They modernized the gas pumps at our local Speedway by adding video players. Instead of news like I've seen in California they play endless commercials and the volume is loud.
I remember stopping one time when it was twenty below zero this winter, no one was at the pumps and the same commercial was playing and not a single pump's sound was in sync with another. I felt like I was in a movie about a dystopian future.
I experienced this working in retail during the holiday season back when I was in college. The little bell intro to Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You", will forever haunt my dreams. I rarely listen to Christmas music anymore because of that experience.
Nowadays, I get irritated when I've burned through a 2 hour playlist twice at work and need to find something else to listen to, but I totally take the ability to change my music for granted.
In general I don’t understand why people think that it’s ok to pollute every bit of space with noise of their choice (aka music). I view it as a big nuisance.
I think it shows the motivation of the business. They're creating an area of easy conversation, not concentration.
By having something similar to the volume of conversation, you make conversation both "safe" and less distracting. Safe since speaking won't break some period of silence that is bound to happen. Breaking silence in a populated area requires a certain amount of social tension, "Why is everyone quiet? Will I bother people if I talk here?" etc. Less distracting since there is no period of silence for someone to break. The two people talking to each at a normal volume no longer become loudest thing in the room and the center of attention, they're just "lost in the noise". Many references can be found for these concepts, but I apologize for not providing them.
Sound masking would be more ideal for concentration, but I'm sure the regular Starbucks patrons would be a bit confused at constant "hoooshhhh" sounds of a noise generator.
You can find a few quiet coffee shops with very quiet music, but it's extremely awkward having a conversation in a place like this. I don't frequent these places with company.
I think it's because the alternative is silence, which many merchants see as setting a scene that is low energy and makes people lonely -- the last thing a retailer wants.
Most retailers want to set a mood that attracts their target demographic groups. In some clothing stores that serve women age 30-40, they play pop music that was in vogue 10-15 years ago, when these customers were in their teens or twenties and had more youthful energy, knowing this music was a very big part of their lives.
It wouldn't surprise me if music were also intended by PR/marketing types to put these customers in the same frame of mind they were in when they were most socially vulnerable (their teens?), when fashion was a necessary way to become more popular... or less unpopular, anyway.
> In general I don’t understand why people think that it’s ok to pollute every bit of space with noise of their choice (aka music). I view it as a big nuisance.
I presume your comment was addressed to businesses, but I've noticed it for people as well; there seems to be a growing trend of believing that it's perfectly OK to listen to music, or watch TV, in public, without headphones, and without even a minimal attempt to lower the volume. I've noticed this increasingly over time in the US on trains and—this one really gets me—in the bathroom. (I suppose I can see watching a video in there, but without headphones?)
As with many things, it's profit-driven. As a related example, bars intentionally turn the music up loud enough that conversations are difficult because this causes patrons to buy more drinks.
I notice this with some people in general, that seems to always want to pollute the air with words when sometimes, there is beauty in silence. And then I get called "quiet" for not doing the same. Ugh.
I know a few people that for some reason feel the need to narrate what I can see with my own eyes.
Being stuck on the subway several times a week with 1 or more people playing bass dependent music/game audio through their phone speakers... shoot me now.
I haven’t been to malls in a while, so maybe it’s done stateside too, but some overseas malls go the extra effort and make sure they pump it up to 11 (as if at a bar after hours) It's as if they’re trying to drive traffic out of their stores instead of trying to keep them in.
My wife managed a department at a craft store and one day their sound system broke. She said that was worse than the repetitive music. Retail spaces are not designed for good acoustics and that music really drowns out a lot of even more nuisance sounds.
O/T but people do the same thing with light, as well. e.g. just had a nighttime flight (so they turn off the cabin lights) where the person diagonally in front of me blinded me with his 100% brightness screen for hours.
Couple that with the countless people using their phones at max brightness, and I would've just preferred keeping the cabin lights on.
I can't say why everyone does it but soft/moderate volume music does encourage people to talk to each other more. No one wants to break silence. People are more likely to talk when they think no one can hear them.
I went into a Starbucks the other day early in the morning that didn't have music playing yet, it was really weird. It was actually kind of disconcerting. I think that's the only time i've ever been in one with no music. Everybody's voices echoed really loudly. You could hear every conversation going on and people ordering from the other side of the store.
As much as I dislike their music choices usually, I kind of understand why they have it going. Though a redesign of their interiors could probably do a lot to help the empty echoey feeling without constant music.
