Tactics for resolving a loud music problem successfully

[Gecko123]

 

Background:

I have been struggling to get my neighbors to be more considerate about cranking up their sound systems for several years now. In the process I have discussed this issue with countless people and numerous police officers in my area, trying to find ways to manage this problem. The older adults pretty quickly agreed to turn down the volume, but several of their young adult children have really been obstinate, beyond belief. One son-in-law in particular has made it his life work to be as annoying as possible. He really likes rave type bass music and acts like he can't have his morning bowel movement until after he has listened to a few songs at full volume, then cranks up the volume at odd times throughout the day, needs to hear a few more tunes to unwind at the end of the day, and there's nothing's better than spending the evening listening to more tunes. In the process I have tried just about everything in the book: politely asking them to turn down the volume, yelling 'Yo' from the front porch at the top of my lungs (I have a very loud voice), blowing my car horn, turning up my stereo at full volume, even renting a couple of jumbo speakers to give him a taste of his own medicine. Nothing worked. in fact, the above tactics generally made things worse. But in the process I have discovered a few things which might be helpful to others which I'd like to share.

 

Most of the time it seems like it's a guy who is cranking up the music. When you ask another guy to turn down his music it can easily become a competition about who's the alpha male. There's also a good chance that alcohol or drugs might be involved. And if you're a foreigner asking a Thai person to turn down Thai music, cultural resentments can quickly bubble to the surface. My observation is that for some Thai guys (like guys everywhere) cranking up music is a way of attracting attention, so asking them to turn down their music can trigger resentment about your attempts to make them defer to your wishes. I have also observed that while many older foreigners and Thais own vehicles and can get their 'fix' of loud music when they go for a ride in their car or pickup, many younger Thai males just starting out only own a motorcycle, so if they want to listen to loud music, the only option they may have is at home or at some public event. The truth is that there are some Thai guys who lead pretty hard-scrabble lives, and listening to music seems to provide one of the few escapes from the daily grind. Just saying that it's useful to try and put yourself in their shoes.

 

While talking to the police a while ago, trying to brainstorm about how to tackle a noise problem, I realized that in a noise complaint situation there are three issues in play: when is the loud music played, how often the music is played, and how loud the music is. To answer these questions, it might be helpful to keep a log of when the music is played, so you can have evidence about the extent of the problem when talking to the police or your neighbor. The best idea I came up with is to not focus so much on how loud the music is,  but to focus on when and how long the music is turned up. If you can negotiate a mutually acceptable window of time when they can crank up their music (and keep it down the rest of the time), this might be your best solution. If you know when they're going to turn on their music loud, you can plan around it and arrange to be away from the house doing errands, exercising, or whatever.

 

As I said, my next door neighbor's son-in-law and I have been, figuratively speaking, at each other's throats for months. I am sure that he has delighted in annoying me by turning up his stereo at unpredictable times. His house is about 150 meters away which you would think would be far enough apart so that loud music wouldn't be a problem, but he has these stadium sized sub-woofer speakers which project the bass long distances. On the Saturday before the just past end of Lent they had a party and really let it rip. I didn't say anything knowing that it was Lent and I could tell they had guests. So I decided to go for a walk about three kilometers away from my house. To my amazement, I could still hear the bass from their speakers from three kilometers away! That gives you an idea about how loud it was.

 

Finally, after bellyaching some more to the surrounding neighbors and no doubt reports of me talking to the cops filtering back to him, there's been this respite of heavenly silence for the past three days. It was incredibly hard for me to do, but in an effort to show appreciation and maybe give him some positive reinforcement for not turning up his stereo for three days, I brought him a half-kilo of long beans from my garden this afternoon. It seems to have finally broken the ice. This might have been the best move all along. It was actually quite a moving moment for both of us. I really hope that this proves to be the beginning of improved relations. Right now it is wonderfully quiet and peaceful here.

 

 

[thequietman]

This tends to be the only thing that works around my way. ???? Hope he keeps the music off or at the very least, lower in volume. ????

[DaRoadrunner]

Avoid direct confrontation or you may get the <deleted> beaten out of you. Try the Godfather system, give the village head man a bottle of Scotlands finest amber nectar and ask if he could arrange some silence. Or try a bribe to the police.

[Don Chance]

You farang, go home. You no thai.

[PatOngo]

I always had the impression Thai's are spooked by silence. Need to up the noise to scare off all those evil spirits! 

[madmen]

avoid living in a thai ghetto at all costs. Why would anybody surround themselves with uneducated hill Billy's?

I live in a farang ghetto with civilized people. In 12 years never had a single noise complaint!

[55Jay]

Thanks for typing all that out, interesting to hear other experiences.

 

Our first house, countryside, wound up being resolved indirectly by loan sharks.

 

[mauGR1]

Very well written OP as usual, Mr. Gecko.

Nice and clever gesture of you as well.

Don't know if it will work to deter him playing loud music, but having friends as neighbours it's worth a little pain imho.

[ukrules]

46 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

I brought him a half-kilo of long beans from my garden this afternoon. It seems to have finally broken the ice.

Every time you hear the music from now on it means he's hungry

[Kwasaki]

46 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

This tends to be the only thing that works around my way.

I use to cut unused power cables with this.

[Matzzon]

It would have been much more easy to learn how to appreciate morlam music. Now he is thinking everyday on how to give back on you.

[FarFlungFalang]

8 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I use to cut unused power cables with this.

My mum once walked in with an axe and said "you can turn it off or I can turn it off for you" and it worked like a treat.

[Anotify]

I was told once that those remote controls  for barking dogs can work on some sound system  equipments .not convinced but who knows.. 

.

