Staying recently in a South Yorkshire town called Rotherham—described in one guidebook as “murky,” an inadequate word for the place—I was interested to read in the local newspaper how the proprietors of some stores are preventing hooligans from gathering outside to intimidate and rob customers. They play Bach over loudspeakers, and this disperses the youths in short order; they flee the way Count Dracula fled before holy water, garlic flowers, and crucifixes. The proprietors had previously tried a high-pitched noise generator whose mosquito-like whine only those younger than 20 could detect. This method, too, proved effective, but the owners abandoned it out of fear that it might damage the youths’ hearing and infringe upon their human rights, leading to claims for compensation.
There is surely something deeply emblematic about the use of one of the great glories of Western civilization, the music of Bach, to prevent the young inheritors of that civilization from committing crimes.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Bach: a teenage deterent!
If your ever having trouble with teenagers, here is the remedy: Johann Sebastian Bach
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7 comments:
I find this to be sad and disturbing but not entirely unexpected.
Historically, younger people have often rejected certain art and ideas coming from older generations...even if only for a little while. Mostly, I find that teenage rebellion and rejection fades with age and maturity.
Unfortunately, I think there may be a little bit more than that happening here. I can't speak for the educational system of England, but here in America, I don't think that a strong appreciation for art, music, and literature is cultivated. That disturbs me greatly.
Well if my life in the UK is anything to go by, then I think its a general cultural maliase rather a specific educational problem.
That's probably true here, as well, Moif. I just like to think that injecting some of these things into the educational system might cultivate an interest, but that's probably wishful thinking...
Kids these days just can't Handel classical, and just run Orff. ;)
I've had people tell me Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary was awful, and Steve Vai hurts their ears, and Joe Satriani "old fashioned"... I'm getting old.
I suspect the main culprit in our apparently devolving cultures is the rise of sophisticated commications systems like TV and the internet. I've noted that more and more often, the media presents itself as a moral guiding force, continually reinforcing accepted social conventions. An example is the use of specific music in conjunction with specific subjects, for example, any examination of Arabia is automatically presented against stereotypically Arabic music, the same goes for Africa, the American deep south, China, and the ancient world (Rome and the Greeks) where convention now dictates a certain sound, an audio signiture, best illustrated in films like 'Gladiator', 'Alexander' and 'Troy'.
I have suspected for most of my adult life, that I live in an age devoid of its own culture, I've called it a death of creativity in past debates. It seems to me that I live in an age where cultural innovation has been replaced by mass media's obsession with celebrity over substance, and any chance of an artistic movement developing under a cultural umbrella has been superceded by a focus on the lowest common denominator.
As the differences between our many cultures evaporate, we are left with a boring uniformity where every one is subjected to the same mainstream perspective, that which is designed to be as broad, and lucrative as possible.
If you look at the decades prior to the rise of international entertainment communications, you see a wealth of styles and major genres, approx one every decade or so. Since the advent of MTV, there has been no new major genre's at all. Creativity has been stifled and replaced by commercial interests.
Young people today are born into a world where every thing is available, but nothing is new, and the idea of high art is anachronistic, uncool and elitist. The lowest common denominator cannot be bothered with art that might make you think beyond your preconceptions.
Here is an interesting article that examines what has become of modern cinema and which I think mirrors my opinion some what.
On the other hand, I could just be a spoiled brat who grew old in the lap of luxury and who sat on his hands instead of doing something really creative!
I wonder if kids would enjoy Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld", better known as the French Can-can?
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