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Using Classical Music As a Form of Social Control
cyberfringe writes "Classical music is being used increasingly in Great Britain as a tool for social control and a deterrent to bad behavior. One school district subjects badly behaving children to hours of Mozart in special detention. Unsurprisingly, some of these youth now find classical music unbearable. Recorded classical music is blared through speakers at bus stops, outside stores, train stations and elsewhere to drive away loitering youth. Apparently it works. Detentions are down, graffiti is reduced, and naughty youth flee because they find classical music repugnant."
They're probably repelling people by playing it really loudly and with horrible quality. Classical music has a lot of high notes and when played poorly it's a lot like listening to nails on a chalkboard.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
You are aware that A Clockwork Orange was fiction, aren't you? It was a movie and not a documentary.
Don't forget that Alex DeLarge actually liked Ludwig Von. He was appalled by what was done in order to let people dislike his music.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
They're probably repelling people by playing it really loudly and with horrible quality.
Rather indicated by use of the term "blared". It's probably only a question of time before before such speakers start attracting the same kind of destruction as speed cameras.
You may have such a stance because you do not know what horror is the young generation in the United Kingdom.
I do, as I lived there, in one of the worst places regarding this (Liverpool) for about 4 years. Kids there do not care about anything, and as they know they have immunity, they will get into gangs just to do all sorts of vandalism.
As an example, I know that if a kid commits a crime, the most that can happen to them is to get an "Asbo" (anti social behaviour order). I know some of them get a bracelet "asbo" for each crime. What is the result? the kids brag about who has more bracelets, because he is more "evil" or whatnot.
In the time I lived there, a colleague of mine was hit by a paintball pellet in the eye while riding his bike from his Univ. office to his home; my flatmate was attacked by a van with kids shooting paintball pellets; another friend was thrown a car at him; another friend was walking at the street when some guys approached, took their glasses from his face and threw them (breaking them of course) to the ground. All this "just because". Oh yeah, and a Spanish friend was attacked and got his leg broken in 2 places.
You see, the problem with this is that if any of these friends tried to defend themselves, according to English law, they would be attacking/harassing minors. And, because in addition we are foreigners (mainly PhD students) we would in addition be thrown out of the country.
So yeah, in effect kids in the UK are pretty evil. But I agree with some of your posts in that the problem is not youths themselves but the general system who has forged them like that.
What I saw while living there is that parents do not care about their children and their education. The government should make parents directly accountable for their kids actions: If your kid killed another kid then it is YOU who pays for the crime. If a kid robbed, then it is YOU who pay for the crime, as an adult. That way parents can continue to have the "freedom" of raising their kids as they want, but if the kids mess up, they will get the consequences.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Yes, and when Tchaikovsky wrote 1812 he intended the canons to be about as loud as the triangle.
Anyway, if you do not like wide dynamic range in a recording, you can get a player that has integrated compressor or get an external compressor. It is much easier to compress than to expand, meaning that while I have an expander (dbx 3BX-DS) I cannot restore the dynamic range back to original if I have a crappy compressed CD.
While we will never know how Mozart intended his compositions to sound (unless someone invents a time machine, goes back in time and asks him) I prefer higher dynamic range over lower. Yes, when you are listening to music as a background while doing something else it may be better to compress the dynamic range and play a a consistent, but low level, but if you are listening to music not as a background, wide dynamic range is much better.
Tricking me into cranking up the volume with quiet parts just so that you can hurt my ears with other parts is childish.
See, the quiet parts are supposed to be quiet. You have to set the volume so that the quiet parts can be heard, but not be loud, then your ears won't hurt when the loud part comes. The dynamic range of human hearing is 120dB, the theoretical CD dynamic range is 96dB, tape and records have lower dynamic range and CDs usually are recorded with lower dynamic range too, so it shouldn't hurt your ears.
Hmmm
You appear to be placing the blame for the problem on the current Labour Government, this IMHO is generalising things. We have spent more time in the last 30 years under a right wing government (the Conservative Party) than we have under the Labour Party. It is should also be noted that these problems existed under the Conservative Government.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Order legislation (commonly referred to as an ASBO) was first put before parliament by the Labour Government in December 1997 (approx 7 months after coming to power), it became law in July 1998 (approx 14 months after coming to power). One of the reasons for the legislation was to tackle such unruly behaviour by children, behaviour that whilst annoying, was previously not deemed as serious enough to warrant a police investigation / prosecution.
There are many reason why certain areas of the country experience these problems, from poverty to lack of parental control, but I believe that the lack of urban recreation areas has certainly contributed to the problem. Under the Conservative Government recreational land was sold off for housing, this policy continued under the current Labour Government.
I was brought up on a large council estate (for you Americans, read public housing) on the outskirts of a large northern england city. Whilst both my estate, and the city in general were poor, we at least had decent recreational land, 3 football pitches, 2 rugby pitches, 2 sand pits, running tracks and a cricket pitch. I recently revisited the area. Now there is only 1 remaining football pitch, the rest has been turned into housing (and housing that is far more densely concentrated than the old council estate ever was).
TLDR / Executive Summary
Both sides of the political spectrum in the UK have contributed to the problem, so it is unfair to place the blame on only one side.