Washington Post - Musical stairs: Listening to the secret music of metro's run-down escalators

There's a secret jazz seeping from Washington's aging Metro escalators - those anemic metal walkways that fill our transit system with a crooked approximation of Ornette Coleman. Like human breath pushing through polished brass, they honk and bleat and squawk and... why are you still wearing those earbuds?

Every rush hour is a chance to immerse yourself in the accidental music of worn-down Washington. But it can only sound like music if you want it to… Is it just noise? If you want to call it that, sure.

"Most of the research on noise shows that people use the label 'noise' to denigrate sound they don't want to hear," says Jonathan Sterne, a professor at McGill University in Montreal whose research explores the role of sound technologies in Western culture. (And that means any sound - not just rumbling jets and squealing brakes.)

"It can often be a cloak for broader political issues. Noise complaints can be used in zoning law to get rid of people."