Nerve Endings Firing Away

Sometime in not-so-distant past, a university conducted an interesting experiment. The researchers covered two plants in separate bell-jars. They piped soothing classical music into one jar and acid rock in the other while holding everything else like atmosphere, humidity, soil content, etc. constant. After few days, the plant getting the classical music flourished and was doing better than before whereas the one getting the rock treatment wilted and died. I bet those researchers had more than their share of parents of teenagers as they carried a seemingly valuable lesson home. The dinner conversation surely must have been interesting. While not knowing the veracity of this experiment, an urban legend was soon born that listening to classical music enhanced your concentration and made your mind sharper hence creating a conducive environment for academic pursuits.

About a year back as I was approaching an important exam, I decided to conduct this experiment on myself. Silence makes me go mad and I need a little hustle-bustle around me to focus better. Usually I have my ears covered with earphones piping a varied assortment of music into my brain to drown out the distracting background noise (visual distractions are easier to avoid). I bought a 3-CD pack of Sunday Morning Classics featuring pieces by almost all notable masters — Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, and the entire gang. Unfortunately, the experiment didn’t work and I found myself falling asleep instead of focusing better. Of course, the experiment was unscientific by any standards. But it proved the urban legend-esque quality of pitting classical music against rock. One of my classmates just couldn’t get his work done without the accompaniment of Led Zeppelin’s hard metal and his end product was always good although a woefully late.

Classical music aficionados have always differed from rock enthusiasts and have been different as chalk and cheese. Recently people who have understood this distinct separation put it to good use. Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly mentions an innovative strategy employed by Co-op, a chain of grocery stores.

Co-op, a chain of grocery stores, is experimenting with playing classical music outside its shops, to stop youths from hanging around and intimidating customers. It seems to work well. Staff have a remote control and “can turn the music on if there’s a situation developing and they need to disperse people”, says Steve Broughton of Co-op.

Teenagers make it a point to run away from classical music and even if they like it, not one would be caught listening to Bach. Over the years, some of them develop a “fine taste” for music and start appreciating the nuances of classical music. But like Kevin, I too believe that this remedy is short-lived and teenagers will develop same kind of immunity as mosquitoes develop for Baygon. Foreign Dispatches also scoffs at the “miraculous powers that the music of Mozart and Beethoven might possess”. But as a temporary respite, driving away rowdy teenagers is a classic idea; no pun intended. Now I understand why Atlanta Bread Company plays those dull pieces on Friday evenings when school kids hang out at the local theater plaza.