Prompt's TechBlog

Youth culture has always been partly defined by its music. Now technology is allegedly being used to add sounds to a record that only young people can hear.

As we age, our ears become less sensitive to noise. This isn't extreme enough to explain why one generation's banging choons is another generation's bloody racket, but it's enough to drive loiterers away from shopping centres: Compound Security started off with a mosquito alarm, which emits a high pitched noise that annoys young people but which cannot be heard by older adults. It's sold as a security device, to stop teenagers hanging around at shopping centres.

Now Compound Security tells the BBC it has commissioned a dance record that uses the same technique to provide an additional layer of harmony that only young people can hear.

Maybe this is just smart marketing. Music and youth culture are often about rebellion and forging a group identity, and what could be more exclusive than having secret music that fogeys can't hear even if they're sat right next to you?

As a man on the senior side of 25, I couldn't tell whether Compound Security is telling the truth, any more than I can be sure that you and I see the same colour as green.

Sadly, the technique is only being applied to some of the notes. Until they invent the record* that's completely silent for older people, young people will be nagged to turn it down. They will continue marching to their rooms, slamming the door and moaning 'God! Don't you know anything! It's supposed to be loud! Tcho!'

(*A record was a flat plastic thing like a CD but black and literally groovy. As well you know).