[78-L] Muzak is 75

[zimrec at juno.com]

A couple years ago, BusinessWeek magazine had an article on some retail outlet.  I don’t recall which one.  The writer of the article, unaware that Muzak had evolved into a satellite distributed recording company, mentioned that he liked the selection of music that the retailer played better than the Muzak that he used to hear in stores & elevators.  A couple weeks later, the magazine published a letter from the Muzak’s CEO advising that what the writer heard was indeed Muzak.  The letter writer indicated that Muzak had become a company that no longer one that established moods but rather created an atmosphere.

Indeed, the old Muzak (with which Ben Selvin was involved) was psychologically programmed: Instrumental music played on acoustic instruments (allowing for amplified guitar) was meant to be unobtrusive.  subscribing companies were furnished with open reel tapes recorded at slow speed (fidelity was never a factor).  Slower tempo songs dominated the morning hours when workers first arrived with an increasing mix of more up-tempo selections as the noon lunch hour approached and workers tended to tire.  The sequence was repeated in the afternoon.

Today, with the satellite piped-in music, the same selections are heard around the country (or world, perhaps) at the same time, regardless of what the local time is.  Why some chain restaurants feel it is important to have such music piped in is beyond me.  It may keep the younger crowd at the bar in places like Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday, but I can’t see that it has any effect on places like Friendly’s where, a couple years ago, I stopped near New Haven, CT for breakfast on a Sunday morning on my way from NY to Providence.  Other than myself, the only diners were a couple with two young kids, perhaps 7 & 5 years of age.  Subsequently, a couple, senior to my 60 years, arrived and then a couple of business-attired men perhaps in their 50s.  While trying to eat breakfast in a relaxed mood, I was entertained by Dionne Warwick at somewhat louder than background music.  After that came a percussive rock oriented thing that made me feel as though I were being battered over the head with a baseball bat.  When that finished, it was followed by something even louder and faster that gave the impression that I was seated next to a construction worker using a jackhammer in cement at the next table.  I now keep a set of earplugs in my vehicle.

Art

-------------------

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:55:49 -0500
From: "joe at salerno.com" <jsalerno at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Muzak is 75
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Message-ID: <49CE4885.8090104 at earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

According to the article, they are in Chapter 11, but planning on 
emerging there from ASAP

joe salerno


David Lennick wrote:
> Funny to see Glen Gray pictured there. And I thought Muzak had gone into 
> bankruptcy earlier this year.
> 
> dl
> 
> joe at salerno.com wrote:
>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10204363-27.html
>>
>>
>> http://75.muzak.com/
>>
>>
>> joe salerno


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