BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?

Subject: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 08:55 AM

... by which I mean music that's like spam or junk mail, that gets played at you when you're out shopping or in a restaurant or wherever; even "proper" music, not just muzak.

I found out years ago that I can't read a book and listen to music at the same time: I can do one or the other, and the music usually wins. These days, I can't ignore music at all: I have to actively listen to it, even if it's stuff I dislike, or in inappropriate situations. It's really annoying, not just to me, but to anyone trying to hold a conversation with me. Quiet music is worse in some ways, because I strain all the more to hear it.

Is it just me, or does anyone else suffer like this?

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: IvanB
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 10:02 AM

I find it somewhat different for myself, Steve. I can read to most soft music of genres in which I'm not particularly interested. Interestingly enough, I can also read with Baroque music playing even though that's one period of music in which I'm quite interested. But if folk, blues, jazz, Medieval, Renaissance, Classical or Romance music are playing, I find myself listening to the music either for the "message" or for the interplay of the various parts. Loud rock or heavy metal, I can usually just not abide.

When I read the title of this thread, I assumed that it referred to music that gets played automatically when one enters a web site. I find this annoying for two reasons. First, it's often music that I don't enjoy anyway and, second, it happens all too often when I have my speaker volume set way up because I was listening to something quiet shortly before. Since I don't keep my volume control in the tray, it can take some seconds before I can adjust the volume or mute the sound. It goes without saying that I don't look too kindly on web sites that inflict sound on you without any action on your part.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: C-flat
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 10:10 AM

I find "on hold" music particularly annoying and distracting. I'm sure I'm in good company!

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: GUEST,harvey andrews
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 11:04 AM

Steve...how good to hear from a fellow sufferer.Background music has crippled my public life completely. My wife and I rarely if ever go to restaurants or pubs. If we have to, I have to go in and check for background music and if it's there I have to move on and check somewhere else. My barber knows to turn his radio off if I come in. I walk in to a shop and then straight out again. It does seem to be a peculiarly English problem as I don't find it anywhere near as bad in Germany and not quite as bad in Canada, although Rick Fielding who I have had the immense pleasure of staying with will tell you how bad the problem is for me. It's the inappropriateness of what's played that gets me.If there's a regular drum beat I'm off and if it's some guy yelling at me (I think it's called "Rap"!!) I have been known to yell back.Once, when shopping for shoes for my son,a stressful occupation as he was size 13 at 13, I was seen in the fifth shoe shop standing on a chair beating a loudspeaker with my hat and yelling "Shut up, you moron!" to the amusement and bafflement of a small crowd. It seems to me a bigger problem for musicians and people to whom music is important. I can't shut it out at all. If it's there I have to listen to it, and it's never what I would choose to listen to. It renders coherent speech impossible and just winds me up to the point where I have to flee. Largely I think this is because I don't want "drop my E and dance myself stupid" music when I'm after a quiet meal and chat with my wife or friends. Gentle, low classical music is bearable in certain situations, but once a voice comes in..I flee. I have been told that a well known Symphony orchestra actually provides new members with a list of non-music playing pubs and restaurants when they join,showing this problem is a common one for musicians. The need for background music has taken over society to such an extent that many children can't work without it and I've now read of schools that are experimenting with having it in the classroom!!! The late, great Spike Milligan was a founder member of the anti-muzak society.I can't think of its real name but it does exist and issues cards you can hand to proprietors either thanking them for a quiet place or explaining why you won't be using their facilities and spending your money with them. The final abomination coming in now is background music in bookshops. God help all sufferers.I now carry earplugs wherver I go and do wear them sometimes when forced to eat out. Ask Rick! (On another tack, I'm the founder member of the "Static singers" society, pledged to promote the bizarre idea of singing whilst standing still and maybe even playing an instrument at the same time.)

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 11:38 AM

I think HA above had better invest in a good set of ear plugs...

I've never been able to read with music on... the music wins...

But Mall/restaurant/hold music? If I don't wanna listen, I just tune it out...

Easy peasy...

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:00 PM

I detest most canned music that I am forced to hear in restaurants, malls, stores, sidewalks, from other cars (those idiots in their "boom" cars)...and so on.

