Used to be not too long ago you could still go into a grocery store and be shocked into dropping your pickles when you recognised the treacle-y instrumental being piped in as Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The town I grew up in even featured an all Muzak station which my brother & I used to tune into to sing along with dreck such as “Say, Say, Say.” Now everywhere you go just has a crummy blend of contemporary/middle-of-the road pop with a few oldies thrown in. When I was in “the city” (San Francisco) a couple weeks ago I saw a couple Muzak company vans in different areas, so I assume the company still exists, yet no longer specializes in the instrumentals? I really really miss it. I mean, I have a stack of 101 Strings albums, but it’s better with more current music.
According to Cecil’s Where does Muzak come from, anyway? (which appears on page 317 of The Straight Dope):
If anything, they’ve expanded their offerings since Cecil wrote that column about 20 years ago.
Just last week I got an email from Muzak’s Director of Licensing, asking me about an article on my site about Maj. General George Owen Squier, future founder of Muzak. He said that the company’s home office is currently in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is just south of Charlotte, North Carolina. He also said they give tours, although I suspect it’s not as fun as, say, a candy factory. The company website, not surprisingly, is at www.muzak.com.
It’s annoying as all hell. Back in the good old days, the music stayed in the background. Nowadays you can’t go anywhere without being aurally assaulted by pop crap I’ve heard 900,000 times and am heartily sick of.
When I left Salt Lake City (too many years ago, alas) there was still a big building-side sign for Muzak. (SLC seems like exactly the place to have a billboard for Muzak. I’ve never seen one anywhere else.)
I’m with you, brother. If you go into 5 different stores a day you can hear the same damn crap song 5 different times! It’s even worse when some stores just play the radio, because then you get the crap advertising as well. I work as a merchandiser in stores now, so it’s driving me extra crazy. I never listen to the radio anymore because it seems like music has just gotten too “intrusive.”
I blame it on the baby boomers.
