Too right. It stops us thinking. It stops us feeling. It stops us questioning. It stops us speaking (you can't talk to someone who's hooked up to his headphones having the head within banged to breaking point by some synthetic beat). Why do we put up with it? And when will shops learn that it's sometimes not productive at the counters? Now and then it persuades us to buy things we absolutely shouldn't - try resisting a boutique full of women all humming along to 'Dancing Queen' - but often it has quite the opposite effect. I beat a hasty retreat from shops, even nice ones having good value sales, if I don't like the aural assault they subject me to. They lose my custom. Simples.
From Terence Blacker's article:
What went wrong? When did music turn into mass-produced mind control? I would dearly love to persuade Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares, The Trap, etc) to make some documentaries on the subject. Meanwhile, here's a simple message to the shops, lifts, hotel lobbies and self-deafening, noise-polluting headbangers out there: turn it off!The composer revealed that he had recently been driven out of a branch of Waterstone's by the rubbish being played on the book shop's sound system. The "moronic melodies" of mobile phone ringtones were every bit as bad. The Performing Rights Society (PRS), collecting cash on behalf of musicians, was, said Sir Peter, contributing to a general process of dumbing down...
The reason piped music is used by business is to reduce customers to a state of blissed-out receptiveness. "Audio architecture is emotion by design," the Muzak website creepily explains, "Its power lies in its subtlety." But there is something alarming about a society so afraid of silence or the sound of human communication that it is prepared to have its privacy invaded in this way.
UPDATE: Demetrius, in the comments box, has suggested we ask you to post your worst experiences of piped music. Good idea, so please -- go for it! And, if you have any good ones that make you love it, please post those too...
5 comments:
Perhaps you should ask for people's worst experience from piped music. My vote would go to nigh on two hours in a doctor's waiting room with him running increasingly late. The music was repeated early fifties down market pop songs which I did not like at the time and even less now.
Autumn from The Four Seasons in a perpetual loop at the veggie restaurant round the corner from where I used to live off the Edgward Road. I gave them a couple of cassettes - yes, it was that long ago - but somehow it soon got back to do-be-do do, do-be-do-do.
Mind you, if Max listened to melodies enough, they might eventually have a liberating effect on his music...not that I'm THAT reactionary, but if anything I dislike his attempts to be 'popular' the most.
Not so much 'turn it off!' as 'Turn it down!', they enjoy it for a reason right?
As for piped music, any shops playing all this easily created, talentlessly repetitive, mainstream fakery that's being blasted out needs to stop. (but it never will in this modern 'culture') and i really cant stand these ignorant people people who play this 'music' stupidly loud on busses / trams whilst their eyes are stuck in mobile screen conversation.
*Rant over* :)
I really enjoyed your talk on the '9th symphony curse (restriction?)', and the music, life and death of Mahler and Mozart. I found it really insightful, i forgot about how living conditions were in the past. (i was the young person sitting in the middle)
I work parttime at a shop in Canada that sells outdoor gear - everything from hiking boots to canoes and kayaks. Most of the time there is music playing in the ceiling. I often complain about it and occasionally it gets changed or turned down.
What drives me bonkers about this store is that visually things are very carefully thought out. Certain colours of clothing should or should not be hung beside certain other colours. There is constant tweaking of how merchandise is displayed.
However, when I've talked to the boss about the 'sound' of the store and how that 'sound' has an effect on customers, she just doesn't seem to get it.
Now, I have to confess to a generation gap. I'm probably two to three decades older than most of the other staff in the store. However, we do have a lot of older customers. Often it is a trial trying to talk to them over the din in the ceiling. It can be challenging to talk to a customer who is merely soft spoken.
The staff mostly pick the music channels that are played in the store although some more strident rock stations are outlawed. However, I can tell you that listening to 80s rock for a whole day takes quite a toll on my mood.
My boss once remarked that she had talked to some of the staff about not having any music at all. (What a concept!) She said that several staff said they thought the store would be creepy if there was no music. And so it goes.
I often leave stores where the music is too much in the foreground. And I often ask in restaurants for the music to be turned down or, preferably, off. If they give me attitude, that's a restaurant I don't return to. Imagine wanting to be able to have a conversation without shouting.
I must admit that I have PMD's "Farewell to Stromness" as - er- a ringtone!!
Well, it is actually my very favourite piece of contemporary piano music, and this is a chance to hear it....
Don't know if he would approve, though, if he knew about it!!
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