I reserve a special hatred for radio music, rap, heavy metal, hip-hop, and similar varieties. Virtually every and restaurant and business in Orillia, Ontario seems to have decided that their employees and customers can't live without "Easy Rock" coming over the speakers! Their them jingle is "I love Easy Rock...", played frequently between the same 300 soft rock songs you've already heard 50,000 times or more and the obnoxious advertising that accompanies them. I personally have known a number of individuals who are bedeviled by the music at work, but who can't get the management to turn it off, because they think that without it they may lose customers!

I search in vain for a nice quiet restaurant without a radio playing. Found an oriental one in Toronto like that, but not in Orillia.

It's so stupid. It's really Orwell's 1984 out there...the constant input from the corporate marketing machine, lulling people into a vacuous state of mediocrity, enforcing blind conformity through unconscious habitual behaviour.

Cue the music:

"How can I LIVE without you (she wants to know...), How can I BREATHE without you (God only knows...), How can this nitwit...E-VER--SUR-VI-I-I-I-IVE!!!"

Bleagghhhh!

I hate Easy Rock.

The computer pop-up music is easier to deal with. I just keep the speakers turned off most of the time. That's what I like about computers...I am the one who decides what to listen to and when.

I do appreciate the rap enthusiasts who listen to it on headphones, thus sparing the rest of us...that is considerate, although it must be hard on their eardrums.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: JenEllen
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:10 PM

The soft-rock-easy-listening-muzak is bad enough, I can't concentrate. It is certainly worse when it's played softly, I find my ear straining to make it out and then any attempt at conversation is truly shot. However, the ABSOLUTE worst, is muzak in OTHER LANGUAGES!!!!

I worked as a hostess at a Chinese restaurant while I was in high school. Stuck behind a register for most of the night, listening to Chinese takes on American pop music. Dreadful. When I finally got to the spot where I found myself singing in the shower (not an uncommon occurance) and it was "FlashDance"...in MANDARIN....I quit the job.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Jeri
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:30 PM

Silence is golden, and is a lot rarer than gold.
I can't stand the piped-in music interfering with what I have in my head. On the other hand, every now and then I like the song. I once found myself singing along and noticed another woman not too far away doing the same thing. (I think it was "Lean On Me.") If she'd been as crazy as I, we could have had a duet. This is rare though, most times it just drives me nuts. You have to wonder what happened to make a society so uncomfortable with silence.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:36 PM

The absolute worst is when their are two(or more) independent but audible sources of music--and why doesn't anyone else notice it?

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Pseudolus
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:57 PM

There was another thread on this subject a while back. There were some VERY strong opinions (some of my own!) but after looking at it again it proved to be pretty good reading. It's long but if you have the time.....read on.

Click Here

This is my first try at a blue clicky thing, let's see how it works!

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: kendall
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 01:59 PM

Ditto on all that has been said! To me, that crap is an abomination! Not enough people complain, but, I do, often and loudly. At the supermarket one day they were playing that screechy crap that sounds like a pig being butchered. I went to the manager and said, "Please turn that shit off, or down." He said "You don't like music"? I replied, "I love MUSIC, that's the whole problem! that crap makes me want to break things or hurt someone." "oh, well, we cant have that", he said, and he turned it way down.It was a half truth; I wouldn't really hurt someone.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 02:11 PM

I was kicking through the mall the other day and the musak version of "Thick As A Brick" came on... Best thing that I've found in that mall in a long time!

LOL!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 02:37 PM

I think that there are huge numbers of people in this country (the U.S.) who are afraid to be alone. Any diminution in the sounds of human activity is intolerable. If you were to pick them up by the scruff of the neck and drop them into the tall-and-uncut (provided you could still find some) where the only thing to be heard is the soft rush of a gentle wind blowing through the trees or the ripple of water in a nearby creek or the songs of birds—and the only human contact they have at that moment are their own thoughts—they would panic and run screaming!

Within recent generations, so many people have been born and raised away from nature and in the midst of the bustle and frenzy of human activity that they have rarely if ever experienced quiet and solitude. To be removed from the sounds of constant activity even for a short time is a frightening experience for them. When alone, they turn on the television or the radio, not that there is anything they really want to watch or listen to, they just want it on for "company." To keep people raised in the hothouse of constant stimulation from the horror of being alone with their own thoughts, there must be sound everywhere.

