Muzak WhileYou Work
In the last issue we carried an article decrying background music, arguing that it was an auditory oddity, an insult to the composer and players who created it. Here KENT BARKER begs to differ.
I am just old enough to remember listening to Music While You Work on the BBC Light Programme. It began, slightly before my time, during WW2 with the intention of increasing productivity of factory workers making munitions. Its fare was familiar up-tempo tunes, with a consistent volume to which workers could whistle or sing along. Jazz was discouraged as was loud drumming which could sound like gunfire. And also the song Deep in the Heart of Texas was banned in case production-line workers banged spanners on machinery in time with hand-claps in the chorus!
The programme continued well after the war, popular with both workers and motorists, only ending in 1967 when the Light Programme morphed into Radio 2.
Meanwhile our American cousins had been playing background music in retail stores and public buildings since the early 1930s. Muzak was a brand name that became synonymous with what was generically known as ‘Elevator Music’ – though in fact the Muzak company never supplied its trademark easy listening fare to lifts.
Where the US leads, Britain and the world swiftly follows. This background music became so ubiquitous that in the early 1970s a young reporter doing one of his first radio features was sent by the BBC World Service to interview Muzak’s UK head. I can’t remember the executive’s name but I do recall him explaining the principles of Stimulus Progression. The tunes were programmed in 15-minute chunks, getting progressively faster and louder to encourage workers to increase production.
Tempo was also upped after lunch and at other times when fatigue was prone to set in. Even if its function is background balm or stimulation, it surely remains music, and of a type enjoyed by millions?
Not unrelated to this genre is incidental music – used mainly in theatre, film or television productions. Here again the composition is not designed to be actively listened to, but rather to be heard. It creates mood and ambience and is generally written specifically for that purpose. Many renowned classical composers have contributed – from Handel to Haydn and Mozart to Morricone.
These are among the reasons why I feel Victoria Kingham was slightly off-beam in her thoughtful piece Play On in the last issue of HIP. She criticises people who just have music on as background: “To treat music passively is to insult those members of the human species who created it,” she argues, conceding this may make her seem a musical ‘snob’.
I don’t think it snobbery, but I do wonder if it’s true.
I like to work with the radio on, whether it’s classical, jazz or rock. Sometimes I’ll stop what I’m doing and actively listen to a phrase or a chorus. Surely we all have? Even Victoria? In my limited time in a Ukulele ensemble we never expected the audience to listen to us in rapt attention, letting their beer go flat on the bar and eschewing banter and bonhomie. Certainly, don’t talk through a chamber concert in the Purcell Room, but equally do feel free to chat while I throttle the chords to Psycho Killer.
Music does many things for many people, but please let’s not try to shoehorn it onto just one corner – or disparage those who chose to listen differently.
Victoria responds
So, the original purpose of ‘background music’ was to speed up the work of employees making weapons of war, or, if you read Vance Packard, to reduce your resistance to buying random items in supermarkets. Indeed, then, a way for the employer class to improve the speed and productivity of wage minions without paying them more, or to manipulate the public into thinking that they want things that they don’t need. Harder work for the wage slaves, more money for the already wealthy. Bring it on, Kent Barker – you just gave me a couple more reasons to hate the idea. Oh, and the only time I have ever worked with the radio on is in a school holiday job on a factory assembly line. I didn’t have a choice, for the reasons you have so aptly stated.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply