Classical music keeps graffiti artists away

When I lived in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, there was a law office that had a 24 hour speaker outside that played continuous classical music. All the other storefronts had homeless people laying about, and soiling the space. This business successfully remained clean, without being cruel. The music was not loud. The only graffiti that would have been sprayed would have been tags.
I always thought this was a good strategy - for that case.
2nd case: Port Authority Bus Terminal, NYC. The patrons behave better when they hear light classical music. I think this is borne out in the literature: psychology of music.
In the case of real graffit, the kind that takes time & trouble, it is usually an improvement over what was there before. And no music will stop its creation.

Rather than alienate graffiti artists the local council should be embracing them as they are part of the community they are meant to represent. Don't alienate, facilitate is the answer. But(there's always a but, usually a big one) if the graffiti artists are facilitated then there should be respect given by them to the rest of the community. the question is how to cater for the graffiti artists, answers on a postcard to ihaven'taclue.

Uhh, truthfully i'm big into grafffiti, and this just makes me want to go down there and do summore lol

Yeah...Most graffiti artist listen to rap ,but that's really putting a label on these people! Not all Graffiti artist do tags ! Not all graffiti artist are in gangs & I am pretty sure not all of them listen to rap!!! This story makes me laugh! You really don't think a few graffiti just MIGHT have a MP3 player???

Graffiti and Mozart or Handel don't mix, but Mahler? Now THERE'S something that would really inspire me to create some art. Mahler's epically dark orchestrations and somber melodies would go GREAT with graffiti art.

But, ugh, I hope they don't end up playing Mozart or Handel (or Haydn, Schubert, or anyone else of that nature), because that just feeds into the stereotype of classical music as lightweight, unemotional, and "fluffy".

Play some Shostakovich or Takemitsu! \m/

There is a huge distinction between graffiti as art and graffiti tagging.
I like graffiti art, I don't like tags.

i knew such beautiful pictures....

Yeah, but what if that turns them into "Clockwork Orange" maniacs? Scary...

Another thing I was thinking about is: What if the writers think that in addition to speakers, cameras were also installed? Or maybe cameras were visibly installed but the city officials left that part out to make it seem that the artists are not intelligent and only want to destroy property.

f.y.i. people, there really is no such thing as property. dispute this if you must, but the universe and every bit of matter in it doesn't belong to anyone person so a little paint isnt going to harm anyone. plus all that dreary cement and metal needs some artistic flair.

I think country music would be even more effective.

Gosh, kids today really do scare easily.

So, we get music forced on us by the establishment to replace artwork provided by free thinkers?

Interesting point michail77.

I don't like graffiti really, I don't think people have the right to do that to property that belongs to everyone. I think murals are better to at least make it seem like the graffiti is part of the mural.

I remember when I lived in Sacramento back in the late 90's they did this between the the tunnel to Sacramento and the historic district.

It was so loud that it was kind of uncomfortable to be there. Everyone just sort of hurried through.

They did it to keep the homeless kids out of the tunnel. Instead they would just gather on the ends. I'd often talk to the homeless kids there when they'd ask for help. Most seemed like they were trying to escape abusive home situations.

Just pass a law that everyone has an explosive "Berry" implanted at the base of the skull.

The cops could sit behind monitoring screens, watching what goes on.

We'd probably have to pass a second law that there should be no drinking by the cops while on duty.

There is a lot of evidence that minor changes in surroundings can help prevent crime.
When subway cars in New York were cleaned of graffiti (and kept clean), fare-beating, muggings, intimidation dropped.

Malcolm Gladwell addressed this in his book "The Tipping Point"
This essay mentions the graffiti episode:
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/4209.html

I think this proves that people who are more culturally defined respect property that is not their own to destroy.

But is that really shocking?

It would be interesting to try rap music for a year and see how much desecration of property occurs.

i agree with mojojuju, but who says graf artists cant dig classical? i think classical would be a good catalyst to let the creative juices flow!

Maybe with all of the classical music playing, some weird ultraviolent stuff will happen like in the movie, A Clockwork Orange.

I agree. This is giving classical music a bad name. If I ever get down there I'm going to have to lay down some classically influenced tags. Maybe in Old german calligraphy, considering their music choices. A little raphaelite or mannerist action too maybe.

graffiti, generally, seems a hip-hop culture artifact.
Letters often bump and grind.

The artists are obviously good - but whether hip-hop or not, the culture isn't the same.

Just like ballroom dancers wouldn't stick around under heavy metal.

Not for long.

"Young people creating graffiti don't find it cool to be surrounded by classical music."

I don't do a lot of street graffiti, but I am an artist heavily influenced by graffiti art and I love classical music and find it quite "cool."

Classical music, kicking serious behinds every time.

I have mixed feelings on this...I say do it because the classical music isn't physical prevention but I find graffiti to be beautiful art... there is a difference between graffiti art and vandalism where people just take black spray paint to paint jeers and crude language in public places

I'd totally do that with classical playing, if it were legal. Musical taste have definitely dropped in quality.