This need—or rather, this addiction—results in the "Wall of Sound" that comes at everyone constantly, like a never-ending tsunami. Radio announcers are instructed (I know—I was one) to "run a tight board," that is, overlap recordings, begin to talk over a record as it fades out, start the next record before you finish what you're saying, etc. No Dead Air is the absolute rule. There is intrusive background music (to call much of it "music" is being generous) in public buildings, in restaurants, in stores of all kinds, in elevators—even in rest rooms. There is no refuge even there. Most "Popular" music (e.g. rock, heavy metal, rap, hip-hop, etc.) reflects this "Wall of Sound." It's well known that the decibel level at rock concerts is well beyond the point at which it can cause permanent hearing loss in the audience as well as in the performers, and that's not just because I'm getting older. It's measurable. Even country and western singers and groups who used to sing while accompanying themselves with just a solo guitar (say, like Hank Williams or the Sons of the Pioneers) no longer dare mount a stage or make a record unless they have a microphone shoved into their mouths and are backed by two or three guitars, a bass, a fiddle, a couple of keyboards, a set of drums, sometimes one or more brass instruments, and a chorus of back-up singers, all run through powerful amplification and out through a set of speakers each of which can register 6.5 on the Richter Scale. Constant sensory overload is the rule of the age. How long has it been since you've heard a CD (except for old ones or some very special ones), consisting of a single voice accompanied by one guitar, banjo, autoharp, or dulcimer?

The neighbor across the street, especially on a warm day with the windows open, inflicts his musical "taste" on the entire neighborhood. Sometimes it's two or more neighbors in competition. A car drives by outside and the onboard sound system is so powerful you can feel it as much as hear it. Your upstairs neighbor, being neighborly, keeps her stereo turned down, but you can still hear a constant "thump thump thump thump" through your ceiling all day long, until the only things that keep you from going upstairs and strangling her is partly because she's a nice person and most of the time a considerate neighbor, and partly because you fear the legal consequences. Then, to get away from it all, you go for a quiet walk in the park or in the woods, and even there, off in the distance some pathetic twit has a boom-box turned up as loud as it will go.

Fortunately, most of the time, unless it's particularly loud and intrusive, I can ignore it. I can read with soft music in the background—depending on what the music is. Some I can relegate to the category of sounds "below the threshold," sounds that we usually don't notice because they just form part of the background, such as the hum of the refrigerator, or the tire-rustle of an occasional car driving by, or someone coming through the front door of the apartment building and going upstairs. Unless we intentionally listen for them, we don't even hear them. If it's a piece of music I particularly like, it will catch my attention. Folk music and a few other kinds of music I have to listen to, even if it's something I've very familiar with. Sometimes because it's something I'm very familiar with.

One of my favorite places in all this world is in the Hoh rain forest out on the Olympic Peninsula. I've made friends with a huge old tree over there. Most of the time, all you can hear is the soft wind, and I just sit there with my friend and we can be silent together. It gives me a real sense of peace and eternity.

The computer says I've just spewed out some 800+ words. This subject sure rattled my cage! Sorry about that.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 03:57 PM

I can mostly avoid it, but it is sometimes an annoyance in supermarkets, and I take earplugs to the laundromat just in case. When it is obtrusive, I record the fact in my journal as "speakerfilth".

Speaking of Orwell, he wrote on this subject in 1946 in a well-known essay called "Pleasure Spots":

"...Its function is to prevent thought and conversation, and to shut out any natural sound...that might otherwise intrude. The radio is already consciously used for this purpose by innumerable people. In very many English homes the radio is literally never turned off.... The music prevents the conversation from becoming serious or even coherent, while the chatter of voices stops one from listening attentively to the music and thus prevents the onset of that dreaded thing, thought. For

The lights must never go out.
The music must always play,
Lest we should see where we are;
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the dark
Who have never been happy or good."

(The quotation is from W. H. Auden.)

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 04:37 PM

My therapist (but what does he know?) would ask about childhood. Some education "experts" will tell you that inner city/slum kids learn to 'tune out' as a necessary defense mechanism. Their environments are so noise polluted they have to be able to live above the jive. Unfortunately they can activate that skill on command at any time, like during Mr. Beagleworthy's fourth period civics class.

