Can we PLEASE get some new Muzak?!

[Monterey Jack]

Move if not in the right section...

The following clip from The 40 Year Old Virgin illustrates my frustration perfectly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRdLWbOAUEY

Seriously...my workplace has not changed their overhead speaker music selection in at LEAST a decade. It's always the same loop of thirty or forty songs, played over and over and OVER. And it's not like most of them are bad songs, per se (although, of all the James Bond title songs they could have chosen, why Madonna's godawful title track for Die Another Day?), but I literally find myself cringing multiple times per day when I hear the same damn song I heard five times already that week. Why can't they just tune into a radio station, to allow customers and employees a bit of variety? I don't like overhead muzak in public spaces anyways (makes it very hard to concentrate when I'm on break reading a book or magazine), but it's become a form of psychological torture at this point. And I know it's supposed to be "subliminal" and I'm not even supposed to notice it's there, but it doesn't work.

[Trixie]

They finally upgraded our music last year. Even though I work with a varied group of people with different tastes we all agreed the music sucked. We play a lot of pop and country now and if they'd just get rid of the Taylor Swift it would be better.

I guess all I can say is there is hope that it will change and have some faith?

[wolfie]

We play a lot of pop and country now (snip) I guess all I can say is there is hope that it will change and have some faith?

On her own, or duets with Tim?

[April]

When I was a teenager, I worked at Afterthoughts (now gone, but think Icing or Claires) Every month we would get a video to play on the over head TVs. It was a 4 hour long video, featuring (I'm dating myself here) songs like Barbie Girl and other various pop songs that month. Every 4 hours, you had to go rewind the tape and start it over. the same 4 hours of music. over and over again. for an entire month.

funny enough, when I left, they said I could take the tapes. So I did. I think I still have them. I must show my teenager

[mjr]

funny enough, when I left, they said I could take the tapes. So I did. I think I still have them. I must show my teenager

That sounds like it could be a punishment...

"Ok, you have to watch all four hours of this horrible music tape..."

[Trixie]

Just remembered about this. Guy had music from K-mart from the 80s-90s. I don't know exactly where all the originals are but here's an hour of it for your listening pleasure. I may or may not enjoy this more than I'd like to admit.

https://youtu.be/bw0GP1xjAi4

[drunkenwildmage]

Its not much better tuned to a radio station. When I was in retail, the radio station that had it at played the same 10 songs over and over and over, just mixed in with the same stupid ass commercials. To this day, I still cringe when I here Celine Dionn's Titanic song, or the theme to 'Dawson's Creek'.

[BPFH]

One place I used to work had Muzak tapes that contained 4 tracks, of 2 hours each. So, theoretically, we should only have heard any given song once in an 8-hour shift.

But... (you knew the "but" was coming, didn't you?) ...the tape player was broken. It would only play the first track of any tape.

I could deal with the standard stuff. I could even deal with the Christmas stuff. Yep, even on a two-hour loop, guaranteed to hear the same music at least twice in any shift. What had me ready to find a baseball bat and go Office Space on that damned machine was the two weeks they had it playing children's music...

[Shotgun Chuck]

Where I work, they play a lot of non-lyrical stuff probably made especially for them, mostly smooth jazz. There's enough of it that it doesn't get annoying; so far I've recognized a remix of Dancing in September, the theme to Agatha Christie's Poirot (probably also a remix), and something like (though not exactly like) one of the menu music tracks from Gran Turismo 3.

[CyberLurch]

Why can't they just tune into a radio station, to allow customers and employees a bit of variety?

Because tuning in a radio station means that your customers might hear ads for your competition.

Seriously. THAT'S the reason.

It's also important that the selection of music be as NON-offensive as possible. And there's a long and weird list of what is and is not considered 'questionable', picked out by psychologists, marketing analysts, and there's probably a lawyer involved somewhere in that, too.

Case in point: I once had a customer go batshit nuts off on me while I was working an overnight shift at a convenience store because she found my music offensive. The music in question?

Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours'.

To be fair, though, the customer in question was known to be not-quite-rational.

[Nunavut Pants]

My mother worked in a large department store many years ago. They had a tape they played of background music. The same tape, every day. Evidently after she'd been there a little while, she could tell time by that tape. "Oh, that song is on. I'm about due for my break!" "Oh, this song is on--I'm late to finish re-folding the shirts so I can clock out!"

She never did tell me what the music was, though.

[EricKei]

CyberLurch is absolutely correct ^__^

Paid, commercial-free radio has been around for years, now. You'd think more places would use it. Of course, there's that "paid" thing getting in the way (not like Muzak is free, either). Most companies likely refuse to do so on the basis that only workers would really notice this shit...and since when do they care about that? ~_~

[MoonCat]

I've walked out of stores because I couldn't stand the stuff they had playing

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

It's also important that the selection of music be as NON-offensive as possible. And there's a long and weird list of what is and is not considered 'questionable', picked out by psychologists, marketing analysts, and there's probably a lawyer involved somewhere in that, too.

The ones who pick the swamp's in-store music must have a few screws loose.

Hey, welcome to our small rural-town store, we're happy to be part of your community! Now enjoy this cheerful song about farmers losing their farms. Oh, we're a family-friendly store too! Hear this inoffensive ditty about a guy wanting to pick up hookers! Whatever you do, don't steal, you WILL be caught! And now here's a song about a guy who builds a car from parts he stole from the factory.

[wolfie]

I recognize "One Piece at a Time" by Johnny Cash as the one about the stolen car, but what are the others?