I listened to a great podcast on the history of Muzak the other day.
Yes, really.
And I really could have used it when I was writing my dissertation all those years ago. That classic was on in-store radio rather than Muzak but there's a lot of crossovers. And I still have an interest in the functionality of music. I suppose that's an overspill of liking dance music.
Anyway, this podcast. It's called The Day The Muzak Died and it's part of a BBC Radio 4 strand called Seriously.
While listening to it I started thinking about Spotify and its mood playlists and how that could be our new Muzak. Whereas before Muzak was selected by management to extract the maximum output from workers, do we use Spotify playlists as muzak to extract the most work out of ourselves?
(And yeah, I'm aware I bash Spotify a lot. I fully acknowledge there are also the Focus Beats mixes on BBC Sounds and the Infinite Mixtapes on NTS, services and stations I use.)
Then there's how the pandemic plays into this. I've always leaned on music to work to, especially instrumentals. Yet it's become essential since working from home for over a year if only to block out a toddler and dog and everything that goes on in a home as I type, and type, and type under the stairs, pressing buttons to make numbers appear in my bank account at the end of the month.
Jeez, that got depressing quick. Still, that shouldn't put you off listening to The Day The Muzak Died. It's a fun doc and I thought that even before Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo rocked up. He's there sharing stories of making E-Z Listening Muzak covers of Devo songs as a preshow soundtrack for the band's gigs in the early 80s.
Big New Age energy. Alongside Mongoloid, there's also excellent Muzak versions of Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 and Funkytown by Lipps Inc that are used in the podcast. There are worse ways to spend 30 minutes either under the stairs or elsewhere.
Related post: Monday Morning Mixtapes For Offices
Original image: Kevin Collins from Reno, Nevada, US, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