I on the other hand was raised by a paranoid hypochondriac father to whom every noise, orchestrated or not was a source of danger to the Universe as he knew it, and I was dutifully conditioned to follow suit. I can't tune out much of anything.

Foes of thread creep, stop reading now. The Auden thing did it--I have never understood why DJ's (may they all die lingering, painful deaths from earache) think that music has to be loud enough to stun small animals. I was totally amazed last week when I was in such a place and had someone 21 years old voice that opinion even before I did. But that is no longer 'background'--it's the only ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 04:45 PM

I want a Humvee...better yet, a Sherman tank,,,to deal with kids in cars who blast hip-hop and rock at me with bass turned up and rattling nearby windows!

I can mostly tune out the canned stuff at the grocery store, but boom boxes in public ought to be banned like cigarettes in a restaurant.

Many years ago, the guy across the street put on some loud crap while he was washing his car, pointing from his front door toward his car...and thence at MY front door!

I briefly gave into temptation and turned MY speaker back at him and put on a record of Black Watch pipe music....I think he got the point, and I stopped soon out of consideration of of the other neighbors....

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 05:56 PM

Volume, it's all in the VOLUME. Pubs especially. Now clothes shops seem to have read the message it is a bit easier but I don't give them my trade if it intrudes.
Steve, they have moved on to more subtitle messages. SMELL. Flower smells for romantic, banana for humour, coffee bread and cigars. It is all a quite concious turn-off for me. Am I olifactorilly perverse?
I find the volume from cars radios bad but some are complete no-brainers, they cannot be hearing the warnings sounds and sirens seriously annoy. Cars act like loudspeaker enclosures - the volume outside is almost as high but all low-end.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 06:18 PM

In some areas, there are "noise pollution" laws. I was told that in the town of Edmonds, just north of Seattle, a few years ago there was such a problem with "cruisers" (parades of cars driving slowly with their sounds systems set on "vaporize," lookin' fer chicks), that the City of Edmonds passed a law levying a heavy fine on anyone whose car sound system was audible beyond fifty feet. The drive along Alki Point in West Seattle had a similar problem, and I understand they passed a similar law.

I live on Capitol Hill. In the summer, we could often hear rock concerts when they were given at Memorial Stadium or in front of the Horiuchi Mural at the Seattle Center--loud and clear--and that's a couple of miles away. Must have been literally deafening if you were actually there! The City Council got lots of complaints, and I haven't heard them much lately. Maybe there's hope.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 06:20 PM

Since everything is folk music now, why should I even want to ignore or block out what you so derrisively call "spam music". Hell, listen closer and you might get the message. Beauty (and wax) is in the ear of the behearer ;-)

Art (formerly a horse, but now I've learned to sing.)

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 06:54 PM

Don Firth - Great summation of the whole rotten situation. Orwell mostly had it pegged right, but what he didn't realize is that it would be accomplished in the end by glorious corporate capitalist marketing, rather than by monolithic quasi-stalinist socialism.

The intention of it all is to reduce independent human thought to the absolute minimum, cos if people stopped to think they might decide not to buy the millions of placebos they are addicted to on a daily basis.

Funny how it says in most spiritual teachings that in order to find God you must become "still" and go within. and listen quietly in the silence.

In the same way is one enabled to find him/herself, and that is precisely what the system does NOT want people to do...find themselves. Keep 'em constantly distracted, by any means possible, and they may not notice the bars of their cages.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 07:41 PM

I, too, have trouble 'tuning out' muzak and other types of public music. Can't read, can't think, and, most importantly to the store management, can't shop when it's playing. What I really hate is when 'they' play music that I actually like, but is so loud and distracting that I can't even remember what it is that I'm looking for. (Visit the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis to see what I mean)

I don't care for music (selected by others) while I'm working, either. Luckily, I mostly work alone these days, and can alternate between NPR and good music all day long. :) But when they had another guy working with me: Creed, Dave Matthews, Boys 2 friggin' Men... yeuch. And one lady (a boss), who would play Simply Red, all day, same cd, as loud as her tinny computer speakers would go. Aaagh.

