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From New Yorker - Music can be many things, including a weapon. Among the songs that law enforcement and militaries have played, at deafening volume, to break the spirits of adversaries over the years are "Paranoid," by Black Sabbath (Manuel Noriega, 1989); the "Barney" theme (detainees held at black sites in Iraq, 2003); Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' " (cult leader David Koresh, 1993; federal agents also blared recordings of rabbits being slaughtered); and "Oops! . . . I Did It Again," by Britney Spears (Somali pirates, 2013; a security official said, "I'd imagine using Justin Bieber would be against the Geneva Convention").

06/2009 - The Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle, plays "It's a Small World After All" through the night, possibly to keep people from hanging around the building. The McDonald's on the corner of Third Avenue and Pine Street played country music to keep loiterers from getting too comfy. Four blocks north, the Royal Crest Condominium complex in Belltown plays opera to keep people from loitering near ground-level businesses.

06/2018 - Some Rite Aid stores in California have taken to blasting Barry Manilow tunes as part of a plan to make loiterers scramble. The drugstore chain has been testing the tactic of playing songs by the 75-year-old crooner outside their stores - over and over, loudly - to deter panhandlers and vagrants.

02/2022 - Police in New Zealand have turned to the music of James Blunt in their latest effort to repel protesters who are camped outside of Parliament. Police turned to blasting out Barry Manilow's greatest hits, which include 'Mandy' and 'Could It Be Magic', on a 15-minute loop from one of parliament's loudspeakers, as well as the '90s Spanish hit 'Macarena' and a number of vaccine messages. After catching wind of what was happening, Blunt offered his services to New Zealand authorities via Twitter. "Give me a shout if this doesn't work @NZPolice," he tweeted. A few hours later, the singer-songwriter's 2005 chart-topping hit 'You're Beautiful' was being played over the loudspeaker.

07/2019 - Parry Gripp acknowledges that his 2012 hit, "Raining Tacos," can be obnoxious. He wrote the song with a specific audience in mind: "children and people who like tacos a lot." He did not intend for his happy litany about a taco downpour to be weaponized. The city of West Palm Beach in recent weeks has been blaring Mr. Gripp's earworm, as well as the theme from "Baby Shark," another maddeningly catchy children's tune, outside an event center to deter homeless people from sleeping or convening in the area at night.

From New Yorker - Now the music-as-deterrent technique has been adopted by the Slurpee sector. Franchises of 7-Eleven have been using the tactic to dissuade homeless people from loitering outside. Their music of choice? Opera-Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" in Modesto, California; Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in Salt Lake City, Utah; Bizet's "Carmen" in San Diego.

04/2019 - Researchers in Malaysia published a study last month that suggests that the Skrillex song "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" is able to affect mosquito behaviour. Considering that mosquitoes use sound to communicate, colleagues at the University of Malaysia in Sarawak wondered if their behaviour could be disrupted by playing a Skrillex track. They set up an experiment to compare mosquito feeding and mating in the presence of the track "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" with that of mosquitoes listening to no music at all. According to their research, the insects bit less and refrained from mating when the song was played. In their article they say that they "used this electronic song in the experiments due to its loudness and pitch."