All coffee shops and restaurants these days have terrible acoustical design. It's because any kind of acoustic treatment is more expensive than none at all.
I worked in retail for years before moving out of the states. Pharmacies, specifically. The last couple of years I worked overnights at a 24 hour location. (Hey, only robbed once while I was working - a bonus!).
Anyhow, I used to go into the office and turn off the music at night. The silence you speak of was my entire excuse for turning it off: Corporate expected us to do things in the store at night, yet wait on customers like normal. The added benefit was that the store was sooo peaceful without the bad covers plus adverts they played on a loop.
I experienced this in a Target last year sometime. No music over the intercom, and the energy in the place just felt more... nervous, restless. I don't know whether that's an effect inherent to silence in large spaces or whether it was an effect created by the absence of something we took for granted.
I once sat in a Starbucks for a few hours and I noticed that the music shifted with the customer base. So oldies and jazz got played around the time senior citizens would come in and the vibe would change depending on the demographic at that time. I thought it was interesting.. Maybe coincidence.. maybe not.
Obviously "cafe has music" is going to be a popular comments section on HN where we all relate our horror stories of working at places with nonstop music.
But this is a surprisingly terrible article. Guantanamo bay, really? Quoting a no-name Adam Johnson with a head shot, unrelated to the source, to weigh in on music? Focusing on Starbucks as linkbait when this is ubiquitous?
I experienced this on another level while working retail at a musical instrument store for a few years. People would pick up any instrument and play whatever they wanted for however long they wanted-- at whatever volume they wanted. Although some people are quite talented, most are not. One lady would sit at the piano for hours, playing the musical equivalent of nonsense.
Around that same time, I had my own home recording studio and sometimes wound up recording musicians that were on the scale of bad to downright terrible. If I reacted negatively to the sound they made, that would only make them want to re-record it, which meant I'd have to hear it again. I quickly learned how to keep a straight face and mentally treat the music like background noise or focus intently on the parts of it that weren't too bad.
I was just wondering if music instrument store employees would be affected by everyone playing. I'm learning guitar and my housemate says it's disconcerting to hear me playing parts of a song he recognizes without the full instrumentation/song structure. I can't imagine if 5 people were doing that all at once for an 8-hour shift.
When I was in high school I worked in a Pizza restaurant that had a CD player in the closet. There were two CDs--The Carpenters Greatest Hits, which was used January to November and The Carpenters Christmas album, which they used in December. I must have listened to the Greatest Hits hundreds of times.
I work at Starbucks and I completely disagree with this article (as it pertains to Starbucks). Starbucks has a partnership with Spotify, all employees get a free Spotify account. Every Starbucks has an iPhone used to handle inventory & play the store music. This iPhone has the Spotify app installed and a fairly large collection of Starbucks playlists which accrue over time. Each playlist varies in size but some are quite large, e.g. the "Chill" playlist is likely over 50 songs. Moreover, I consider myself a hipster when it comes to music and can tell that each of these playlists has been curated in the same manner as Apple playlists, by using people "in the know". What that means is that many songs are extremely new and underground. A good example of this are songs like "High 5" by Sigrid, or "Lucky Girl" by Fazerdaze listed when they're released. So, any employee (at least at my store and those in the surrounding area) can simply change the playlist at any time. Don't like the Hamilton playlist?, go change it to the "Dinner Party" playlist. Not only can we change the playlist, we can simply use our own iPhone and play are own playlists with our free Spotify account (as long as it doesn't contain profanity). The one gripe I have is that some songs on the Starbucks playlists are completely inappropriate such as "Get Out" by CHVRCHES. If you haven't heard this song, go listen to it on Youtube and figure out why this is an awkward song to play around customers. So, imo Starbucks likely has the most lenient music policy of similar shops as well as the best music selection.
I worked at a movie theater and we were supposed to get a new CD every month from corporate to play in theaters before the movie started, but in the year or so I worked there it never changed. I don't remember all of them, but the ones I do remember are a cover of Convoy by Mannheim Steamroller, which is a godawful treacly piece of shit to begin with, and a cover of Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon by Urge Overkill, which I utterly loathe to this day.
This makes me think of Groundhog Day, and how brilliantly the film used the repetition of I've Got You Babe to show how the protagonist was going crazy.
Did MS actually do a cover of Convoy? The original "C.W. McCall" Convoy stems from the same people, but I didn't know they redid Convoy in the MS style.
