The discussion about TV or No TV in restaurants got me thinking one of my pet peeves in restaurants and retail businesses: loud, annoying music.
Yesterday we stopped in a discount department store that has always had an unusual soundtrack playing. Within less than a minute, I recognized the unmistakable sounds of “One Bad Apple” by the Osmonds start to play. As a Top 40 DJ years ago, I skillfully avoided playing or hearing the Osmonds whenever I could. Hearing Donnie screeching 50 years later drove me (and my wife) to distraction. As this was followed by two more songs in a similar vein, we left.
We used to frequent a diner that suddenly began playing what can only be described as the most irritating songs of the 1970s. Think “Seasons in the Sun,” “The Night Chicago Died,” the Partridge Family and the like one right after another at high volume. This happened twice. We’ve never gone back.
But here’s an odd one. A new Trader Joe’s opened in our area. We visited once. It’s a small store and was crowded. They were playing a mix of classic rock and alternative rock on their sound system at a very high decibel level. I didn’t mind the music so much as I did the volume, and I had to wonder why they thought that brand of music was appropriate for that store, as there were a lot of elderly customers there. I’m 70, and there were many people shopping who were much older than me. Do they do that in all their stores?
So, have you ever left a business or stopped doing business with them entirely because their selection of background music was just too annoying for you?
It’s why I never frequent pubs. Between the music blasting and the people shouting to be heard, it’s intolerable to me. I think I got spoiled by living in Europe for so many years. It was cultural shock returning to the states, mainly because of the noise level in restaurants and the like. It’s been years, but it still really bothers me how people can air the most intimate details of their lives at full volume.
There are several restaurants in Vegas I won’t go into again because of the high level of music. I asked them to turn it down a bit, but they claimed it couldn’t be done. I’m sure they know what they’re doing (the place was packed) but I shall not return.
A casino in Reno was once playing non stop Christmas music in November. Again, I asked for relief from that nonsense. The pit boss was sympathetic but “unable” to help. I left.
Other than that, I think I can ignore the music of most establishments
When I lived in Eugene there was a godfathers pizza joint a few blocks from where I worked. It was good. Then one afternoon we went in and they were playing crappy ‘pop’ music (think “Horse with no name”) extremely load. We left and never went back. They closed up shop a few months later.
My wife absolutely HATES loud music in establishments, and we have left several after she asked them to turn it down and they either refused or didn’t lower it much.
She complained about how loud Target was the last time she was there.
I remember shopping for a wedding present at Williams & Sonoma a few years back. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they had the music blasting so loud that I had to leave. Even though it was Van Morrison.
Years ago my business was closed for the day, but unbeknownst to me the door hadn’t been locked yet. Someone walked in and the CD player was absolutely blasting the Jimmy Buffet song, Why Don’t We Get Drunk And Screw.
The man who walked in was flustered all to hell. He turned on his heel and stormed out.
Yes. For whatever reason, ramen became a trendy thing, not for old uggos. The new owners tear out the old teriyaki joint’s drop ceiling, expose the walls, and crank up the target demographic’s and waitstaff’s taste in music.
Something similar happened to one of my favorite oldtime Japanese restaurants. It’d been around for about 30 years. Then it turned all shiny and glitzy and neon (ugLEE purple). And it was all sushi. Mediocre sushi.
Sushi is fine. I like sushi. Sometimes I love sushi. But I wanted a regular ol’ teriyaki tempura combo plate, and sushi wasn’t gonna cut it.
On edit: Duh. The music was loud and bouncing off the new hard reflective surfaces. That alone would have been enough to drive us out.
Its not a music selection, but loud music in bars, pubs, and cafes is a huge bug bear of mine. I know this is a “get off my lawn” complaint, but I’ve definitely left places because I couldn’t have a conversation.
Seriously people go to pubs to talk to each other, why would you have music that makes that next to impossible!?!
It never bugged me but at my local in San Francisco the owners took away the bartender’s music choosing privileges as one of them would place nothing but obscure doom metal
I don’t pay much attention at all to ambient tunes, but live music in a small venue is a recipe for driving me away.
In a reversal of the OP, I changed my default radio station recently because a car dealership with hideously annoying commercials bought scads and scads of airtime.
It was a case where an annoying business drove me away from music.
Anything loud is a turn-off but any kind of “jazz” at any volume will have me turning on my heel.
And yes, I’ve walked out of restuarants because of that.
Sometimes the music at the local Starbucks is too loud for me to be able to concentrate on my writing, so I tolerate it as best I can until we can leave.
One of our family’s reasons for abandoning our Huddle House, besides them vastly reducing their hours of operation and their employee turnover, is because they changed from '60s music to contemporary R&B.
There’s also the possibility that a business might deliberately play annoying music. Starbucks want you to come in and buy coffee, but not hang around for too long taking up space. I find their music slightly too loud to concentrate, with no quiet spots, and slightly annoying - and I suspect that this is carefully researched and deliberately calibrated. No so annoying that it deters you from going in, but just a drip-drip-drip of slight annoyance that builds over time if you linger.
One of our favorite local ‘fine dining’ restaurants has live jazz in the evening on weekends – exactly when my wife (with her sultry but quiet voice) prefer to dine.
And I seem perfectly able to remember how annoying it is now, for this thread, but I can’t seem to ever remember when making reservations.
The music’s good, but we simply can’t converse. We become caricature versions of ‘the dining dead.’
The music + acoustics are enough to drown us out if we were the only two (plus the band) in the place.
But we really can’t converse because it’s a pretty popular place, draws a fairly young demographic, and everybody at least seems to be basically shouting at the top of their lungs to be heard above the din.
Yeah. Love the food but I definitely feel old and grouchy because of that bit. And it’s really hard to enjoy the food when the sum total of the experience is so oppressive.
Shopping ? Meh. I’ve never noticed a place being quite that bad. Shopping is, for me, a very different thing, though.
I know a sensitive plant who carries foam earplugs everywhere, for just such situations.
I went to a restaurant where not only was the music absolutely blasting, but we were sitting under an air conditioner duct and freezing to death. Neither situation, when brought to the staff’s attention, was remedied. Never went back there again.