[FarFlungFalang]

41 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Avoid direct confrontation or you may get the <deleted> beaten out of you. Try the Godfather system, give the village head man a bottle of Scotlands finest amber nectar and ask if he could arrange some silence. Or try a bribe to the police.

Either that or leaving a horses head in his bed might be just as effective!

[wisperone]

Guess its time to move.

[Orton Rd]

20 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

It would have been much more easy to learn how to appreciate morlam music. Now he is thinking everyday on how to give back on you.

Rave music, not morlam

[sweatalot]

Try noise cancelling headphones. I've got Sennheiser bluetooth NC.

Heavenly silence.

Another trick might be white (or pink) noise from a speaker, combined with sounds (rain eg), if you like it

[Farangwithaplan]

Buy a rooster... Put a sign around the rooster that in Thai language reads: " I am up for a truce on noise. What about you?"

 

[Dumbastheycome]

Subliminal "noise  generator". 7Hz  constant. Beamed via parabolic dish at target. 

[Matzzon]

43 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Rave music, not morlam

Same same....

[Mexlark]

Let the nearest local rich & influential people do all the work for you. But don't expect fast results. At least that way, as a farang, you get to live a bit longer.

 

The problem here is not so much young people, but actually adult club/bar owners running money-laundering operations. The singer (usually not young either) is paid by something like an annual contract to turn up, come hell or high-water. several days a week and sing the same old boring songs. I am almost offended more by the repertoire than the volume; but the volume definitely interferes with sleep patterns and other health. The singers are expected to turn up the volume as publicity, to pull in just enough punters to appear like the owner is running a real business. The business is open-sided for the same reason. Direct profit perhaps isn't really that important, anyway. But then there are all the other illegal things/services that either you or your underpaid staff can sell on the side to your clientele. And of course there are often uniformed investors in the business anyway. The ordinary cop can do nothing about any of this. There is also a noise problem from the clientele. They tend to spend all their time ranting on about how bad the government, chao bahn, farangs and the police all are. They have to shout to be heard over the top of the over-amplified singer, whose repetoire has become so boring no one really bothers to listen to it at all (except the chao bahn. ????) When the cops eventually get around to imposing a closing time, the clients (usually a bunch of alcoholic/ pill-popping spoilt-rich under-employed male tossers will sit outside with gold-digging female staff members laughing both their stoned heads off until just before sunrise. And then depart home to sleep off the rest of the day, making a massive row with their pimped-up rides. Sleeping it off is quite acceptable to Hun Maa & Khun Paw, but they are expected to take their obnoxious anti-social habits away from home, where the neighbors can't afford to complain.

 

I'm listening to this racket right now. You sort of get used to it, eventually. Whatever you do as a farang, never try visiting the place to reason with them or threaten them. You really do not want to identify yourself for cheap target practice Keep a low profile during their working hours, and they probably won't even realise you exist. Complaining to the authorities is a total waste of time.

[Oztruckie]

You could try out a setup with a CB radio,connected to an extremely powerful amplifier and in turn connect amplifier to a high powered speaker,I believe it works wonderfully well with offending speakers.

[Mexlark]

6 minutes ago, Oztruckie said:

You could try out a setup with a CB radio,connected to an extremely powerful amplifier and in turn connect amplifier to a high powered speaker,I believe it works wonderfully well with offending speakers.

Is that like degaussing? I have wondered if it was possible; but decided not to waste my money when I would also have to put up with the meltdown-level speaker screech myself. I have a whole host of sadistic ideas to get my own back, but none of them are really at all practical.

[Mexlark]

1 hour ago, sweatalot said:

Try noise cancelling headphones. I've got Sennheiser bluetooth NC.

Heavenly silence.

Another trick might be white (or pink) noise from a speaker, combined with sounds (rain eg), if you like it

It rains here enough already. But seriously, I have noticed that the rainy season helps to cancel out some of the aural damage of the cool and hot seasons.  Noise-generating cretins don't really like rain much, either.

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, PatOngo said:

I always had the impression Thai's are spooked by silence. Need to up the noise to scare off all those evil spirits! 

Some are spooked by loud noises too. The neighbour in my GF's village blazes away with a shotgun during thunderstorms for the same reason.

[Mexlark]

One of my neighbours blazes away to scare away the local addicts from the khlong, at night.

[Gecko123]

9 hours ago, ukrules said:

Every time you hear the music from now on it means he's hungry

Good one, ukrules. The idea of gifting this guy with a bag of rice actually came up a couple of years ago but was rejected out of fears that it would become 'If you expect me to turn my stereo down, I'll be expecting a carton of smokes and a case of Chang every Thursday from here on out.' I didn't risk much by giving him some green beans from my garden, and had a 'let's just see what happens if I do this' attitude. I will say that if he maintains the goodwill until the end of the year, I am thinking about giving them a case of milk for their kids for New Year's.

[Gecko123]

9 hours ago, Matzzon said:

It would have been much more easy to learn how to appreciate morlam music. Now he is thinking everyday on how to give back on you.

One thing I don't think you appreciate is that once you get a certain distance away from loud amplified music, none of the high frequency treble and mid-frequency melodies or vocals are audible. The only thing you hear is the low frequency bass. It ceases to be recognizable as music, and often sounds more like living next door to an artillery range.

[Matzzon]

42 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

One thing I don't think you appreciate is that once you get a certain distance away from loud amplified music, none of the high frequency treble and mid-frequency melodies or vocals are audible. The only thing you hear is the low frequency bass. It ceases to be recognizable as music, and often sounds more like living next door to an artillery range.

Yeah, I know you are talking about my neighbour, before I tought drunk <deleted> how to behave in the real world.

[canopy]

When you dialed the 1111 hotline for foreigners to resolve noise complaints what did they say? Surely that was the very first thing you tried.