Is anyone forced to listen to shitty music at work? And if so, how do you deal with it?

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 07:54 PM

Here's an organisation people might like to click through to and find out about.Pipedown - the Campaign for Freedom from Piped Music

"Piped music is made possible by systems which allow a constant supply throughout a building. It is the misuse of this in public areas (and only this) which Pipedown has been formed to fight, encouraging and giving a voice to millions of people who hate piped music but at present often feel totally powerless to do anything about it."

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: ddw
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 08:30 PM

In a thread a few years ago I advocated making it a civic duty to lob a grenade into every boom car. Today I think I would make it capital offense to not do it.

The thing that strikes me, though, is that we old fogeys sit around and gripe to each other about the noise pollution, but how many of us actually tell the polluters we don't like it? I quit one gym a few years ago because I got tired of asking them to turn down the gawdawful disco noise. And I made a point of telling the owner why I was leaving.

I also make a point of telling anybody who works for a company that assaults me with music (in-store on on-hold) that I very much resent it and will take my business elsewhere if they don't smarten up.

A few years ago at the beach I had enjoyed about half an hour of peace in the sunshine when a group of teenagers arrived nearby and set up a boom box. I asked them nicely a couple of times to turn it down and they suggested I move if I didn't like it. I picked up the boom box, took the batteries out and tossed them in the water. The kids left.

My point is, folks, noise pollution is something we shouldn't have to put up with. But as long as no one bitches, we'll keep being bombarded with it. Sometimes being a bastard is NECESSARY for survival.

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 08:45 PM

I doubt very much if that particular action on the beach helped in the long run. Very likely made them even more inconsiderate, just a bit more ready to turn nasty to people objecting.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: ddw
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 09:43 PM

You may be right, McGrath, but it did the trick at the time. And I highly suspect if more people would take similar action we wouldn't need to as often. Being nice to people is all well and good, but I've never found being nice to assholes makes them less assholish.

david

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: rangeroger
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 10:40 PM

Years ago, in one of my many job avatars,I was PM shift supervisor of the central wing at Alvarado Convalescent and Rehabilitation Hospital in San Diego. Most of our patients were senior citizens comintg to the end of their lives and terminal cancer patients.

One of my duties was to insure that the piped-in music system, installed by the Muzak Corporation,stayed operational. This thing was always on the fritz and most of the time the tapes were garbled and warbly( I think they used 8-track cassettes). Even when it worked right,those patients who were lucid enough to voice their complaints did so. The visitors hated it. The hospital line nursing staff hated it. I hated it.

It often got turned off ( by me) with a note on it that it wasn't functional.I was constantly being called on the carpet by the Chief of Nursing and the hospital's director for turning the system off and not calling for repair. I was given strict instructions that it was to stay on until a certain time no matter what.

They didn't like when they found there was,in fact,nothing wrong with the system. It was just obnoxious.

It finally reached the point where I was given a pink slip warning. Just after that I gave them 2 weeks notice and then never went back to work the next day.

It was a bridge happily burned.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 01:29 AM

Without a doubt the most relevant absorbing thread on Mudcat this month. Better even than the ones I started! (just kidding....although it is!)

One question though...If we are all so united in this, WHO THE FUCK IS INSISTING THIS CRAP BE PLAYED? (please excuse my lapse into profanity....but this subject is SO near and dear to my heart it brings out the animal in me.

And since Harvey has thrown caution to the wind....let me tell you what REALLY happened to him in 'civilized' Toronto.

"It was a pleasant summer's eve, Harvey and his charming lady along with Duckboots and yours truly were scouting for a nice 'out of the mainstream' Oriental restaurant. We found a charming little spot....intimate, friendly, with quaint masks and spears festooning the bamboo encrusted walls. We were greeted, and seated, and about to order our Singapore Slings, when all of a sudden it happened: From the speakers (there were approximately 35, tastefully placed over and under tables so everyone could hear every dulcet tone) came a low rumbling...that turned into a veritable typhoon of randomly arranged notes! Harvey had removed one of his earplugs in order to answer my question about whether Israeli footballs were made from Kosher cowhide, when it hit us. The song was "Cluighlddnghl" performed by the popular Carib-Afro-Mexi-Mari-celtoids. (That's an Irish band with a Jamaican steel drummer, Nigerian guitarist, Mexican accordionist, and Cape breton Fiddler)

The sheer volume popped Harvey's other earplug, and ripped poor Duckboots' bra off! I grabbed hold of a small statue of the Buddah, and together we careened the length of the restaurant, knocking two pensioners and a honeymooning gay couple into the decorative piranha tank. As I picked myself up I watched in awe as Harvey, astride a huge ceramic elephant, and brandishing two spears was thrusting at the speakers and quoting Hannibal in the original Carthaginian!

