Since what historians call the Second World War, since the extermination camps of the Third Reich, we have entered a time in which melodic sequences have become exasperating. Over the entire surface of the earth, and for the first time since the invention of the first instruments, the use of music has become at the same time pregnant and repugnant. Suddenly infinitely amplified by the invention of electricity and the multiplication of its technology, it has become incessant, aggressing night and day, in the commercial streets of city centres, in shopping centres, in arcades, in department stores, in bookstores, in lobbies of foreign banks where one goes to withdraw money, even in swimming pools, even at the beach, in private apartments, in restaurants, in taxis, in the metro, in airports.

Even in aeroplanes during takeoff and landing.

Even in death camps.

The expression Hatred of Music is meant to convey to what point music can become an object of hatred to someone who once adored it beyond measure.

Pascal Quignard, The Hatred of Music (1996)