heard the Afro-centrists claim both Beethoven and Mozart were black.

[EvilCapitalist]

Very Good. Though the English subtitles weren’t there for every word.

[cyclotic]

Warner Brothers musical director Chuck Jones is credited with introducing millions in multiple generations to classical music courtesy of Bugs Bunny.

[dfwgator]

I have heard the Afro-centrists claim both Beethoven and Mozart were black.

[Antoninus]

It's not that classical music is annoying. It's something about the regularity, organization, design of the music that drives the disordered brain away. It's not just the homeless who can't tolerate it. It's druggies, punks, and thug criminals generally.

Conversely, while the well-ordered brain is stimulated by classical music, loud rap or club music drives it away.

[dfwgator]

"Eh, what's up, doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him. Wrong number."

[jjotto]

And Macedonian/Greek aristocrat Cleopatra was black (with a capital ‘B’) too!

[BlueLancer]

I like some classical.

Baroque. Everything Baroque.

Yeah, if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it ...