Tchaikovsky on the Tube
| 08:58 UK time, Thursday, 27 September 2007
They've started playing classical music over the loudspeakers at my local tube station - my local underground railway station on the Piccadilly line. I guess London Underground's testing the theory that classical music can calm teenagers or repel them. There's a story that the owner of corner grocery store was fed up with the large group of young people gathering every day outside his premises. He piped classical music outside the door, and the teen gangs disappeared.
Where I live isn't one of London's smartest districts - teenage gangs are a growing problem and we get quite a few police noticeboards placed along the streets asking for witnesses to knife crimes and murder. So I understand why anything that keeps the gangs away is worth a try.
Research shows that teenagers who direct their energies towards music - not just listening but playing an instrument and studying music - do better at school and get arrested less on average than those who are just casual listeners.
Apparently Mozart is too.
But I'm not sure the tube station has fully researched the project. Because they seem to be playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture most of the time. That's the piece with cannon fire and thunderous drum beats.
Fighting music, surely?