"I'm comin' mate", I screamed over the din, and grabbed a Cambodian ceremonial mask from the wall as a disguise. Suddenly I was confronted by the Maitre'd...."Music not roud enough for you, lound eyes" he smiled. "How 'bout some Celine Dion sings Kraftwerk, that one really locks!"*

I plunged my complimentary chopsticks into his cruel heart and with my free hand ripped the last 'Edison's revenge' from the wall.

We grabbed our hysterical women-folk and fought our way to the door....."We can't have any witnesses" yelled Harvey, and lobbed a full bowl of Thai Chili soup back towards the carnage....the place went up in a puff of smoke. As we strolled down the street trying to catch our breath, the faint odour of lemon grass reached our nostrils....and the last faint notes of Thai a Yellow Ribbon....could be heard.

************

Seriously folks, I LOATHE muzak of any kind, and I simply cannot understand how going out to a bar has been "Dumbed down" so much. It brings out a seldom seen, but obviously much darker side to me than I like to admit...and that is, that when I see people straining their voices trying to talk over loud music...WITHOUT SEEMING TO MIND...I tend to think of them as morons...and that's neither nice nor useful.

* excuse the 'dialect' this time...I've been in a 'Spike Milligan' mood all day.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Mickey191
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 01:47 AM

A local dep't. store used to play hard rock all the time. The shoppers would comiserate with eachother about how annoying it was. I complained, they complained, it did no good. I explained to the manager that it ws driving customers away. No response. I went in last week and was greeted with Rose in Spanish Harlem, Earth Angel, Stand by Me. I was singing as I shopped, I felt terrific. Said to the sales girl, I feel like I'm at my prom. Went around a corner, and a gray haired lady was singing It's in His Kiss. Another sales lady said to her, You go girl. It was a hoot! It all depends whose ox is being gored! Guess what- the young manager was gone, and the new guy was 60ish. Music sure can make one feel good. That trip was a joy.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 02:21 AM

Rick, you need help. ('Thai a Yellow Ribbon'?!?!?!)

For some folks, and I think Kendall's one, it's a matter of not liking what's being played. Maybe it's just the fact that the music is someone else's choice. That bugs me too, but the biggest problem for me is that I really do have songs in my head - I'm trying to learn a song or write a tune, or I'm just sort of running through something. Then along comes the dulcet tones of the overhead brain-washing thingie, and cancels what I'm listening to in my mind's ear. I HAVE been known to say a few choice words about it whether anyone's around to hear me or not. When shopping, I occasionally walk around with my fingers jammed in my ears.

Non-musical sound doesn't give me much of a problem, and I'd rather listen to jackhammers or airplanes taking off than being force fed muzak. In fact, I know at least 2 people who leave the faucet running as background noise. (Although the person who isn't me could have some other reason - I'm just guessing.)

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 03:47 AM

There's usually a tune in my head too--I wonder if that's behind the problem? Maybe the external music interferes with the Walkman in my head? It's OK if I get to chose the music; I can do this at home or in my car, but I wouldn't subject other people to it by taking a ghetto-blaster (can I say that?) with me.

Talking of in- and out-car entertainment, I think the problem there is that the doors aren't well enough insulated to keep the sound in (although having the windows open doesn't help!). I have to turn my radio/tape player up to hear it over the engine noise, and my aging ears insist that I turn it up more than I used to; but I've found that if I get out and close the doors, the noise is quite loud on the outside. I drive faster now, so as to reduce the time people have to suffer!

