White Noise (slang)
The term white noise, the 'sh' noise produced by a signal containing all audible frequencies of vibration, is sometimes used as slang (or a neologism) to describe a meaningless commotion or chatter that masks or obliterates underlying information.
The information itself may have characteristics that achieve this effect without the need to introducing a masking layer. A common example of this usage is a politician including more information than needed to mask a point he doesn't want noticed.
In music the term is used for music that is discordant with no melody; disagreeable, harsh or dissonant.
Read more about White Noise (slang): "White Noise" in The Media
Famous quotes containing the words white and/or noise:
“And to your more bewitching, see the proud,
Plump bed bear up, and swelling like a cloud,
Tempting the two too modest; can
Ye see it brustle like a swan,
And you be cold
To meet it when it woos and seems to fold
The arms to hug you? Throw, throw
Yourselves into the mighty overflow
Of that white pride, and drown
The night with you in floods of down.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.”
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)