MikePadgett.com

Singing in the subway

— Key intersections of urban life, subway stations are also highly controlled and sometimes cultural spaces.”

The urban phenomenon of an underground transport system never seems to do much for me. Indeed, I visited some cities whose subways are famous attributes – Paris and New York – without ever descending into them.

My user experiences were a mixed bag: from the dirty, stifling and claustrophobic (Lille, London) to the clinically efficient (Fukuoka, Seoul), via the downright airy and arty (Washington DC).

The age of the system certainly has plenty to do with it (DC dates from 1976, London a century earlier), as does atmosphere. Atmosphere or lack of it.

Source: Adrian Pingstone (2004), Wikimedia Commons

Reading a post at the French language bxl.blog reminded me that I’d wanted to write something about subway music.

I can’t recall having heard subway music before I first visited Brussels in 2001. That’s not the kind produced by buskers but rather the strangely disembodied sounds coming from discreetly placed PAs.

Subway subliminal

There’s more than a faint echo of irony associated with listening to piped music while waiting to be piped around a city. Furthermore Mélissa, in the post linked above, seems to be hinting that the Brussels métro playlist is anything but random. Could it be subliminal muzak, a 1950s experimental scientist’s wet dream?

Certainly, it’s no secret that general behaviour is being targeted. Just as I once learned in Criminology 101 that the best way to prevent graffiti in public spaces is to fill them yourself, a Saturday night assault from a string quartet will almost certainly damage the prospect of a knuckle-fisted one. Unless of course you’re a droog and you speak Nadsat.

Individualism and choice

Since humanity is a thing of rich diversity, the opinions of subway users can and do vary.¹

In return for a spot of Mozart, the organisation running the subway system gets significantly improved public order. Naturally, this benefits users too, though it’s probably less obvious to them. Muzak can also help to pass the time while users await the next train, if it’s agreeable.

Now I don’t have any figures, but I’m pretty confident that the majority of those who do not care for subway music are the majority European and North American. Any organised, mass-transit system in those parts of the world must design against ingrained Western individualism. We do not appreciate being couped up in a small cylinder with an accompanying lack of personal choice on which to exercise our free will.

We are given to the celebration of a rebellious sheep, whereas in Eastern cultures, the success of the flock is predicated on social harmony. Tokyo’s underground, for example, uses jingles but it has no need of pacifying muzak.

The next stop will be Our Great Leader

There is a notable Eastern exception however. Spare a thought if you will for North Koreans living in Pyongyang, whose subterranean journeys are apparently subject to a constant aural barrage of strident marches and patriotic anthems. Simon Bone has actually made available some of this music on his fascinating website, as part of a wealth of information about the capital’s underground system. Simon’s site is all the more enigmatic for its understandable lack of credited sources.

Notes

1. All those in favour say “yea”: Matthew Yglesias; all those who are on the fence say “could be”: The Independent; all those against say “nay”: Angry New York Times reader.