In my office building, we have a nice gym, which we can use for free. I use it twice a week, in the mornings at about 7:30 - 8:00. The gym has a large screen television, always tuned to ESPN, and sometimes whoever is working out the night before leaves the volume way up. There’s a morning show which consists of several sports reporters sitting around a desk, fighting and yelling at each other about whatever is afoot in sports that morning. They’re OBNOXIOUS. I’ve had to cut my workout short and leave a few times because it’s way too much yelling and fighting for so early in the morning, and it’s very distracting when I’m trying to concentrate while handling heavy weights.
The security guard of the building (who sits four floors down in the lobby) knows all about this, and he usually is able to do something to mute the show, but he’s not always on top of it and sometimes there’s a substitute guard sitting in his place.
Who enjoys watching obnoxious fighting and yelling at any time, not to mention that early in the morning?
ETA: I know that’s not music, as specified in the OP, but I needed to gripe.
I know the conventional wisdom is that this is deliberately done to push people along and increase turnover, and for some establishments this may be true. But that belies to possibly of equal or greater numbers of customers who don’t have any conversation skills and who like the energized space.
Some of us remember restaurants and bars from the 1960s, when the bistro-style was dominant. They were dark, had fuzzy flocking pattered wall paper and booths separated by dark-stained rows of lathed railing. The kind of places where Jason Robards, in A Thousand Clowns ordered “a steak… and a flashlight.”
But because “nobody wants to eat in an empty restaurant,” in the 70s the bistro fell out in favor of the brasserie. They were bright and noisy and when you entered you were “where it was at.” Add music and you could sit there screaming aloud someone’s medical file without violating HIPAA.
The nearest thrift store used to play non-stop Christian Rock. Ack. Ack! I tried my best to find things at other thrift stores before venturing through their doors.
When I wander into a hardware store with Country on the speakers, I shop faster and browse less than normal.
Oh there is also the perennial terror of finding a spot at a lovely beer garden, good beer, shade, lovely ambience. Perfect place to hang out for a while, right? But then you realize the pile of equipment next to the table is in fact a stage, and you are now sitting next to a noodly acid jazz band.
I had an MRI a few months ago where I didn’t realize until I was in the tube that the headset was playing Christian Rock/Pop. I would have immediately turned around and left, except for the part about being jammed in a tube.
Bummer. I would have loved to stumble into a joint blasting some doom. Maybe not my everyday stop, but fun once in a while.
I do have to ask this: the fact that the guy would blast obscure doom metal suggest that there’s mainstream doom out there as well. Maybe I’m out of touch, but that idea makes me giggle.
I wear hearing aids. It’s challenging sometimes just to hear certain people talk in an environment with normal ambient noise levels, but loud music makes it nearly impossible to communicate with whomever I’m with. That’s enough to encourage me to leave immediately.
I quit my gym because they insisted on blasting 1980s/1990s pop music in the weight room and the pool area. Especially when I’m swimming I do not want any sound.
Even when I was the only one there (I often worked out between 9pm and 10) they would refuse to turn it off or even down.
Unsurprisingly they turned out to be anti-vax, anti-mask COVID hoaxers.
Decades ago, I got so tired of hearing Free Bird that I promised myself I would never listen to it again forever. If I do hear it, I leave. Once, when I had been waiting in line to check out at a clothing store, FB started to play just as I reached the cashier. I gave her my things and told I’d be back when the song was over (in about half an hour). She changed the station for me instead.
Also, live music will nearly always drive me and my husband away from a restaurant.
I have departed many an establishment because they were playing disco. I had an oversaturation dating back to ~1976 and most pop music continued to have that general sound for a long time subsequent, so I remained strongly polarized against the stuff.
When I worked at the grocery store pharmacy, +/- the year 2000, we had over 100 satellite channels to choose from, and I’ll never forget when someone changed to country gospel AND bumped the volume to about 15. I’ll never hear Anne Murray OR “In The Garden” the same way again. It was quickly turned down.
Being a 24-hour store, the night crew had the channels they liked, and yes, one morning, I opened the pharmacy at 7:55am to this old tune. We later heard the 17-minute version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, and the other pharmacist started to tell me the story behind it and I replied that I already knew it.
A decade before that, I dated the owner of a used record store, and if he had problematic customers or wanted to wind down before closing time, he would put on classical music. It never failed to amaze him who knew what it was. I’ve also heard of convenience stores doing this, to deter loitering.
Besides being driven out of the occasional place because of loud music, it is a frequent occurrence for me in grocery stores or department stores that obnoxious music (not loud, just annoying) will cause me to cut my shopping short, buy only the minimum essentials and flee the establishment.
I can’t recall boycotting any stores or restaurants because of music selection or volume, but I’ve hurried out of some as fast as possible due to their loathsome ear-crud (there is a style of tuneless pop involving pseudo-passionate, breathy, usually female vocalists for which I have very low tolerance).
The only time I’ve ever complained about a retail establishment’s music was at City Barbecue, a lunch go-to spot during my weekends on call. They always played good blues numbers, but one fateful day management at one outlet decided to substitute country. I sent HQ an e-mail gripe, got a solicitous response, and thankfully that restaurant was soon back to the blues (I suspect there were numerous complaints).
I sent HQ an e-mail gripe, got a solicitous response, and thankfully that restaurant was soon back to the blues (I suspect there were numerous complaints).