Letters to the Editor
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@anonymous
regarding my complaint regarding the fascist potential of tv-b-gone and the righteous smackdown I quickly received ("Be quiet. There are people talking here."):
Sorry. Didn't mean to spoil the party with a dissenting view. I should have just stayed shut the fuck up.
Just a sec, let me whip out my tiniest violin here and play you a sad little Fascist melody...
The point of the tv-b-gone is to turn off televisions that nobody even realizes they're zoned in on. You'd be surprised how often people just shift their attention somewhere else and seem perfectly happy, or even relieved, that it's off.
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Turn down the (someone else’s choice of) music, please.
Five years ago I heard about an organization in the UK called Pipedown (www.pipedown.info) that was dedicated to encouraging public places to stop blasting loud music and create an atmosphere conducive to talking in groups. I was so excited and searched for hours for a similar organization in the US. No luck.
Pipedown makes an important distinction between music and “canned music.” “Canned music” completely eliminates the listener’s choice. Listening to canned music is listening to someone else’s choice of music in a public setting, not your own choice, not that of your 80-year old mother, not that of your 50-year old friend, not that of your 20-year old children.
Introverts (a noble and intelligent segment of society) are probably the group of people who most detest canned music. We carry more shyness, social hesitation, and sensitivity than the average person. But we need to assert ourselves and firmly say “Please turn it down.” We are a minority, if not a small, cranky bunch. We won’t win, but we won’t take “Hotel California” lying down.
My biggest peeve about this loss of choice is the trend in today’s casual business environment to allow radio playing. Lite FM radio stations now advertise themselves as “suitable” for the office.
Fifteen years ago I entered my second office job. My previous and first job had a no radio policy. This policy was unwritten – everyone just assumed that playing a radio at your desk was akin to bringing your cat and its litter box to work. I obediently entered my new office cubicle and, every morning, the bozo next to me was listening (loudly) to Howard Stern. I waited patiently for a few weeks to make sure my position there was somewhat solid, walked into my boss’s office and said “What is going on here? This is absolutely unbelievable that employees are allowed to play the radio.” He agreed, and I (proudly) became the office radio bitch.
Again, this is not about which songs I like, or you like, or he likes or she likes. I stressed that to my boss. I can laugh at Howard Stern, but I will always refer to my fellow worker as bozo (once he put “We Will Rock You” on a loop on tinny computer speakers and left his cubicle). And, I like my music, and could probably rock his casual knit jersey and khakis into the ground on a Friday night.
Pipedown has encouraged me to continually ask others, “Turn down the (someone else’s choice of) music, please.”
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the war on silence has been won
Worse for me than the ubiqity of music in our culture is its ever-increasing volume. Here in New York City, where street noise--honking horns (for New Yorkers there is no traffic situation that can't be improved by just laying on the horn), roaring trucks and busses, cell-phone shouters, sirens, etc.--you might think that a cafe would be a haven from this auditory nightmare. But, no. The cafe nearest where I live routinely blasts music so loud it's impossible to read or talk or think, which is precisely what most people go to cafes to do. Of course the employees seem to love it, it energizes them, and the customers are so tranced-out in front of their computers a bomb could go off and they'd probably just Google it.
I was recently hiking in the Rocky mountains and was amazed and exalted to hear nothing--and I mean nothing--other than the sounds of birds singing. In such a situation most peoples' heads would explode, but I loved every moment.
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Corporate music elitism still sucks
I am as much of rockist as anyone else who regularly reads Pitchfork and knows (and is amazed by) who Andrew Bird is, but I find this article to be whiny and traditionalist elitism.
Yes, there are many places you go where awful music is piped in and grates against your nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Yes, there are times when I watch television and it pains me physically to listen to the Clash shilling for a car company. Yes, its nice to go into a bar and share a knowing glance with someone who played a decent song on the jukebox.
Somehow, though, I manage to go through most of my life avoiding places with crappy music without really even realizing it, and if I had to, my personal mp3 player would allow me to block out all but the most obnoxiously leveled affronts. If I do find myself in a situation where I am not allowed to have any say in the music which is played, most times I block it out, or find myself happy to listen to music I would not have otherwise haven chosen for whatever reason.
It seems to me that the author of this article is so pleased at his exquisite taste in music that he can't abide a world who doesn't live up to his high standards and artistic sensibilities. Forgive me for being blunt, but I believe this is a case of people needing to get over themselves.
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@Alejandro Rodriguez
It seems to me that the author of this article is so pleased at his exquisite taste in music that he can't abide a world who doesn't live up to his high standards and artistic sensibilities.
H'mm, well, it might at some point seem to me that the writer of the above is so pleased at his triumphant numbness to the mindless ubiquity of media shoved into our sensoria as if we were pate geese that he can't abide someone expressing a contrary point of view, and might need to take his own advice re: getting over himself.
'Course, it might not, if I had anything better to do.