It's some comfort to know I'm not the ony one who has the problem with public music, but at the same time it's saddening to realise it's upsetting so many. Hey--I've just thought of this--why are we doubly persecuted in Engalnd & Wales, where we have to put up with this recorded stuff in so many public places, but we're not allowed to make our own music? (See HELP CHANGE MUSIC IN MY COUNTRY and You can't Sing here.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 06:14 AM

I distinguish between places where it's just muzak and where it's actually music that's been chosen by someone.

By "muzak" I don't just mean the proprietary stuff produced under that name, I mean the stuff that is just there without anyone at all wanting it or listening to it. It's there to cover the sound of the air conditioning, and I'd sooner hear the air conditioning.

As for music that is chosen by someone, that's different, but of course sometimes the someone choosing it is way out of line with my tastes, or the tastes of most of the people. There are times when the music being played actually lifts the heart, and you find yourself listening to it, and amazed that other people aren't, and aware of those people who are.

I'm astonished the way that places where they play music - shops, malls, eating places - don't think a lot harder about it, and maybe have different types of music for different days. I know there are shops and so forth that I avoid because of the music, and others where the choice of music, or the absence of it, is a factor in making me use them.

I'm all for live background music, and that's how some of the most enjoyable tune sessions fit in, background for most of the people in the pub, aware it's there, and pleased it is, and stopping their talk every now and then to listen specially, but not an audience as such. I'd like to have more of this in other settings, in place of what we do have. Bring back the café ensemble.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:32 AM

I'm not averse to pubs with jukeboxes--or at least I never used to be; popular music had left me behind by the early 70s. But at least the listener has the choice of music. Here's a thought--maybe they'd put jukebox-type systems in public places if there was a demand, especially if people payed to use them? I'd probably still not like it!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 09:28 AM

Bloody good thread. The worst I ever experienced was the clarinet version of Scorpion's "Wind of Change" in the local supermarket...or was that as bad as the panpipe version of The Door's "Light my Fire" (with disco backbeat).

I'm not sure if anyone here will be aware of new pop "sensation" Shakira (looks like a curvier, more- shameless, porn-style Britney Spears and sounds worse). My colleagues have taken to playing her songs and videos (it's a very visual experience) loudly in my lab. I am gathering blunt instruments as I type.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Pseudolus
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 10:27 AM

I must admit I'm enjoying the thread. I have no problem with piped in music, I simply ignore what I don't like. I think what most amazes me is the judgemental part of this thread. If the music isn't something they like, then it's crap. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of things that annoy me as well. The Boom cars as they've been referred to that you can barely talk over even if you're not in the same car! But ripping batteries out of a boom box and throwing them in the water? Threatening to hurt someone (whether they would have or wouldn't have) if the music isn't turned down? If you are moved to this extreme, maybe you're letting this get to you a little more than it should, for your own health and sanity!! Like on Rick's point on seeing a group of people who have to scream over the background music and don't seem to mind. OK, maybe they ARE morons, but on the other hand, maybe they just like their music loud and talking over it is a small price to pay for them. Perhaps they don't like it but aren't willing to let it ruin their evening....could be a lot of things.

Now, don't get me wrong, I prefer music to not be too loud, I prefer a small energetic crowd to an elbow to elbow - out of control - rowdy crowd, but that's just my preference. To each his/her own.

I would also suggest that just as much as playing music at eardrum popping levels is inflicting someone's musical tastes on others, so could insisting on softer music, insisting on NO muzak, or even insisting on NO music at all be seen as inflicting ones musical taste on others.

IMHO,
Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 10:44 AM

To answer "Can you ignore 'spam' music?": Yes, most of the time. In public places, it would have to be exceptionally loud before it bothered me.

As for concentration, I do have problems with music affecting my concentration when reading, writing, trying to do numbers, etc. I find this more of a problem if the music is something I want to listen to, e.g. folk, where I find I only really concentrate on one task or other - usually I switch the music off in these situations.

As for shopping, perhaps my attitude to shopping helps. I loath it and just view it as a task to get over and done with. It doesn't demand any thought other than how to get it over and done with in the shortest possible time.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Sorcha
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 11:13 AM

LOL! This is just one of the many reasons I am often glad I am hard of hearing. I can't hear the crap most of the time, and it's just as well. I'm told my dentist's office only plays Christian Broadcast Network---am I ever glad I can't hear that!!

