Yesterday was the end-of-school-year 5th grade party at the elementary school near my house. A DJ was playing “throwback of your life” tunes, going backwards from 5th grade (current pop) to “remember kindergarten!?!”. He blared “Baby Shark”. I had to close all my windows. That’s gotta be a Geneva Convention violation.
Stay out of Beijing, then. The first of September seems to be the official starting date for Christmas music here.
I’m ADD and my line is “There’s no such thing as background music.”
Even if something’s playing softly, I’m still reminiscing about where I was in… 1972?.. when it came on the car radio in Big Al’s $15 car and here’s that awesome solo… what was the name of the guitarist, the one who went on to play with that other band? The band that covered that Badfinger song… damn that was too bad about Pete Ham and Tom… Evans? And now comes that cool key change… man, that’s not just a simple modulation, that’s a huge jump.
I’m sorry, what has everyone else been talking about?
I can’t remember ever being so bothered by the music playing in a store that it made me leave. I just don’t care, it’s background. I really don’t understand people who get so hot and bothered about Christmas music playing either. Calm down and relax!
I was in a large auto parts store. I needed some new wiper blades. They happened to be located right near the car stereo department. Which was blaring, at top volume, rap/hip-hop.
Now, this store had handy guides in the aisles, so you could get what you needed for your model vehicle. For example, you could look up in the guide, “2000 Chevy Blazer,” and find the code “XY-123AB front; WZ-456DE back.” If you needed a front wiper for your 2000 Chevy Blazer, you just looked for XY-123AB wipers in the aisle, and you found a few different brands of what you needed. Under normal circumstances, anyway.
But you try remembering those numbers and letters with rap/hip-hop blasting at top volume. I couldn’t, and so I wandered into the car stereo department, found the offending stereo, and turned it down to a moderate level.
Suddenly, a young kid showed up beside me. And by that, I mean somebody who was young enough to be a high-school kid with an after-school part-time job, as he was wearing the store’s uniform. He cranked the rap/hip-hop back to max, and said, “You can’t touch that.”
“It’s too loud,” I shouted.
“It has to be that loud,” Kid replied.
“Says who?” I asked.
“My manager.” And Kid walked away.
Well, so did I, without my wipers. There were other places to get wiper blades. But on my way out, I spotted the Customer Service desk, and reported the incident. “The manager said that?” asked the clerk. “That doesn’t sound like Bob.” Anyway, I left.
A month or two later, needing something just as uncomplicated for my car, I went back. Just for fun, I swung through the car stereo department. What was playing was a local oldies radio station, at a reasonable volume. And Kid was nowhere in sight.
more in the driving them in cat., there is a supermarket in south philly that has good music, people absently singing along in the aisles music. anytime you mention that store the first thing anyone says is: “they have the best music”.
i would say it is soft rock/pop. 50’s, 60’s mostly with a splash of 70’s, 80’s.
the music does change after the store closes, the overnight stocking shift has a very different playlist.
I absolutely positively do get driven out by too loud or inappropriate music. From retail places, bars / restaurants, and from actual entertainment venues.
There does seem to be a theory in the restaurant industry that loud music that forces the patrons to shout at their tablemates to be heard creates a “party” atmosphere that leads to increased sales. It may well, but those sales are definitely reduced by my non-presence there. Spaces that are designed to maximize echoing and minimize sound absorption are another feature of party-promoting design.
Loud music or videos playing at fuel pumps have definitely kept me away from several local fuel stations. Most have toned it down though.
Conversely, I cannot understand the desire (need?) to celebrate one day in December for several months beforehand with crappy music that is designed primarily to influence people to buy crap. I get that for some people, Christmas is a warm fuzzy thing that brings them some happiness. I don’t begrudge them a few days in late December if they want to enjoy that. But the absurdity of a three month (or even three week) “Christmas Season” is triggering for me. After a few interventions by my wife, I’ve have indeed learned to relax and calm down about it, but it does relate to the topic of this thread. I will certainly leave an establshment if Christmas music is playing in November. (I once wrote a letter to an airline complaining aabout that very thing since I couldn’t leave the plane)
CHUCK E. CHEESE!!! The grandchildren lurve this place. Hearing aids off but left in; earliest possible exit. Not to mention lights/sounds from the games. I don’t go to casinos either.
As a rule, I don’t care for casinos, but a new one opened about a year ago in a nearby defunct shopping mall, so we tried it out a few weeks ago just to see what the fuss was all about.
We left within an hour. We had to shout to hear each other. They had very hard rock music playing at ear-splitting volume everywhere, including the dining areas. Even in the restrooms, where if anything, it was worse because there was nothing to absorb it. Never took such a quick p—s in my life.
I’ve visited casinos before and never noticed the volume that high. In fact, I don’t recall noticing music in casinos at all. Most of the time what you hear is that electronic groaning that hundreds of slot machines collectively make. Perhaps they were trying to cover that up…who knows?
Since most of the patrons appeared to be in their 80s or more, I had to wonder what the point of that particular style of music was, played at that volume, other than to disrupt their thought processes so they didn’t know how much money they were losing.
I agree completely about Christmas music. The mindless repetition of it, and its ubiquity in large shops from early December onwards, drives me completely spare. It’s definitely a part of why I would just like to be anaesthetised around this time of year, kept on life support (obviously) and wake up on Boxing Day. Last Christmas day I stayed home, watched a movie or two, made myself some lunch, had a nap, read a book. Bliss! (Did I mention I’m an introvert?) If people like Christmas music, and Christmas itself (and it’s possible to like them separately) I sincerely envy them. Knock yourselves out with the wassailing! Just include me out of it.