# No Love for Classical



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I saw this story this morning HERE.

It's kind of funny in a way, but really sad in another. There are people who find classical music repellent so use it to drive them off. I find it very sad.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

There was a study that showed evidence that more people like classical music than any other musical genre. Further, fewer people dislike classical music than any other genre. The study simply asked whether the participant liked a given music genre so it didn't try to determine how much people liked that genre.

If the music were played loud enough in front of stores, I suspect any genre would drive people away.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Reading the article the guy interviewed said they left because you couldn't talk and gossip. I doubt the genre choice really mattered.


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## Beet131 (Mar 24, 2018)

One person's trash is another person's treasure. That classical music would be a magnet for all of us here at Talk Classical.


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## Weird Heather (Aug 24, 2016)

This isn't new. I remember, way back in the 1980s, a mall in the city where I lived at the time blasted classical music at its entrances to drive loitering teenagers away. I suppose classical music wasn't "cool" for that crowd. Apparently, it worked, although it didn't save the mall in the long run. About 20 years later, the mall was demolished and replaced by a new mall.


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

BachIsBest said:


> Reading the article the guy interviewed said they left because you couldn't talk and gossip. I doubt the genre choice really mattered.


Wrong. It did matter. There have been numerous stories through the years along the same lines. Classical music used in stores, malls, etc. to successfully drive away undesirables.

Most young people have no problem with loud popular music as a background to talking, etc. It happens in clubs, at dances, at parties, etc.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Weird Heather said:


> This isn't new. I remember, way back in the 1980s, a mall in the city where I lived at the time blasted classical music at its entrances to drive loitering teenagers away. I suppose classical music wasn't "cool" for that crowd. Apparently, it worked, although it didn't save the mall in the long run. About 20 years later, the mall was demolished and replaced by a new mall.


Yes, it's been going for some time. I remember the first mall in the UK piped not Schoenberg, Webern, or Boulez to frighten the kids off, but poor old Delius!


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

mmsbls said:


> There was a study that showed evidence that more people like classical music than any other musical genre. Further, fewer people dislike classical music than any other genre. The study simply asked whether the participant liked a given music genre so it didn't try to determine how much people liked that genre.
> 
> If the music were played loud enough in front of stores, I suspect any genre would drive people away.


Thumb up for you.

My non-classical friends told me on different occasions that classical music was the "least obtrusive" among all types of music. That means if they ran into some random ads on Youtube that forces the viewer to watch and can't just be skipped, something classically-sounded are more tolerable. It is the same for walking into the bookstore or any open venues. I asked them how the "classical-sounded things" sounded like, by playing a wide range of tracks. Their responses were positive for most of the classical genres: chamber music, orchestral music (not too loud), piano music, unaccompanied instruments, choral music (not too dense), and even opera.

Jazz came second in term of the tolerance level.

Of course, as you pointed out, blasting loud classical music into anyone ears would annoy him as much as any kind of music.


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

silentio said:


> It is the same for walking into the bookstore or any open venues.


On balance, the people spending time in bookstores are quite different from those hanging out in front of 7-11 stores.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I don't mind that classical music can be of use this way. Classical music appears to be very tolerable for most people who are just there to visit the shop, but clearly it's not cool enough for the kind of people who only want to hang around. Clever solution.


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

DeepR said:


> I don't mind that classical music can be of use this way.


The more classical music is used and played the better. I wish it were played in every restaurant, store, mall and any other public venue. The more, the better. And the less popular music I hear, the better.


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

But what kind of classical music? Should Mozart's "Jupiter" or Mahler's "Resurrection" be played as background music? To me that would be like using the Mona Lisa as a place mat. These are works for the concert hall, or the closest you can get with CDs and audiophile equipment. But playing divertimenti would be OK, in fact they might be better played this way than to take a reverant approach - after all, this light music was intended to accompany banquets and other social events.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

That’s an old story. At one point all 7-11s were supposed to be doing this


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## Guest (May 1, 2018)

Haydn70 said:


> On balance, the people spending time in bookstores are quite different from those hanging out in front of 7-11 stores.


Priceless!! Love it.

Classical music has been used for years where I live to drive away undesirables from shops, railway stations and parking areas. It works like a charm!!


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## Guest (May 1, 2018)

Haydn70 said:


> The more classical music is used and played the better. I wish it were played in every restaurant, store, mall and any other public venue. The more, the better. And the less popular music I hear, the better.


Same. I actually walk out of shops which play loud music - not before I've told the staff why I'm leaving. I don't need to have music accompanying my shopping anyway, as it's not a pleasurable experience - unless buying books or CDs. There's one place I really enjoy hearing the music I love.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Back in the early '70s, one of the dorm rooms at my end of the hallway opened up, and as we were a tight group of people with atypical tastes, when the housing office sent over someone to look over the room, and he was viewed as in some way ojectionable (like a football player), we agreed that I would as subtly as possile go to my room, leave the door open, and blast Die Gotterdamerung as loud as reasonably possible out into the hall. Worked every time!


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

In the 90s I used to work in downtown Dallas and would occasionally eat at the MacDonalds there and they played a lot of rap music. It started to become a hood factory. They were losing business because people were afraid to go there. The police were constantly over there because of fights and mugging etc. So, the manager started blasting classical music and it drove all the riff-raff off and became a safe place to eat again. It shows that what you play makes a huge difference as to who you attract.


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Kevin Pearson said:


> In the 90s I used to work in downtown Dallas and would occasionally eat at the MacDonalds there and they played a lot of rap music. It started to become a hood factory. They were losing business because people were afraid to go there. The police were constantly over there because of fights and mugging etc. So, the manager started blasting classical music and it drove all the riff-raff off and became a safe place to eat again. It shows that what you play makes a huge difference as to who you attract.


Many thanks for this post, Kevin. I was at a social function recently and told this story...I loved how uncomfortable it made some people there feel...some folks just can't take the truth.


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