BillD, I did the same thing once. Nasty kid across the alley was washing his car and had his stereo outside blasting the world with something that was NOT music. I could hear it in the house with the windows closed. Went and got my 3' speaker, big amp, and proceeeded to play Black Watch at full volume. He got the message. Neighbors thought it was funny--all except the one who was working on the bathroom plumbing and smacked his head on the toilet bowl..........

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 11:25 AM

Frank - don't worry, I'll ask them to turn it down a few times before I strike! *g* But in this case, it's not the music that's annoying me, it's their lack of consideration for people (me) trying to work. I suppose it's a manners and courtesy thing - I'd never subject them to Planxty or Lunasa at full volume, not just cos I know they'd hate it, but because I feel it's downright rude to inflict it on others.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 12:08 PM

Great thread, Steve. Yes, I too suffer from your problem. If there is music playing, it has my attention. It could be—probably is—the 101 Strings playing Montovani playing Percy Faith plays the Beatles and I'll be noting the arrangement, listening for interesting chord digressions, pretty much checking out on the world around me.

Of course when I'm not being interruped by ambient music, my head may suddenly decide to provide a special showing of some "movie" it's concocted and demand that I pay attention to that. Entertaining but not necessarily useful.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: MMario
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 12:09 PM

I grew up in a large family - I can pretty much selectivly tune out anything; as far as it being distracting. A lot of these places though the piped in muse-crap is loud enough to interfere with normal conversation. While it isn't distracting - it *is* disturbing.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 01:23 PM

I can live with other people's choices, even when they wouldn't be mine. What irks me though is when it's nobody's choice, just a random noise that's been switched on. Mention it to the people who work there and they say they don't like it either - or else they've competely tuned it out, and have ceased to be aware there is any background piped music.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Pseudolus
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 03:42 PM

I totally agree with you Fibula! That's the part that gets to me as well, when they are inconsiderate of others around them. There have been a couple threads like this one and it sure seems to stir people up a lot! Funny thing, I don't know that there was ever a thread started by someone who LOVED muzak. Now THAT would be funny!!!

Can you hear it now? I was on the elevator going to work this morning and I actually missed my floor, cause the muzak was just awesome..... LOL!!!!!

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: Desdemona
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 06:02 PM

It depends on what it is & where I am; "hold" music whilst waiting to talk to someone on the phone is invariably a horrific test of endurance; I don't know about you guys, but 1001 Strings rendition of "Light My Fire" is NOT my cup of tea! I sometimes amuse myself by imagining Muzak versions of "God Save The Queen" or "I Wanna Be Sedated", but recently was turned onto something much, much better: a band from san Francisco called Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, who do punk arrangements of various popular songs! They have a Broadway album, a '60s album ("Blowin' In The Wind" is particularly beautiful; even better than Bill Shatner, really), a '70s album ("Mandy"---need I say more?!)....and the best part is they're actually a really good band! I'll never think of "Sweet caroline" the same way again!

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: kendall
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 07:30 PM

There is no way I would inflict my choice in music on the public in general; and I damn well resent having it done to me! One of the first things I learned as a kid was consideration for others. These days, it's hooray for me and to hell with you. Totally self centered and very immature. I am unable to "tune out " that hideous din that assaults me everywhere I go. When I go to the barber shop, I request that the barber turn it down while I'm there; and, she will, but, it's plain that she doesn't like it. She once grumbled "I NEED NOISE GOING"! What a pitiful admission! Who was it who said, "If you cant improve on silence, keep quiet"?

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:19 PM

"I NEED NOISE GOING"! - which is very different from "I really like this - just listen to it will you". Alright, that can be annoying, but it's a form of communication.

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:25 PM

The other extreme can be as annoying - I mean the people who sit next to you on the bus with their walkman's or whatever plugged into their ears, hissing away like kettles.

Sometimes maybe it's meant as "I like this, but maybe you won't, so I won't inflict it on you" - but all too often what it feels like a barrier is being put up with the rest ofb the human race. "Hey you, get off of my cloud."

Subject: RE: BS: Can YOU ignore 'spam' music?
From: kendall
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:31 PM

I will not pay to be annoyed. If some air head needs that racket more than they need a paying customer, screw 'um.