Sexy Subways
This interesting Wired item got a lot of play a few days ago:
David Moxon subjected 40 men and women to the sounds of a Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari, then measured the amount of testosterone in their saliva. He found everyone had higher levels of the stuff — a measure of their arousal — after hearing the revving exotics, but the amount the women had was off the charts.
The econobox, however, left everyone colder than a January day in Nome.
This was widely reported in the spirit of Wired’s headline: “Science Proves Exotic Cars Turn Women On.” But of course this didn’t study cars, it studied car sounds. Dave Alpert wonders:
Nature or nurture? How about playing background sounds of a Lamborghini in the subway? If subways were privately run, I suspect the operators would do just that, just like stores pipe in odors to draw out greater spending behavior.
Consider this a cousin to the public sector design issue. Private enterprise makes it its business to try to understand the ecology of civilization and how environments impact people, and smart public sector agencies will consider this kind of thing as well. When I was in Nizhny Novgorod they played Russian pop music on the buses, which I don’t recall as having been very pleasant. But why not pipe music into Metro stations? You could probably earn payola-style money. I feel like I recall some city (Rome?) where they did play music in the subway stations. Am I crazy?
49 Responses to “Sexy Subways”
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September 8th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
“Am I crazy?”
are we required to answer this *only* by reference to the remainder of the post?
September 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
in the follow-up study, they should test toddlers listening to heavy equipment–bulldozers, excavators, etc..
bob the builder! thomas the tank-engine!
there’s some kind of diesel love going on there in the garanimals set.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I live in Brussels and can confirm that the city plays the latest hits and the classics on the Metro. It’s quite pleasant
September 8th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Better yet, how about live musicians? They’re the best thing about the subway in New York, and many other places.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I think the problem with putting music in the metro is pretty obvious: if you do something that some people might really like, you will, of necessity, piss others off. Therefore you either have to go with anodyne Muzak or Classical Music–probably Baroque. Now, I like me some Baroque music, but please, I don’t need to listen to the Four Seasons (or even Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos) over and over in the Metro.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Actually you can go one more. Just have a bid between MTV, fuel, etc., for the exclusive rights to pipe their feed into the subway stations.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Check out Calitrava’s proposed design of the downtown NYC transit hub
What does it remind you of? He was way ahead of you Matt.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Music in the DC subways would probably have to be hip hop with some Guns and Roses thrown in to appease white taste.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Was tried not too long ago in Boston. People hated it.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I second Ted’s point. It SUCKED. Imagine the sound quality one gets from subway-station PA systems. Now imagine the volume level of subway PA announcements. Try to imagine what music, played over a subway PA at subway PA volumes is like. It was horrible. Too loud to read, too loud to talk with companions. The rumble of the train was a blessing.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The difference between a sound system that is merely adequate to the task (read: can be heard) but that breaks down soon and frequently and one that is pleasant, full-bodied and electrically robust enough to survive the rigors of subway vibrations, acoustics and interference is LARGE.
If the end result is a consistently pleasing sound (with little acoustical variation and no interference) then the subsystem ought to be well designed and, frankly, rather expensive.
Me, I’ve got my Ipod square on my head my entire commute and I still can’t get consistent sound when the subway rumbles in/by…
September 8th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
For two weeks, we were in an environment (a cruise ship) where inane “smooth jazz” was piped into every public room. And not at a subliminal level. After 2 days, it became painful to dawdle anywhere on the ship. Maybe that was the intention. “Others want your table, please eat faster.”
September 8th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I once heard a Maserati behind me at a stop light. I don’t live in a place where such a car would be commonplace, and they do not sound like your typically street traffic. It kind of reminded me of the vehicular equivalent of a lion or something. It actually seemed to growl.
So anyway, a little tangential but w/r/t music on the Metro, if you’ve never read this it’s very much worth it.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Instead of having a Maserati sound pumped in – why not just locate and authentic mechanical sound in the power generators of the trains and blast it – It would be more authentic.
If women dig Maseratis – they will love those new GE turbines.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Music in the DC subways would probably have to be hip hop with some Guns and Roses thrown in to appease white taste.
Given the average age of the Metro’s Board of Directors who must approve even the most minor aesthetic changes, if a music proposal eventually passed, would likely involve nothing newer than big band music and 50s-era R&B.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Dear God can we please stop filling every spare cubic inch of common space with background music? If you absolutely must have music rattling around in your head 24/7, how about some headphones? Of course, if I get to control the music selection, then I’m fine with it. Hope ya’ll enjoy a steady diet of Gyorgy Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, and John Adams!
