Train Etiquette

I noticed something about my train journey today that I’m surprised hasn’t come to my attention before… The very specific routine I have with my iPhone. I board at Sidcup, get as much internet usage out of my phone as I can (facebook, twitter, texts) before I reach Mottingham and the reception goes to hell. Then the earphones come out, tucked under coat or t-shirt if it’s hot and I make the important choice of music for my journey.

A pet hate of mine, something that really grinds my gears, are the people who have their music up way too loud on the train…  I know its sometimes hard to gauge just how loud the music coming out of your earphones actually is.  I have no problem with the faint crack of  a snare or thud of  a kick drum.  Its just those people who literally turn it all the way upto eleven!  I don’t care if the music you are listening to is of merit (a guy on the train the other day managed to fray my nerves with ‘Enter Sandman’) or there’s hardly anyone around… its just plain bloody rude!  A good gauge to know if your playing your music too loud… If I can hear it over my own music being supplied directly into my ears!

I like to think I’m aware of how annoying this can be and try to conduct my behaviour accordingly.  A fair amount of my time on the train is spent sitting there, iPhone in hand, riding the volume button.  Trying to get that delicate balance between actually being able to hear the song and letting everybody else in on the action.  I acknowledge its tough, sometimes the train is loud and you can barely hear whats coming through your earphones and there is some music that just needs to be played loud!  Sometimes I find myself taking the earphones off, placing them as far away from me as I can without drawing attention to myself and listening in to see if the music is audible from a distance.  When the train pulls into a station I find myself automatically reaching for the volume click and pressing it down a mark or two.  When the train starts rumbling on its way again, I switch it up to what it was before!  It does seem like a lot of hard work but its the way its got to be I’m afraid.  I don’t want to hear what music you are into at the moment just as much as I’m sure you don’t want to know what music I’m into at the moment.  Its a fair trade and one that needs to be more strictly adhered to… there is an unwritten etiquette to it people and if you don’t know about, don’t board the train!

However, I noticed today that my choice of music being heavily affected by this thought process.  I find myself leaning towards the softer, less rock, more acoustic side of my music library on the train journey (Jack Johnson, Nebraska etc) and then overcompensate when I reach the city and leave the train.  Whatever album I’m listening to tends to finish when the train hits Charing Cross.  As I’m walking through the barriers I find myself always switching to something with a little more umph (Hold Steady, Zeppelin, GnR etc) and slowly start to raise the volume until I hit daylight and its like a release.  Music, the way it should be played, carries me to wherever I’m supposed to be going, a big, broad smile across my face, hopefully not inconveniencing anybody along the way!