rkts, your comment regarding our need for noise reminded me of something…
A few years ago for a few months myself and my sister had to carpool with some of her friends. It was an early drive and often everyone but the driver would attempt to get a little sleep over about an hour. I tried… But the other passengers (all girls about the age of 12) could not have the car quiet, even as they attempted to sleep. So I’d have to listen as they put on some fluffy pop-crap… loud…
…and watch as they tossed and turned to try and get a few minutes of sleep in the loud car.
This is really in response to WordMan, but I didn’t feel like quoting the whole thing: Does market research also reveal the number of people who walk out of places because the alleged music is too dam loud and annoying?
Maybe there aren’t enough of us, and maybe we don’t speak up enough. When I get bad on-hold music I make a point of telling whoever I finally speak to, “I know it’s not your choice, but could you please pass on this customer complaint about the awful on-hold music?” And I make similar comments when I leave a store. “I’d like to buy some of your merchandise, but I can’t stand that noise you’re subjecting me to. Please tell your manager.”
I’ll add my two cents and then summarize. I have no appreciation whatsoever for music imposed upon me in public places.
There. Now, of all the posts in this thread, only one person doesn’t really mind the stuff (with some exceptions). That makes it 22 to 1 opposed.
Do you think this informal poll is representative of the public at large? If so, do you think merchandisers and others would find this statistic compelling enough to make them turn off their **** music?
Unfortunately, this poll is probably not representative. Teenagers, in my observation, don’t seem to mind the garbage that is spewed at them in stores. I’ve already recounted elsewhere my futile attempts to get the noise reduced in my health club. Apparently (according to the staff) a lot of patrons complain when there’s *not * enough booming rhythms and obnoxious screaming.
It’s probably also true that those who’d prefer a more quiet environment don’t speak up very much.
I recall reading about a study (sorry, no cite) of upscale restaurants in which it was found that people spent more mone when the music was relaxing, low volume and subtle.
You know what annoys me? People. Specifically, people talking. Most people’s voices are grating, crass, and nasty. And the stuff they say ranges, most of the time, from inane to astonishingly stupid. Which doesn’t even mention the abject horror of listening to parents berating their kids for wanting stuff that’s being paraded past them as they get tugged through the aisles, or the cell phone conversations of abusive spouses, or the intensely annoying wails of small children.
People make a lot of noise. In the absence of ambient music, they make more noise. The same response that has retailers filling their space with music will, in the absence of music, have customers filling in. Have you ever been in a warehouse-sized store without music playing? The din is astonishing.
The trade-off is listening to some inane but well-intentioned music being piped over tinny loudspeakers. Small price to pay, in my opinion.
I realize that denigrating popular culture, and being offended that the selection being offered doesn’t suit your personal musical palette is de rigeur for the cultural elite among us. But realize that what you’re asking for isn’t blissful quiet; it’s nasty, assonant din. At least the music you’re getting is someone’s attempt at making something that sounds beautiful, however successful they may have been. The alternative is hearing people at their most ugly.
Makes waltzing down the aisles buying ice cream and corn chips to the strains of a Karen Carpenter tune seem downright appealing, now, doesn’t it?
What jaded Chief Creative Officer made THAT connection? :eek:
There is always a song going through my head. Often it’s the last one I heard, which is one reason I dislike the music in stores so much… If I am forced to listen to a song repeatedly, I’d rather it was a selection I had some control over.
We live in a culture that needs to be entertained at all times. There are so many that HAVE to have noise at all times. There are families that turn the radio or TV on the second they walk in their home just for the noise - yuck! I agree with the comment that not only do we always have to hear music, but now we are subjected to TV’s in a lot of restaurants, and instead of having a nice family evening out where we can converse, I watch my children eat in silence with their eyes glued to a TV.
I enjoy that time right after all the children are in bed and I can hear my favorite sound - silence, and after a long day filled with noise, I let out a big breath and sigh!
Believe me, there are times when I would kill to hear the Carpenters, or anything recognizeable as a real song and not a selection from the Cellphone Ringtone Hit Parade, as I waltzed down the aisle at the grocery store. I don’t know if it’s possible for sane people to imagine “music” as bad as what gets played in Japanese grocery stores. It’s like the Muzak you might hear if you were on hold with Satan.
I think background music in stores is just fine. But it should be only that, only background music. To me background music means you don’t hear it when you are in a conversation, only when you are standing totally silent. I went to the bookstore the other day and the background music was so loud I could hardly concentrate on the book titles I was perusing. I was going to tell them to turn it down, but I thought maybe the manager would start a confrontation, so I declined.
See, that’s where I think some of us are too nice. IMHO it would be better to politely tell the manager that you find the sound level to be much too loud. Maybe add that you’d like to peruse the books a little more, but that you have decided to leave instead of buying anything because of the music. They will always assume that if no one complains that everyone likes it.