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07 May 05 - 08:49 AM (#1479975) Subject: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST,leeneia Yesterday I needed a nice lunch, so I went down the block to Jimmy John's sandwich place. As usual, loud, ugly rock was blasting from the radio, but to my amazement, the woman at the cash register was humming along. She had actually detected a melody in the recording. (Don't tell the Rock Police.) Intrigued, I listened while waiting for my #2 with lettuce and tomato. The recording was of a young guy, maybe 20 years old, whose voice had not really deepened yet. (Frankie Avalon's sound, if you remember Frankie Avalon.) And the musical theme was the melody of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, altered to a minor key. It was such a blast to hear this singer sing about "my woman". "Gosh," I wanted to ask, "Is she out of high school yet?" By the time my tomatoes were being spread fastidiously over the beef, the singer was trying to sound like a bum - you know, gurgling the phlegm in his throat the way they do to create the impression that they've beein living in a shack and know All About Life. Only the guy needed about 20 more years of whiskey&cigarettes before he could even dream of carrying that off. I longed to be out of there. Finally I got my food and went to the outside tables to eat. There were two attractive young women, eating their lunch. This is usually the case. The young guys are eating inside, and the young ladies are outside, having fled the music. I wonder how long it will take them all to catch on? |
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07 May 05 - 09:11 AM (#1479982) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: Abby Sale :-) But I gotta tell ya a more mundane experience of my own. Not unusual 200 years ago or today, as leeneia has indicated (although writing about a different aspect.) But this was my first and, of course, you always remember your first. 1957 and I was driving the gang that day in my parent's car. Our Gang was a typical TV cast of outsiders - each one a stereotype, 1-short-paragraph description of "The xxx" but each different. Obviously, the car owner (or driver) got to pick the music. WQXR and Paul Robeson was singing "Ol' Man River" the way he did. Jimmy whined out, distressed and serious, "What have they done to 'Ol' Man River Rock?'" A seminal moment for me of "never the twain shall meet." |
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07 May 05 - 11:30 AM (#1480039) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: mack/misophist In economics there is a thing known as Gresham's Law which, in it's basic form says 'Bad money drives out good'. This seems to apply to most things in life. The best defense of pop music I ever heard was from my nephew (whose taste has since matured somewhat), who once told me "Sometimes I just want to listen to noise." |
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09 May 05 - 09:28 AM (#1480596) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST,leeneia |
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09 May 05 - 12:31 PM (#1480801) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: jacqui.c Kendall refuses to listen to that type of music and there are a lot of places we don't eat at because they won't turn the music down. There are a lot of shops he's walked out of as well for the same reason. It's basically a matter of taste - most of the people who like that music wouldn't have time for traditional music or classical. There are some who go the whole gamut but not many. |
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09 May 05 - 01:24 PM (#1480867) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST Just like in television where the most money is spent on the commercials rather than on the program being watched, so it is with pop music. It may be considered to be noise by some, but that noise is being produced in state of the art recording studios and the record company has committed big bucks to get "the sound." I have to say the last couple of times I heard something that sounded unique, or fresh, or innovative - it came off a Prince and a Madonna recording. I'm having my lunch inside where there's a radio. If the women are attractive, it's a good bet the span of their knowledge stretches not much farther beyond the latest makeup and fashion tips, neither of which is very interesting. |
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09 May 05 - 01:44 PM (#1480883) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST,leeneia I used to think that no place of business should play music, because there is no one kind of music that brings pleasure to everyone. And, even if music brings pleasure, it presents a distraction which can interfere with judgment. I was sure of that until I ate in a restaurant where I was forced to overhear the conversation at a nearby table: "She was sick the WHOLE time she was pregnant!" I said to my husband, "Don't you wish they had some loud, obnoxious music on in here?" Possibly white noise or the sound of the sea is the answer. |
