To think neighbours shouldn't be playing music all day in the garden

[Cooperativebox]

Hear me out, I'm not exactly frothing at the mouth, but I do think it's rather inconsiderate of the neighbours to do be doing this.
We all live practically on top of each other on this street - small terraced houses with gardens right next to each other. Neighbour plays her music loud enough for me to hear inside my house, in her back garden.
AIBU to be a bit irritated at this? I'm grateful it's quite classy music at least - I'd be asking her to put in earphones if it was drill I'm just surprised at her more than anything, I'd be embarrassed for my neighbours to know my music taste!

I agree. I would never play music in the garden.

I agree. I hate it.

Silence is golden.

I hate listening to music in the garden. Much prefer to listen to the birds! Don’t mind lawnmowers or children playing, but not music. Was such a relief when we moved. No noise from our neighbours now.

Of course you're irritated by this! Your peace and quiet is being disturbed.

It may be she doesn't realise how far it carries - do go over and say that it's disturbing you inside your house and could she turn it down or take it indoors.

I had music on in the garden for a couple of hours last night. Not particularly loud (played from portable speaker). I wouldn't do it all day. Others might be able to hear but I think it just balances out their noisy car engines which they leave idling for ages/out of hours building work/constantly shrieking kids (delete depending on which neighbour) so I don't feel particularly guilty about it.

We used we used to have a relatively peaceful neighbourhood but I think a new neighbour has moved in one of the side streets as we now have their radio going every day and loud enough for us to hear the tunes and lyrics, so hate to think what it's like for their immediate neighbours. I think it's inconsiderate to impose your music choices on other people to this degree.

I bloody hate neighbours who disturb the peace in the garden. I mean ok if you are having a barbie and got people over then yes you are going to hear chatting etc which I guess is fair enough but just playing music - no that is inconsiderate.

Children playing quietly - fair enough. Children screaming or banging balls - no inconsiderate.

Noisy inconsiderate neighbours are the pits.

Noise seems to carry more at night

And there is a difference between 'life' noises and imposing your music taste on the neighbours

It's so selfish of them. I hear you OP.

Doubt they'd like to be subjected to other people's music.

Wear earphones if you want to listen to music in the garden.

Oh I forgot about the guy who plays shit talk radio all day long, with his windows open, loud enough for the whole street to hear.

We often have dinner in the garden when it's warm, with a bit of music on. Would be a bit weird if we both cracked out the airpods. Music at a reasonable volume isn't unreasonable in my opinion.

Provided it’s not too loud, not too late, not all the time, and/or not shit music, it’s fine! But then I love music on so I’m probably that annoying neighbour who has fairly quiet music on in the garden on a summers day from time to time!

We have music on in our garden from time to time, like almost everyone I know. It's not loud, booming music and is usually just the radio played through the speaker. It's fine.

No, it's not fine. Really it's not.

I enjoy music; it's one of the most important things in my life. But I would never impose my choice of music on others.

Of course children's noise, or other people's conversation is a different matter (differently structured, I suppose). Being forced to listen to someone else's choice of music, however, is torture.

(They tortured prisoners by making them listen to pop music in Guantanamo, did you know?)

You probably don't think of yourself as a bad person, but now you know the effect music forced on unwilling hearers can have, continuing to do so would mark you out as selfish and uncaring.

Please, please stop imposing your choice of music - at any volume, for any period - on others. Please. It's an awful, selfish, horrible thing to do. Please stop.

it's so rude and inconsiderate, but people are horribly selfish and bad-mannered unfortunately.

Can you imagine if EVERY house decided to play loud music, and crank it up to cover the others noise? Of course normal people don't do that. The selfish few rely on the good-will of the others to get away with everything.

it's the same with bonfires, or the ridiculous"garden bars", or people having movie parties in the garden.

Anything that impacts on next door is unreasonable, but until people get a fine, which is too rare these days, they don't care.

@gidabo so why is it ok that I have to be woken up by screeching kids at 7am then? Because that's just 'life noise?'

My music is my life noise.

7am is too early and unreasonable.
Screeching is unnecessary and unreasonable.
So is other people's music

Our neighbors do this but luckily they have great taste. It's always pretty chill background music or something interesting I haven't heard before.