September 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
People objected to the content and (by and large) not the concept. It is quite one thing to have music playing and quite another to pipe in an annoying DJ desperately seeking your attention in order to boost ad revenues.
But Random is correct: the content was delivered via the in situ PA system, a system designed solely to amplify the human voice (higher range) against the (lower range) rumble of the subway cars.
So, two strikes: lame content and half-assed delivery will probably trump a good concept any da (unless your microsoft, I guess…)
September 8th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I’ll do you one better.
In Thailand, where my wife lived for several years, they have television monitors on most of the public transit buses. And what do they have playing on a continuous loop?
Pornography.
I’m not kidding. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Packed onto a bus in Chiang Mai full of families, just watching a little porn as you head off to visit a temple or go to work or whatever.
I didn’t have any means of collecting saliva samples, but everyone mostly just looked bored with it.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Spanish conmuter trains used to have it; I don’t know if they still do (haven’t been home in more than a year). The sound system is pretty decent, so it is not annoying.
The effect of rolling down a station and going to the door with the 1812 overture at full battle mode is, however, pretty funny.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Music has been played within the London Underground system, through both an approved buksing system where performers of varying types (instruments/vocals etc) apply for licences, and through the PA system. Not only did it leave customers happier, but through the playing of classical music in certain stations, it was found (I forget how the metrics were calculated) to actually reduce tension and crime.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
It isn’t Rome, unless they started this after I no longer lived there in May 2006. And neither London, Paris, Amsterdam nor Zurich. Although this question has me thinking of all the metros I’ve rode in the past few years because I think you’re right. The closest I can come is Brussels, but only because it is legal for people to play their accordions and pass around their hats…
September 8th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Yes! Because everyone has exactly the same taste in music! Crazy? More like genius!
September 8th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Ever since laughter-loving Aphrodite comedians have always done what Matt says car sounds can do – Instead of Maseratis or Musak – why not run well tested comic monologues in the DC metro?
In NW DC you could have Carlin in the Cleveland Park metro – downtown maybe Chris Rock – over in Anacostia Cedric will be good. Old Woody Allen albums can run in continuous loop on the Bethesda escalator/ – Foxworthy in some of the distant Virginia stops
September 8th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
A few points.
1) Why on earth would you want to raise testosterone levels among public transport passengers?
2) London Underground has licensed buskers. I’m ambivalent as to whether this is a good thing. It helps musicians earn money, which is clearly good. Some are indeed very good and enhance the experience. But others just play all the busking “classics”, and not very well, which drives me up the wall.
3) Some UK councils have trialled piping Beethoven at bus stops, which supposedly reduces vandalism.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Go further dude…
Make it like Epcot Center and put in stuff to look at as you ride by: animatronic cavemen, dinosaurs, and astronauts landing on a moonscape.
Go viral. Put in coded messages on the ways of the subway tunnel that only become readable from the subway cars when the tram reaches a certain speed.
I’m semi-serious here.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
So, my wife just arrived home and informed me that indeed in the Brussels metro stations they play “top 40″ hits… So there’s your answer.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
The New York subway is probably only a turn on if you are into coprophilia.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
“Go viral. Put in coded messages on the ways of the subway tunnel that only become readable from the subway cars when the tram reaches a certain speed.”
They’re actually already doing this in some tunnel stretches of the Washington DC Metro. Ads, not coded messages, but it’s already happening.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
It depends on the kind of music.
At Marta in Atlanta, they play classical music, which is quite pleasant.
But I would hate having to listen to soft rock, the way I have to in certain stores.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
The NR line on the NYC subway is kinda sexy – the way it snakes accross manhatten like a belly dancer.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Madrid has classical music in their subway
September 8th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I remember classical music on the subway in Mexico City last time I was there about twenty years ago.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Pittsburgh plays music in exactly one station: Wood Street. The music is all classical, for two reasons: (1) Wood Street is the stop you’d take if you’re going to see the orchestra, and (2) music with lyrics would drive people insane.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
You try that and see how many iPod-addicted New Yorkers come after you with pitchforks. The idea is not inherently terrible, but the kinds of music you end up with when trying to accommodate a broad range of tastes usually is.
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