Music Overheard from the Street Four Floors Below

I live on the fourth floor above a fairly busy street. The traffic light below stops cars passing by every sixty seconds, day and night. It’s really not that noisy and I rather enjoy the bustle of city life so I’ve grown accustomed to the din, sort of like living near the ocean and hearing the waves—not that I’ve ever lived close enough to the sea for this nuisance, perhaps in the next life.

The first thing that you can say about people blasting music on their car stereos is that they have one thing in common: they have shit taste in music. No one ever plays Mozart or Duke Ellington at volume levels almost guaranteed to induce hearing loss. There is only one demographic group responsible for musically disturbing the peace: young males.

It really isn’t that often that someone’s music is at such an obnoxious level that I can hear it from my perch four stories above the street, but when I do overhear it I always think about how loud it must be inside their vehicle. Riding my bike around town I will often pass a young male wearing headphones with the music so loud that it’s loud for me two meters away. You only have one set of ears, guys; you should try taking care of them.

Here's a short play list:

Eye of the Tiger: This was at 06:30, before daybreak! I guess you have to play that song at volume 11 for it to make even a little bit of sense.

Flamenco: I love Flamenco music but for some reason young punks (on or off drugs) love blasting this fiery music from Andalucía at window-shattering volumes. Flamenco isn’t popular at all in this part of Spain and many young kids look down on it, sort of like Americans and hillbilly music. I’m guessing that the young punks are out-of-towners.

Rap: Even in Spain, punks dream of being gangsters.

Dance Beats: These cars almost ALWAYS have decorative lights. Look! It’s a car! No, it’s a gay disco! Perhaps it’s both?

Let it Go from the Disney movie Frozen: OK, I've never heard this blasting from a car stereo but I did witness some Manchester City football hooligans singing it at karaoke night in a local bar. More on that at another time.