Kids on the bus playing ropey mp3s through their tinny phones, and often singing along badly in a group, usually to the same song over and over. Classic or dud?

y'all are old grouches. these kids are THE FUTURE!

(i think i mostly like them because i like their music.)

-- Marcello Carlin
No one here knew me until I was 22 .... besides, I wasn't that bad really. The things that irritate me have remained fairly constant throughout my life.

I like to get the C2 from Kentish Town, as it's full of posh schoolgirls.

(xpost)

-- The Lex

Do they not have homes to go to? Walls outside chip shops to sit on? Why must they do this in a confined space?

I want some chips now.

x-post with Stevem, who is right beyond belief.

griney simey to thread!

Worst girl ever on the 38 last night between Angel and halfway down Essex Road. Shouting her head off at (presumably) her little brother and threatening to 'put her fist in his face' if he didn't sit down.
-- Sociah T Azzahole (stevem7...), October 20th, 2005 11:46 AM. (blueski) (later) (link)

surely you should be grateful she is stopping that annoying kid on the bus, who wouldn't sit down?

not heard the GLC.

did they have those mobile phones that play mp3s back in 2001?

i don't follow -- do you mean that dizzee's career would have been harmed if some grouchy suit-stuffer had told him to pipe down one morning on the number 73?

YOU would, probably...

It doesn't matter whether they're about to be famous or not - this has no bearing on the logic of doing it on the bus.

not sitting down != being a menace. i am not opposed to little kids not sitting down, unless the inertia of the bus accelerating or braking rapidly causes them to fall and hurt themselves. this still doesn't excuse the girl shouting loudly at someone right next to them though, or threatening to beat them up for not doing what they're told.

ech... sort answer: no.

but to be fair the ability to play loud music through yr phone is not the same kind of phenomenon as those (equally deplorable) developments. no-one has to play their music on the bus, just as they don't have to smoke there.

heh see also downloadin' internets musics of course

http://www.stylewalker.net/wp-content/nycnosigns/CIMG4574.JPG

and this:

http://www.stylewalker.net/wp-content/nycnosigns/CIMG4574.JPG

and this:

http://static.flickr.com/92/217382326_2d8fcd2e84_m.jpg

have been common in new york since the early 80s. the seem to work pretty well, although maybe it's true people don't think of their mobiles belonging to these categories. problem: the icon to tell people not to play their phone mp3s would look like an icon saying no phone usage at all!!

i would cope with this, thinking about it (i never MAKE calls on the bus). they could say 'it interferes with the bus radar equipment also you could be a terrist using it to activate a bomb innit'

it's especially great when you coincidentally synchronise your music with theirs, this happened to me with RIHANNA.

it's especially great when you coincidentally synchronise your music with theirs, this happened to me with RIHANNA.

The basic debate here is exactly the same, either:

a) It's great! It's an expression of joy and youth! How dare you coddled old middle-class people be such killjoys?

b) It's horrible! They're invading my personal space and intimidating myself and others!

As a wise person once said, binary binary binary, is that all you people think?

My personal take is this is fine, provided it's innocent enough. If the kids in question are aggressive or intimidating, whether or not there's music playing doesn't make the blindest bit of difference.

If you resent your personal space being invaded, why the fuck do you get the bus in the first place? They've ALWAYS been noisy, crowded, chaotic, intrusive and unpleasant, especially during rush hour/around school times. They're also slow, clunky, unreliable and its impossible to predict how long a journey is actually going to take. The trains or tubes around London may be shit in their own way, but at least everyone is silent on them. Even WALKING is quicker than the bus, especially in Central London. And at least you know how long it's going to take.

This is on the decline, right? Singing not heard in ages. Tinny speaker mp3s a lot less often than when this started.

I see fights over fare evasion more often

I was just thinking the same thing the other day! This is definitely on the decline. Novelty's worn off I assume.

don't get the bus, ever. never heard this on the tube. nobody dares make a noise on the tube.

And I never get the tube, so we're unlikely to bump into each other!

i thought this was on the downturn last time i was living in ldn.

great thread

i live in zone 1. i either take the bus a short distance long after the school rush or walk. fucking bliss tbh.

tubes are actually pretty noisy which may explain why it was less of a problem on them. also there is no 'backseats' stigma.

This is definitely on the decline.

