Subscribe to RSSMozart To Scare Off Bus Louts
Annoying pseudo-stripped down classical music looks like being played at high volumes outside the new New Lynn transport hub to scare away any youngful troublemakers who won’t be able to cope with the nature and volume of the music.
Cover your ears as you approach
The ploy, credited as the genius of mayor Bob Harvey, has worked at the Henderson train station where such music is piped into the walkway adjourning the station and the Waitakere city council building, which will become the home of Auckland Transport from November.
Playing classical type music has saved the area from graffiti and people loitering.
Piped music has worked at Henderson
Technicians seemed to be testing the same sort of music at the new New Lynn transport hub over the last few days and it was loud and would be hated by most teenagers as well as those who appreciate classical music as it was the worst sort of piped music devoid of any emotion, real instruments or bass.
It seemed to hit a part of your brain which triggered the command “Run!”
2 Comments
“The ploy, credited as the genius of mayor Bob Harvey,”
Yeah, right - what part of his genius involves reading articles from Time or Newsweek that are a decade or so old?
Never actually heard it in operation, so can’t really say how bad this is. But I could certainly imagine it being a different version of elevator muzak.
This sort of thing happens all around the world; they were certainly using classical music as a deterrent for anti-social behaviour on the platforms of the Brussels métro when I lived there in the 1990s. And in the New Lynn instance the quality both of the selections and the sound isn’t too bad, at least from what I’ve heard over the last week or so. Sadly the music doesn’t extend to the rail platforms so lots of tinny MP3 music from the smokers who for some reason seem to have avoided the attention of the photography police; I guess they’re involved in more important things like warning photographers off the premises.