Last month I wrote about some of my experiences in Damanhur, a spiritual community two hours west of Turin, Italy.. As magnificent and awe-inspiring as that part of the visit was, getting there was definitely challenging. In fact, just about anywhere I went in Italy (and in Amsterdam as well), in taxis, walking past outdoor markets and downtown storefronts, I was amazed that one sound was virtually a universal constant. This was the "Euro-disco-techno" robotocized drum rhythm.

Perhaps most disturbing was that it was inescapable. Walking into the bank to change currency, I was assaulted with unwelcome noise masquerading as music. Attempting to relax in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, the dithering cymbals and machine-gun like snare drum goosed my heartbeat even more than my cappuccino.

What's the story? Why has this beat become so omnipresent?

The taxi driver who picked me up at the airport told me that, even in such a classical music mecca as Amsterdam, there was no classical music on the radio during the day. At night, however, you could find a classical station. "You just get used to it," he said. "Not me," I replied. "Please shut the damn radio off." (Maybe that's why they call it Amster-damn?)

He theorized that perhaps this synthetic rhythm was the audio analog of the sound of electrons, electricity and computers.

Maybe the younger generation is hardwired differently than the Boomer generation. Or is it just because that's the rhythm that they've been weaned on and exposed to since birth and have become entrained to?

In any case, it was strange to be walking on streets with hundreds of years of history, to the accompaniment of rhythms that have virtually no history. This was not hip-hop, by the way, but variations on jungle, techno, techstep…. In the words of Village Voice writer Simon Reynolds, "Tech stands not for Detroit techno, dreamy and elegant, but the brutalist hardcore strain . . . riff-driven aggression and blaring midfrequency noise that turned (some folks') rock-reared ears on to rave music…. It's the new heavy metal, the dark side of the early Ecstasy-fueled utopianism turned dystopian."

Whew! Reynolds articulates more musicology in one paragraph than some other writers do in whole books. It inspired me to renew my subscription on the spot. For those of us in the field of therapeutic music, or for anyone who uses music in their healing and therapeutic work, like massage therapists, chiropractors, dentists, hospice workers . . . the popularity of such non-healing soundtracks is a punishment.

If you -- dear reader -- have any theories, please email them to me and I'll be happy to pass them along to others who read this column and who visit my new chat room on my own website.

Many of us believe that the cultural implications of such a disharmonious trancing-out sound affirm what Plato and Confucius knew thousands of years ago - that there was a direct relationship between the quality of a civilization and the quality of the dominant form of musical expression. As the music gets more tonally dissonant and rhythmically aggressive, the cultural level of the society loses its freedoms and sinks downward into dictatorship or anarchy.

As I walked on the streets of Italy and Holland, this noise was louder than my personal CD player and headphones. It was even in the bathrooms! (Some enterprising grad student should study the effects of such rhythms on regularity and constipation.)

But don't expect to see any such research published soon. Recent reports about the cover-ups on the health effects of cell phones demonstrate the difficulty in finding, much less communicating, the truth. By the way, it has a direct relationship to why there is so little funding for meaningful research into the healing powers of music.

Until next time, keep some good music in your life.

Steven Halpern is an award-winning composer, recording artist and sound healer of over 50 albums. For over 25 years, he has been an impassioned advocate of the healing powers of music for health, healing and spiritual growth. His debut release, Spectrum Suite, was recently voted "the most influential New Age recording of all time" by New Age Voice Magazine. He has just established the Steven Halpern Foundation to help bring Sound Healing to a much wider audience in hospices, hospitals and schools. He invites you to join the outreach at www.stevenhalpernfoundtn.com. For more information visit him at his website at www.stevenhalpern.com or call 800 909 0707