Published on 12, July, 2020
It now seems that it's pretty standard practice for buskers to use amplifiers. Who has decided that this is acceptable?
The volume of these things is always uncormfortably high for people like me with hypersensitive hearing. Even normal people seem to need to stand back from them, causing a secondary problem of significnatly increasing the space taken up by the activity.
I used to make a point of givinga few quid to a decent busker. Some of them really used to make places nicer to be - the woman who was always in the tunnel at South Ken station during the late nineties when I was at uni was particular good. But now, regardless of how skillful they are or how good the music is, they are making the world a worse place.
I have seen buskers with amplifiers for as long as I can remember.
What really annoys me is music blasting out of cars causing the ground to shake and almost windows in homes to break.
The postings in this topic illustrate how society is becoming ever more selfish - and I cannot see it getting any better.
I am really struggling at the moment with noise (music) played outside by someone FOUR DOORS AWAY. I need some air but cannot go out in the garden (due to the music) and so I have the door open a little, however, that means I am having to wear ear defenders.
A council officer came out on Friday to assess the noise and told me that the person is ENTITLED - yes, ENTITLED! - to play his music in this way. She then contradicted herself by saying that if someone closer to the music source complains then the person playing the music may not be entitled to play his music in this way.
If I feel up to it, I shall be posting tomorrow about this experience.
As a Green, I'm a huge supporter of public transport. But I hate using it now. Not only because our 'public' transport system in the UK is so expensive, but because of the noise. Every time I take a train, I constantly find myself switching carriages to get away from music or loud phone conversations - usually either about rubbish, or showcasing the user's status or ego in some way. My ex and I used to go to London on the train regularly for meetings. She grew very irritated with my constant need to move.
'Why can't you just accept it as part of life now. Let it go over your head like everyone else.'
Hmph!
Of course, I see the use of smartphones, and I know they're here to stay. But, for me, they've made the world an even more difficult and infuriating place than it was before. The noise, the loud conversations, the people who use them whilst driving... and the way these companies have capitalised on our insecurities. The constant need to keep updated on 'likes' and comments. The constant distraction. The way they've made people ruder. The way they've just sucked everyone in and gotten them addicted.
I'll shut up now!
It doesnt matter if it is good music. I used to get on a bus about 8am when i stayed over at my boyfriends. This was on the cusp of the smartphone era. A lad used to play my kind of music but through rubbish tinny headphones so the whole bus could hear. Every journey. SO ANNOYING. It didnt seem to bother my boyf or if it did he could manage it well. I couldnt concentrate the whole journey
I'd been noticing both things in the last few days. I'd always said I don't have hypersensitive hearing, but when I'm feeling particularly low something like that just adds to it. People just watch stuff with tinny soundtracks on their phone, so in one case I moved away, and in another I asked if they had any headphones, and they were very apologetic. I'm thinking of carrying a sealed spare pair to offer.
I wonder if amps came in because some people started using backing tracks. Now with loop pedals and so on, it's like you're not completely sure what's pre-recorded. I've been thinking of autistic friends, so been in two minds about giving money that might encourage the practice, even when it's say a harpist using an amplifier, rather than someone with an electric guitar. Some kind of polite written note to go in the hat might work.
There was a case a few years back of a boxer - a huge guy, but known as a gentle giant outside the ring - who approached someone in a pub and politely asked them to put their cigarette out. As he walked back to his table, the smoker attacked him with a knife and stabbed him to death. I've been trying to find the news item on it, but can't. You may remember it.
Possibly James Oyebola, 2007? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7656620.stm
Father-of-three Mr Oyebola asked a group in a "perfectly pleasant way" to extinguish their cigarettes in the club's garden area, which counted as enclosed premises because it had a roof, the court heard.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jul/30/guardianobituaries.boxing
Haha, with me the phrase "beware the nice ones" has come up on a couple of occasions!
Emma said:AND don't get me started on those pathetic "look at me" super-noisy exhausts. An exercise in vanity that serves no purpose but to damage the ears of bystanders.
They once caused me so much trauma, when I lived for 18 months opposite a 'boy racer' car park, that even now just hearing one makes me want to do damage...
When I lose the plot, I've been told by people afterwards 'Blimey... you're a dark horse!'
Doesn't always work. I'm 6' 5" and not exactly a 98lb weakling. I can appear quite intimidating, so I'm told. But I think it has more to do with mindset. One of the scariest people I ever met was a shrimp of a guy. But there was something in the way he would look at you that you knew you wouldn't mess with him (and this from someone who doesn't read people very well!) As my dad used to say: It's not the man in the fight. It's the fight in the man. I've often thought that I would try calling someone's bluff. Like the bloke a while back who cut me up in traffic while I was on my bike. I shouted at him and he heard me - so stopped his car and shouted back 'Do you want me to get out of this car and settle it properly?' I often wonder how he would have reacted if I'd tossed my bike aside and walked towards him with 'Yes, mate... gladly.' How many threats like that are simply threats, and how many would carry them through? The unknown...
Hand-grenade tactics?
Plastic said:I'm lucky, I'm a big, imposing bloke so when I give people my 'Paddington Stare' or I tell them straight, it's usually enough for them to think twice about their actions.
I'm a tiny female with a stereotypically nerdy appearance and apparently very shy body-language, so when I finally lose my temper and go full-fury it absolutely terrifies people because it's so unexpected. XD
I think all this comes from society not having any 'rite of passage' to indicate acceptance into being a grown-up. Years ago, young men (girls too) would have to prove themselves to the village by undertaking something measurable to prove their strength of character. Nowadays, the only thing that kids can be noticed for making an impact on their immediate environment is vandalism, graffiti & noise polution.
I'm lucky, I'm a big, imposing bloke so when I give people my 'Paddington Stare' or I tell them straight, it's usually enough for them to think twice about their actions.
People playing music out of car windows too >> Incidentally I have never heard good music coming out of a car window or a mobile phone in a public place. I think it's just such an inherently tacky thing to do that the offenders' taste in music naturally reflects that. ;)AND don't get me started on those pathetic "look at me" super-noisy exhausts. An exercise in vanity that serves no purpose but to damage the ears of bystanders.
Similarly, it now seems acceptable for people with smart phones to play music without earphones - on the bus, on the train, in the street. And people rarely remonstrate because of fear of the possible consequences. If someone is so arrogant, selfish and insensitive as to subject everyone around them to their crappy teen pop or hip-hop, then telling them to turn it down won't cut much ice - and might just get you a visit to A & E.
*nods* Absolutely shouldn't be allowed.
Where I live the God Squad have them too so not only do we get (often otherwise decent) music at a painfully loud volume we get unsolicited preaching (and not the reasonably harmless "would you like to hear about X deity because we think they're great?" kind, the nasty "you're all going to suffer for all eternity" kind) from three streets away. It's bleeding ridiculous. Needs banning ASAP.