Classical music is often used to create a warm and inviting environment, like in a fancy cheese shop or an antique bookstore.

This year, Los Angeles Metro launched a pilot program where loud classical music is piped into a metro station to stop unhoused people from loitering. But will it work? LA Times arts and culture reporter Jessica Gelt joined host Lisa McRee on "LA Times Today" with more.

"They're piping in loud classical music," Gelt said. "They say it's a royalty free playlist, and they listed some classic composers, and they are piping it into Westlake/MacArthur Park, along with these floodlights on either end of the platform and increased patrolling and other things as part of a pilot program to try and make it uncomfortable for unhoused people to spend long periods of time down there and also to deter crime."

Critics of the tactic have been vocal on social media. Gelt described their response. 

"People are pretty upset about this," she said. "They feel that music should not be used as what they're referring to as a cruel and inhumane torture device at the levels that they're experiencing. People who have been underground have put things on Twitter with [sound] levels that sound exorbitantly loud. They've compared it to 'A Clockwork Orange,' a sort of dystopian society where classical music is being used for these really dark ends."

The volume of the sound has been a point of contention between advocates and LA Metro. Gelt visited the station with a decibel meter to check it out.

"It averaged around 83 decibels," she said. "And depending on where you were standing, it went up to 90 decibels. The CDC says that anything between 80 and 85 decibels is on par with a leaf blower or a weed whacker, and that those types of decibels for two plus hours can actually begin to cause damage to your hearing."

Metro denied that the music is too loud and shared how successful the program has been so far.

"They said that the decibel level on the street above, which is right by MacArthur Park, is actually louder than down below," Gelt said. "I also took a handheld meter up there and did not find that to be the case. They did say that the goal, the reduction in emergency calls and the reduction in crime, that it has worked. And that is significant and compelling enough so that they feel that it's serving its purpose."

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview.

Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.