The 1980s McCall-branded reunion album ("Comin' Back for More"?) is good.
This seems petty in comparison to what many store clerks in Japan have to put up with. Bic/Kojima Camera (perhaps comparable to Best Buy) normally has the same 10 second long jingle playing on auto-repeat all day everyday. That is the definition of real torture.
An elementary school I attended from first to fourth grade would play Beethovan's Moonlight Sonata in the lunchroom as the song that signaled "quiet time," when we'd have to eat our food without talking. Occasionally we would get another song, something by Chopin I think, but in my memory 90% of the time it was Moonlight Sonata. Whenever I hear that song now, ten years later, I get teleported back to fourth grade quiet time where all I could do was stare into my carton of sometimes half-frozen strawberry milk or prod miserably at my collard greens (invariably quiet time came near the end of lunch when I had already eaten everything not terrible). I have an almost physical revulsion when I hear it.
I attended university in the very early days of MP3s. In a microcontroller lab, the TAs hooked one of the lab computers to a pair of speakers and set up their collection of MP3s to loop indefinitely. I still remember the whole playlist:
I worked at Chick-fil-A in high school and experienced this but with Christian contemporary music. If I never hear "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood again it will be too soon. I feel the same way about steel drums after a summer working at Bahama Breeze, a Caribbean themed Olive Garden.
I always feel so bad for people that work at Hobby Lobby, it's just nothing but the WORST elevator music versions of Christian shit. I give thanks everyday for the Michael's we got a few years ago, so much better in every single way. Every time I'm forced to go to Hobby Lobby when Michael's doesn't have what I need, I can't get out of there fast enough.
I don't know about Starbucks but have you ever been to a Family Mart convenience store in Japan? I'm wondering how the music didn't drive the employees mad.
The Family Mart welcome song is probably the most recognizable but the same goes for stores like Bic Camera and many others.
The local Target used to be music free, and was the only big chain shopping experience I’ve ever enjoyed. I’d go out of my way to go there over competitors. Then they renovated, and now they blast the same terrible noise that every other retailer does. It sucks. I haven’t been back since.
I worked at a department store for a year in the gifts department (think Hummel figures, Precious Moments figures, candles, lava lamps, crystal dishes, various crap like that). There was a CD player that had a single CD in it that played on repeat. It was a CD of showtunes, like Oklahoma, etc. The only song on there I could tolerate was "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof, all the rest drove me nuts. I could escape it though, by going to a different corner of the department, so it wasn't too bad.
There was another time I worked in a factory job for a year, and the forewoman would blast the local Top 40 station throughout the whole factory all day every day. I would hear the same songs 3 or 4 times a day every day I worked there that entire year. To this day I get flashbacks whenever I hear Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (specifically the "la la la, la la, la la la" chorus. Drove me nuts hearing that all the time).
[+] [-] rmason|7 years ago|reply
I remember stopping one time when it was twenty below zero this winter, no one was at the pumps and the same commercial was playing and not a single pump's sound was in sync with another. I felt like I was in a movie about a dystopian future.
[+] [-] save_ferris|7 years ago|reply
Nowadays, I get irritated when I've burned through a 2 hour playlist twice at work and need to find something else to listen to, but I totally take the ability to change my music for granted.
[+] [-] maxxxxx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nomel|7 years ago|reply
By having something similar to the volume of conversation, you make conversation both "safe" and less distracting. Safe since speaking won't break some period of silence that is bound to happen. Breaking silence in a populated area requires a certain amount of social tension, "Why is everyone quiet? Will I bother people if I talk here?" etc. Less distracting since there is no period of silence for someone to break. The two people talking to each at a normal volume no longer become loudest thing in the room and the center of attention, they're just "lost in the noise". Many references can be found for these concepts, but I apologize for not providing them.
Sound masking would be more ideal for concentration, but I'm sure the regular Starbucks patrons would be a bit confused at constant "hoooshhhh" sounds of a noise generator.
You can find a few quiet coffee shops with very quiet music, but it's extremely awkward having a conversation in a place like this. I don't frequent these places with company.
[+] [-] randcraw|7 years ago|reply
Most retailers want to set a mood that attracts their target demographic groups. In some clothing stores that serve women age 30-40, they play pop music that was in vogue 10-15 years ago, when these customers were in their teens or twenties and had more youthful energy, knowing this music was a very big part of their lives.
