Un silenzio che spacca le orecchie

Ugo Berti Arnoaldi

Già dirigente editoriale il Mulino

Contributo presentato da Giuseppina La Face

Abstract

Silence creates discomfort and fear. Man is a social animal, and prefers noise. Conviviality, joy, sociability are characterized by noise: in festive situations, even explosions and gunshots are expressions of joy. Music is widely used to promote an enjoyable fruition of public spaces, particularly commercial ones that aim to attract and retain people, such as bars, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets. This use, made possible by contemporary sound diffusion technologies, has led to the belief that music can influence behavior, as indicated by numerous psychology studies measuring the effect of various genres of music. But there is also research demonstrating its negative effects, of which there appears to be little awareness.

Keywords

Fear of silence, Social function of noise, Music as noise, Backround music and consumption.

© Ugo Berti Arnoaldi, 2025 / Doi: 10.30682/annalesm2503m

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license