The Year of the Silliest Music Research of 2003


I was reading an article from the Daily Telegraph from the UK. In the article cellist Julian Lloyd Webber commented on what he deemed as silly research.

The following is guaranteed not to show up in an advocate’s bag of tricks to justify music.

I was reading an article from the Daily Telegraph from the UK. In the article cellist Julian Lloyd Webber commented on what he deemed as silly research.

So… here is the list of the Silliest Music Research for 2003 from the UK.

Number 3 - "Neighbourhood Shopping Precinct Survey" - where different composers were played through giant speakers to discover which one would deter vandals the most (Delius won hands down).

Number 2 - "Leicester University Muzak survey" - undertaken in just one restaurant, which revealed that its clientele spent "up to £2 per head more on their starters, desserts and coffee" when Mozart was played instead of Britney Spears because classical music caused them to "feel a bit posh".

And the grand prize winner of the "silliest classical music survey of 2003" stakes goes to:

Tufts University in Massachusetts! After two years of painstaking research, engineering professor Dr Charles Rogers and his Tufts colleagues declared – no doubt to a fanfare – "that freezing trumpets did not make them sound any different". The announcement was made without much, er, fanfare. (http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/briefs/hold_the_ice.shtml)

Lloyd Webber’s closing comment: “Phew, that's a relief! Now we can all sleep better in 2004.”

We report you decide!

Posted: Sun - July 4, 2004 at 10:58 AM       Email Feedback

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