It wouldn't surprise me if music were also intended by PR/marketing types to put these customers in the same frame of mind they were in when they were most socially vulnerable (their teens?), when fashion was a necessary way to become more popular... or less unpopular, anyway.
[+] [-] JadeNB|7 years ago|reply
I presume your comment was addressed to businesses, but I've noticed it for people as well; there seems to be a growing trend of believing that it's perfectly OK to listen to music, or watch TV, in public, without headphones, and without even a minimal attempt to lower the volume. I've noticed this increasingly over time in the US on trains and—this one really gets me—in the bathroom. (I suppose I can see watching a video in there, but without headphones?)
[+] [-] jniedrauer|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eeeeeeeeeeeee|7 years ago|reply
I know a few people that for some reason feel the need to narrate what I can see with my own eyes.
[+] [-] lesss365|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc32|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Zimahl|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epicide|7 years ago|reply
Couple that with the countless people using their phones at max brightness, and I would've just preferred keeping the cabin lights on.
[+] [-] AlwaysRock|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TuringNYC|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coding123|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unethical_ban|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brokenmachine|7 years ago|reply
What's wrong with a bit of quiet reflection?
[+] [-] grawprog|7 years ago|reply
As much as I dislike their music choices usually, I kind of understand why they have it going. Though a redesign of their interiors could probably do a lot to help the empty echoey feeling without constant music.
[+] [-] gnicholas|7 years ago|reply
https://coffitivity.com
[+] [-] psychometry|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Broken_Hippo|7 years ago|reply
Anyhow, I used to go into the office and turn off the music at night. The silence you speak of was my entire excuse for turning it off: Corporate expected us to do things in the store at night, yet wait on customers like normal. The added benefit was that the store was sooo peaceful without the bad covers plus adverts they played on a loop.
[+] [-] asteli|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rc_kas|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] narrator|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sjg007|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hombre_fatal|7 years ago|reply
But this is a surprisingly terrible article. Guantanamo bay, really? Quoting a no-name Adam Johnson with a head shot, unrelated to the source, to weigh in on music? Focusing on Starbucks as linkbait when this is ubiquitous?
[+] [-] hnruss|7 years ago|reply
Around that same time, I had my own home recording studio and sometimes wound up recording musicians that were on the scale of bad to downright terrible. If I reacted negatively to the sound they made, that would only make them want to re-record it, which meant I'd have to hear it again. I quickly learned how to keep a straight face and mentally treat the music like background noise or focus intently on the parts of it that weren't too bad.
[+] [-] PascLeRasc|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway413|7 years ago|reply
They had the same 6 songs playing on repeat all damn day, every single day. It was tortuous.
That was the second worst thing about that place. The first being the hourly spray of chemical fumes everywhere for their signature smell.
[+] [-] cwkoss|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galago|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baldfat|7 years ago|reply
It was Russian Roulette with the revolver loaded when mom ask what music you want to listen to. You want audio arsenic or audio cyanide?
[+] [-] nsxwolf|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gerbilly|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] barrister|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] overthemoon|7 years ago|reply
This makes me think of Groundhog Day, and how brilliantly the film used the repetition of I've Got You Babe to show how the protagonist was going crazy.
[+] [-] DrScump|7 years ago|reply
The 1980s McCall-branded reunion album ("Comin' Back for More"?) is good.
[+] [-] Synaesthesia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjpnz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bogidon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Synaesthesia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rb808|7 years ago|reply
That sounds like a really oppressive school. hope you made it out OK.
[+] [-] sevensor|7 years ago|reply
* White Wedding by Billy Idol
* I Am The Walrus by the Beatles
I may have the order reversed.
[+] [-] 781|7 years ago|reply
https://i.imgur.com/Pzd3lIk.png
https://i.imgur.com/qXkEUZl.jpg
[+] [-] s_c_r|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eigenstuff|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] heegemcgee|7 years ago|reply
I don't doubt that this is a problem, but this isn't a good look at it.
[+] [-] GuB-42|7 years ago|reply
The Family Mart welcome song is probably the most recognizable but the same goes for stores like Bic Camera and many others.
[+] [-] christophilus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cableshaft|7 years ago|reply
There was another time I worked in a factory job for a year, and the forewoman would blast the local Top 40 station throughout the whole factory all day every day. I would hear the same songs 3 or 4 times a day every day I worked there that entire year. To this day I get flashbacks whenever I hear Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (specifically the "la la la, la la, la la la" chorus. Drove me nuts hearing that all the time).