Jordanians wake to an irritating tune blared from gas trucks

EVERY DAY many groggy Jordanians are woken by the sound of Beethoven blasted down the street. Trucks selling gas cylinders drive around playing a tinny electronic version of “Für Elise” in the early hours of the morning, alerting customers in the style of an ice-cream van. Residents in need of gas flag down the van when they hear the sound. Some consider the gas-truck music a part of Jordanian life’s rich soundtrack. Others think it is noise pollution.

Until the late 1990s gas-truck drivers alerted their customers by loudly honking or clanging keys against the cylinders. After complaints about the noise, the government and the fuel syndicate agreed to replace the honking with “a relaxing kind of music”, says Hussein Allaboun, head of the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission.

In April the commission asked Jordanians how they felt about it. Out of some 10,000 respondents, 27% said they would prefer to phone the gas company and arrange a delivery; 53% said they would like to order through a smartphone app (though one doesn’t yet exist); only 20% liked the current system.

The gas-truck music is “the second biggest melody after the call to prayer”, says Johnny Amore, an artist who got the tune changed temporarily (to something more Jordanian-sounding) in 2009 under an EU-funded project. The sound sometimes...