Very bad music has taken many forms. Bach wrote a good bit of it in one style; Victor Herbert ground out much of it in another. But most obnoxious of all are the mindless whinings that seep out of loudspeakers as "background music." Within this broad category are several subdivisions: airport music, Lawrence Welk music, dentist office music, Waldorf music.
Now Boston, the All-American city, has come up with another: Park Street Music, complete with Hammond organ and brass that goes "wah-wah" and "boop-boop." It slurps out of newly-installed speakers on both levels of the Park Street MTA station, and one cannot escape it. It's bad enough that the subway looks dirty, smells foul, and feels clammy. Must it sound rotten, too?
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George Lodge at Harvard