It still irks me slightly but I know from experience it could be muuuuuch worse

Anyway YANBU

@Nanny0gg and that's exactly why I don't feel guilty for having music playing softly while we have dinner. It's not booming out, it's civilised. Unlike my neighbour's kids.

YANBU, lovely day last weekend, whilst cat sitting for DD I thought I would sit in her lovely little garden and do a bit of weeding.

Five minutes later noisy next door but one neighbour could be heard across two gardens saying “Alexa, play Magic Soul” and so the block of five houses had to listen to Magic Soul blasting through his open doors.

Fuck that, the cat has to come in and I went home,

New neighbours moved in with mother effing and jeffing at her husband and children. Music on loud (using Alexa to select tracks so I have felt like saying Alexa STFU over the fence). Kids scream and fight all day long if only mum home. Quietly play if Dad is there. We are not attached or even close ...probably 60 ft between her back door and mine and I can hear her insider my house. Other neighbours have suggested maybe Mum is deaf and can't hear very well... 🙄 I think she's just ignorant but I have been round and she has been quieter since.

It's a really entitled attitude to think music at a level others can hear is ok.

An odd party fine....but daily? Imagine if we all did it.

I sometimes like to listen to music in my garden if I’m doing something dull (like painting the fence).

However I’m considerate enough to wear my EarPods as I wouldn’t want to be disturbed by my neighbours music if I was reading a book or quietly relaxing.

I think any music shouldn’t be loud enough to disturb neighbours peace you can always wear headphones or play it indoors when you know people are out! It’s not fair to impose your music tastes on others - we all have our own tastes!

Hated this when I stayed in newbuilds

when it was good weather around 12pm the neighbour would put their music on. That was it. On untill sunset.
really annoying as somedays you just want to sit. I’d rather listen to kids play outside than someone’s music

another neighbour eventually said & they took the huff. Music stopped for a week but then resumed

Wow, calm down love, you'll get high blood pressure! I did say it was quiet not booming music. I put the speaker on when I'm in the summerhouse and fall asleep to it. I don't think you can even hear it outside of our garden, especially when there's other neighbourhood noise going on at the same time.

No, I don't think that's the reason. Nor, come to think of it, do I think it's OK for neighbouring children to screech at 7am and wake their neighbours. Surely nobody thinks that!

But the difference between the noise of children playing out on a summer's afternoon (acceptable if not too loud) and the noise of a neighbour's choice of music (not acceptable if at all audible) is an interesting one nevertheless.

I have given some thought to this, in fact. When I said in the earlier post that the difference may be 'structural', I had something in mind.

As follows. I wonder if you have ever wondered why people, almost universally, enjoy music of one sort or another? Long story short, but perhaps the reason is partly cognitive, in a way. Music, pure music, that is (word-free if you like) has a sort of difficult-to-pin-down (almost?) cognitive structure ... like 'something almost being said', I recall the pianist Simone Dinnerstein putting it a while back. (Others have said similar things.)

And, well, cutting the story short, it does seem that for at least some of us music-lovers, music tends to grab hold of a part of our mind that other noises don't. There's a kind of willy-nilly grab of our cognitive bits involved, if that makes sense.

Now add this willy-nilly grab to the fact that bad art has the tendency to drive out good. And that that bit of my cognitive space that is engaged rehearsing silently - oh, I dunno, the choral finale of Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme or Goldberg variation 19, whatever (Or just having a rest, perhaps) - gets filled, against my will, by some shit from radio 2 or spotify, what have you. This is about as anoying as it can get. It's torture, in fact. I hate it.

This is probably a bit ott for MN AIBU. But, well, I wanted to make the point that listening to your choice of music may be torture to me in a way that listening to your children's laughter (yes, and even squeals) may not be.

Which, all being said, bolsters my point that, now you know, you should desist from possibly torturing those about you by forcing them to listen to music they didn't choose. ... Otherwise, you label yourself as a particularly selfish and horrible human being. (Which you probably are not, albeit you may have been ignorant of the harm you unwittingly have caused until now.)

Anyway, those who play music in their gardens, please, please stop doing this. Some of us are really quite badly affected by it, to our severe detriment.