Letters to the Editor
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LymeG is right...
Maybe a more appropriate idea is a No Commercial Music Day instead, one where we encourage LIVE instrumental music to take presidence over the crap being fed to us on the TV and radio all day long. Music programs at public schools are falling apart at the seams, so we can spend our energy in better ways by encouraging our youth to play their brassy horns instead of hearing yet another lame (insert current pop idol) song on the radio.
Besides, the sad truth is while there are at present 117 letter posts on this forum for this topic, most of which support the idea of a No Music Day...there are probably 10 times as many people that frankly either don't care about their senses being bombarded (e.g. me), OR they just start singing out loud when they hear a song they know (e.g. my wife)...even if it's a song they don't remember fondly.
You know, some folks just live for that moment when "Don't Fear the Reaper" gets played Muzak-style at the local hobby store, then everyone in the immediate vicinity gets their turn at bashing that most obvious of cultural pinatas to pieces..."Wow, now I feel really old." *Groan* "Jeesh, I was really waiting for 'Girl from Ipanema' to come on." "Hey, maybe 'Back in Black' is up next."
I guess maybe what I'm trying to say is...lighten up...
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Silence is the new music
Music used to be an occasion, ie one heard music when and where music was played. The occasion was originally the celebration (or mourning) of something important, private of public, later hearing music became an occasion in itself (concerts or other performances).
Records had changed the situation only so that hearing music entered the home, nevertheless it remained an occasion. Record players had to be attended to, from the beginning to the end of the music playing, although the listener started to have control over which music would play, for how long, etc.
Some older, earlier institutions such as the merry-go-round, where music was playing while the merriment was going around, started to loosen the bind between music and occasion-to-hear-music, but the first true medium where music was relegated into being a background feature was the moving picture. But then it the the movie itself that was an occasion so indirectly music was still tied to an occasion (going to see the film).
Tube radio had been the true link between music as an occasion and as background. There was predetermined programming one could decide to sit down and listen to, but it could also be left on and provide a private background soundscape. I don't know if there are any data on background listening before the transistor radio came along, it is clear though that the latter had finalized the listener's control over the music to be heard, and with that made music ubiquitous and unavoidable in public spaces. Wiring every public space so as to become a continuous music emitter is just an extension of the phenomenon by additional means.
Perhaps because listening to transistor radios upset the fuddyduddies of yore, disturbing the peace of others by exposing them to someone else's music has become, and unfortunately remained, one of the symbols of youthful rebellion. Throughout the decades of relentlessly multiplying music sources the pollution of audible space with music has become accustomed to like traffic jams, parking tickets or taxes.
The degradation of music was furthered by the invention of the cell phone ring tone. Examples abound for fragments of old masterpieces chirping out of these devices meaning nothing to their owners but an incoming call.
The phenomenon the article reflects upon, i.e the thematic musical backgrounding of various public spaces, points towards the relatively recent blurring of the lines between entertainment and just plain everyday life. Just as a daring rescue in a movie requires a certain type of background music different from that for a love scene, a shopping center during Christmas requires one type of generally accepted musical highlighting, and a Spanish restaurant another type but just as specifically determined by the popular - for lack of better term - culture. And just as the imaginary space (that of the movie) is unimaginable without musical background, now the real space is, too, and by adhering to the same general selection rules to boot.
The sign of the perversion of our time: once it was the hearing of music that was an occasion, now it is silence.
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Right Sentiment but...
I agree with you in principle, in that all stores and public spaces in the United States are now inundated with nonstop chattering...however, I'd say that music is the least annoying "noise" out there.
I can't get a coffee or grab a sandwich (ANYWHERE, it seems) without morning TV talking heads (usually FOX, for some reason, even though D.C. is a liberal city) blathering away with lovely, LOVELY early morning vitriol and chatter. This trend of placing televisions everywhere in our country, from hotel lobbies to gas stations to restaurants to take-out joints to wherever, has just got to stop.
Also, let's not forget about the department stores that blare the same quick adverts for their store (or specials) in pre-programmed intervals, to the point where they have become permanently lodged in my brain. ("Caldor, your everyday discount store!! With lower prices, and better service...")
Caldor went out of business when, over 10 years ago? I rest my case.
As for music, give me a break. If you're getting offended over loud music being blared in a BAR, for christ's sake, then I have nothing to offer you but phony sympathy and a crudely-drawn map to the nearest yuppie "wine bar" that serves chilled Sauvignon Blanc and plays only somber musical fugues by James Taylor's younger brother. It's a bar: it's supposed to be loud, smoky and drunkenly boisterous.
Finally, I will be the first to shake my head at the shameless selling-out of seemingly every rock musician to soulless corporate interests. For Shame!
However, to lump in the use of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" in a car commercial is, to say the least, stupid and elitist. First of all, it has to stand as one of the few times (if ever) that a commercial and a song have intertwined so perfectly...christ, who ever thought a CAR COMMERCIAL could be considered elegant?
Second, while the idea of friends slipping me a copy of a Nick Drake cassette or CD, and thus opening up a new world of musical appreciation for him, does hold some certain sentimental appeal, I was not that lucky. Though always a huge music fan, I had never heard of Mr. Drake until this commercial aired about 7 or 8 years ago. I was knocked out by his wistful voice immediately, and just had to find out more about him. I quickly found all his CDs and have remained a huge fan to this day.