Not in Oakland

And not as many schoolchildren? (xp)

children are on the decline

not in the inner zones no but further out there would be (me and half my school took the met line or central line to school as a kid) xp

The novelty's worn off (xp)

a) I think even the kids on the bus have realised this sounds shit.
b) Mobile phones now have loads more cool shit to distract the kids on the bus.
c) Why bother with a mobile phone when you can just knife/impregnate one another instead?

How long til we get a phone with a proper bass woofer? That's what I want to know.

more like a bass woofer with a bonus phone attached

a) I think even the kids on the bus have realised this sounds shit.

^ This is it... as Dave Cameron would say

old before their time

classic or dud or a resocialisation of public life through the collective enjoyment of music

The way teenagers use their mobile phones may annoy the hell out of anyone older than 15, but their seemingly obnoxious desire to play music in public needs explaining. To some, sodcasting might seem like a bloody-minded imposition, a two-fingers from those who don't care what others think of them. To the teenagers, though they probably wouldn't put it quite like this, it's a resocialisation of public life through the collective enjoyment of music; it's friends doing the most natural thing imaginable – sharing what makes them happy. And if you try and restrict people's innate instinct to enjoy music together, it just squeezes out from the sides, like an over-filled sandwich.

desperate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/aug/12/sodcasting-music-in-public-mobile-phones

child porn sharers are also "sharing what makes them happy" iirc, and if you try to restrict their innate etc

that's sort of an insane parallel!

Classic or death, more like.

Seldom it's less resocialization of public life so much as a severely insular lack of awareness or recognition of others, of others' space, and their equal rights to it - the most extreme case I've seen being someone very loudly and aggressively yelling at someone to get off a streetcar because he politely asked someone to turn off their cell-phone mp3 player.

itr: indies

nrq thinks music and child porn are the same thing, how interesting

something something miley cyrus thread something something something

And if you try and restrict people's innate instinct to enjoy music together, it just squeezes out from the sides, like an over-filled sandwich.

is doesn't need to be 'music' in this sentence. it could be literature, or fox-hunting, or child porn just as easily.

ditto

friends doing the most natural thing imaginable – sharing what makes them happy.

what's being shared could be anything, unless immoral things are also unnatural i guess?

n e ways edb is otm, there is s.thing really antisocial about trying to monopolize shared space with shitty mp3s

i mean "dan hancox thinks sandwich fillings and innate human desires are the same thing, how interesting" is p much zvookster's point i think

hold on a minute there buddy my point is u can eat a butt sandwich

uh... ok

not rly sure who this dude is who knows my name is enrique

u were called nrq like five times last month so "someone who read the boards last month". fucked if i'm gonna call u "history mayne"

u mad doggie

u maaaaad

u think music is social in the same way child porn rings are, & that kids with no space for themselves claiming public space might as well be child sexual abuse. ur a fucking idiot.

I've heard witness accounts of skiving schoolgirls singing along to Kanye West's Gold Digger in rounds ("Two of them were singing the looped sample while one did the rap, switching for each verse. Interspersed with giggles, obviously. It was an incredible moment")

^^my witness account! very possibly also recounted somewhere beneath "view all answers" in this thread

part of me wishes that the guardian had enabled comments on that piece

it's one of the first answers here actually

classic if they're hackney schoolgirls on the 277. those girls all have serious style, massive attitude and can actually properly sing. the last time i heard them they were doing 'gold digger', one of them was doing the sample and a couple of the others were doing the rap.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, October 20, 2005

:)

u think music is social in the same way child porn rings are, & that kids with no space for themselves claiming public space might as well be child sexual abuse. ur a fucking idiot.

― k'naamean (zvookster), Friday, August 13, 2010 9:34 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

u maaaad

but nah srsly you're a dick

"claiming public space" means making it that little bit less public? gertcha. i know that hancox idolizes east london kids, but they don't have special claims over public space. just because they enjoy playing mp3s and pissing everyone else off doesn't mean it's the most natural thing in the world; and even if it is, ever heard of the naturalistic fallacy? if he thinks they have a poor lot in life (which they do), then perhaps he'd be better off writing about how to improve it, rather than saying, "their life sucks therefore they should be able to play mp3s." not exactly socialist.

I honestly thought "blog house" was an ILXism

probably WMAs tbh