A while ago, standing in the lobby of a New York City train station, I couldn’t help but notice the incongruity of the music piped over the speakers. It was Mozart - a beautiful violin concerto - being blasted at a dance-club volume toward uncaring commuters. The reason couldn’t have only been for aesthetics; here classical music was being used to drive away would-be teenage loiterers.
This kind of hoodlum repellant is being used more and more all over the world. Some claim that crime is measurably reduced, and this may well be true. But I want to point out there’s a downside to this tactic. Mozart’s cultural stock goes down when it becomes a kind of noise pollution.
Music is harmed when put in a context that is unwanted, crass and annoying, and I believe this is true anytime music is used as a weapon. Like when the CIA used songs by Eminem and Prince as part of its enhanced interrogation program. Damage was inflicted not just on those interrogated, but also on the legacy of the songs and the whole idea of music itself. The message being sent is that somehow these songs are bad. The truth is that any song is bad when people don’t want to hear it.
I happen to like the music of Mozart, as well as that of Eminem and Prince; these are cultural assets. And just like heirloom vegetables and national parks their value should be respected and preserved.