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09 May 05 - 01:50 PM (#1480886) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: ranger1 Some days I like to listen to music, some days I like to listen to noise. A lot of it has to do with the kind of day I'm having. If I'm having a wretched "I hate people" kind of day, then there's nothing like a little Godsmack or The Clash to reduce the stress and anger. I have also been heard to ask "What is that horrible gnashing of gears you're subjecting me to?!" The worst crap one can be subjected to coming out of speakers in restaurants and shops is what passes for mainstream Christmas music. That WILL cause me to turn around and flee in horror. Ugh, I'm shuddering now just thinking about it! |
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09 May 05 - 01:56 PM (#1480892) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: frogprince A young co-worker a few years ago did make me blink when, after holding forth some on the merits of Slayer or some such group, he mentioned that, however, his one favorite piece of music was the Moonlight Sonata. Not being able to pigeonhole people can be fun in itself. |
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09 May 05 - 02:08 PM (#1480902) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST,Val RE: music played in businesses - Some advertising firms have spent a lot of $$ researching what sorts of music have different effects on the listener. For example, what makes you more likely to stay in a store & spend money, or (for fast-food restaurants) what encourages you to pay, eat, & run. Not saying you'll get such carefully tailored sounds if the local diner just turns on the radio, but you can be confident that Big Brother and the Mind Control Squad are hard at work at the local mall. I suspect many/most Mudcatters have musical tastes sufficiently different from the "mainstream" mobs that perhaps we are not quite so susceptible to such manipulation? (then again, I'm absolutely CRAVING a Big Mac right now. But I'm sure that has nothing to do with the muzak in the office....) *grin* |
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10 May 05 - 01:23 PM (#1481765) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST,leeneia It may be that some money has been spent researching this, but I am convinced that the music in almost all stores is merely the popular music that the 40+ male managers have been hearing since they were teenagers. To most of them, that's what music IS. To them, anybody who's not a white, male, youngish, successful person is not really a person. All other people are just different forms of "weird." And so their musical reactions are of no validity, either. And all this time, they can't figure out why fewer and fewer people want to shop. |
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10 May 05 - 01:59 PM (#1481791) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: PoppaGator "Poor Beethoven"????? Why "poor"? Beethoven was deaf, so he wouldn't have to listen to all the crap we're subjected to in public these days. That noisy nasty recorded rock music may have driven a couple of cute young chicks out of the restaurant (referring back to leenia's initial message), but I have a hunch that the band members manage to make positive impressions on at least some young women (no matter how dumb and tasteless they might seem to old fogies like us) when playing live and working up their material. I mean, after all, why else do guys form rock bands? If their approach wasn't producing the desired effect upon on the females in their peer group, I can't imagine that they'd keep at it... |
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10 May 05 - 02:49 PM (#1481824) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST ...for money maybe? |
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10 May 05 - 02:56 PM (#1481832) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST ...and I think the originator meant "Poor quality" Beethoven in the thread title, judging from the body and context of the first post. |
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10 May 05 - 03:35 PM (#1481873) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: PoppaGator You're exactly right, GUEST 02:56; I just re-read that initial posting -- my bad! |
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10 May 05 - 10:58 PM (#1482158) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: GUEST,leeneia Recently I read a book on the human brain, which included quite a bit on differences between men and women. (Sorry I can't remember the author or title.) It was a recent publication from the New Books section of my library. The book said that women consistently notice more of the things going on around them than men do. Men tend to concentrate more on one thing. This is certainly true for me. For me, music going on in a store while I'm trying to calculate prices or plan menus is a distraction and an irritation. I cannot "shut it out" even though I would like to. I'm sure that the woman who wants to talk to her friends during her lunch hour does not want a recording yammering over her head. The same woman might go to a concert by the same singer and have a good time. But that's because she chose the band she wanted and because she's not having to do something else at the same time. |
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11 May 05 - 08:31 AM (#1482387) Subject: RE: poor Beethoven or Wanna meet chicks? From: Big Al Whittle So basically its Frankie Avalon with the phlegm and the arrested gonads, and then its Tom Waits. Presumably with Perry Como in the middle somwhere. Jaysus! ....I wonder where I am in there. The seven ages of man, as observed from a table in Pizza Hut. |