Clive Turner
MUZAK! Yes, Muzak. It’s a marmite thing. You either love it or hate it. That said, and to be fair, actually there are lots of people who feel neither one way nor the other about what many feel is an absolute pestilence.
Restaurants, supermarkets, malls, other shops and public places are aplenty with the insistent beat (it always seems to possess this distinctive feature) which belabours the ears and sensitivities seemingly wherever you go.
Supermarket managers claim that muzak creates a more relaxing selling environment and definitely assists sales overall. So, I suppose it’s here to stay in such places. But in some public places it can drive you mad. It must drive the employees up the wall, unless they get to the stage where they simply tune it out and somehow don’t hear it any more?
Independent research is certainly hard to come by. I like to back up everything I write with facts and homework, but apart from ‘Pipedown’, about which more later, I have been hard pressed to dig up much other than anecdotal and personal opinions, which might suggest that it isn’t really much of an issue either way. Yet, when you ask individuals their opinion, it is seldom particularly favourable.
There are local restaurants in Cyprus to which I have been where the music is so loud and intrusive that you cannot enjoy a conversation with fellow guests and even the waiters have difficulty taking the orders. That for me means no return visit. Sometimes the music is not muzak and is live, and here the musicians all too often completely forget they are there gently to entertain the guests and not self-indulgently take over the establishment. Do they fondly imagine they are filling the gaps in conversation? No, if I want a concert, I go to a concert hall. I want to enjoy the company and not have to give up the unequal competition. When gently asking if the management can turn the volume down there is usually an affronted look and one is made to feel uncomfortable. No, the decision is inviolate and you simply have to vote with your feet. Have you done that?
There is little doubt that the use of background music or muzak supports concerns that culture is degraded by marketeers as a means of social control and yes, an organisation called ‘Pipedown’ was formed some 25 years ago to resist background music pressure.
It now has affiliates round the world, and has discovered some surprising facts. It can have an adverse effect on human health. Like all unwanted noise, it raises blood pressure, decreases the immune system, and creates problems for the millions of people with hearing problems. As Stephen Fry says: “Piped electricity, piped water, piped gas, but please, never piped music.” And, “I have left shops unable to make a wanted purchase because of hellish piped music,” says Joanna Lumley. Sound familiar?
There are some figures which indicate that 34 per cent dislike piped music, 30 per cent like it, and the rest are indifferent. Interestingly, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, John Lewis, and Marks and Spencer have all done away with it. And are thriving. Gatwick airport stopped it, and Sainsbury and Tesco only use it at Christmas now. Hospitals have largely discontinued non-stop music and TV background noise (where it can’t be escaped) and telephone companies are cutting back on incessant music tracks while holding callers.
A BBC poll found people hated piped music in trains. The Sunday Times found their readers said it is the single thing they most detested about modern life. An LBC radio poll found 50 per cent of their listeners would, like Joanna Lumley, walk out of a shop with piped music.
Barclays Bank discovered 61 per cent of its customer base was alienated by it. The University of Cardiff found piped music harmed rather than helped productivity.
Music teachers find it increasingly difficult to get their students to actually listen to music as it now comes at them non-stop from every wall. Musicians of all sorts hate piped music because they find ‘acoustic wallpaper’ a pain in the ear.
Piped music does not come free, but is an extra that must be paid for with every meal, drink, ticket, piece of clothing, and so on…
Some years ago, NOP carried out an opinion poll on the general public’s attitudes to piped music. Among those aged over 45, the majority hated it, as did the majority of those in the A-B social groups. Even among younger people aged under 25, some 21 per cent said they disliked piped music.
What’s your opinion? Or are you indifferent?
