Muzak

Muzak never got cred because it´s all covers. And 98% of the time it´s a lousy, lifeless rape of what was once original material (and most of the time even that is up for discussion).

Question: Name a good and fresh muzak-version of a song, any song.

Interestingly, I think that metaphor also explains what was so creepy about the ubiquitous soft-rock hits of the mid-to-late 80s, which were essentially like reanimated muzak -- i.e., it was zombie music!

The "statue" music, in this sense, would be New Age, which is entirely meant to be sort of still and lifeless. Thus its consumption by over-stressed Yuppies, who could enjoy the fact that it contained few recognizable, potentially-irksome human elements. It also explain's New Age's co-opting of so many World influences, in that they added touches of humanity, but in a way that was foreign to Western consumers and therefore couldn't effectively convey complex or conflicted emotions.

last sightings of muzak in public places?

*Ok, a Whataburger.

id quite like to hear real muzak being played in more public places again. i find it tiring hearing popular music everywhere you go. id like to be able to go to the doctors surgery and hear muzak rather than old pop music (though easy listening would be fine there too). i recently heard some proper old muzak in a derelict dept store which i found surprising to the point where i was tempted to go and ask them if i could find out what the tape was.

Funny you should revive this thread today:

Muzak Holdings LLC, the maker of elevator music, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

The company had heavy debt load, and it filed to try to refinance some of its debt. Its total debt is between $100 million and $500 million and it has assets of less than $50,000, Muzak said in a court filing.

Fort Mill, S.C.-based Muzak filed for court protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware in Wilmington. The company expects to continue to operate as is. A statement said it has "sufficient means" to support itself through a bankruptcy reorganization.

The company got an extension last month on $105 million in debt, it said in a statement. The extension ran out Tuesday.

Among its biggest unsecured creditors is U.S. Bank NA, which is owed $371 million according to a court filing. Bank lenders typically are classified as secured lenders. Secured lenders are paid before unsecured lenders.

Other top unsecured creditors include vendors such as Universal Music Enterprises, owed $349,321; EMI Capital Records, $320,323; AT&T, $257,384; and Dish Network, $251,276. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is owed $213,020, the filing said.

Sony Music, BMG Film & Television Music, United Parcel Service and Virgin Records were also listed among the unsecured creditors.

please bring back muzak

I spend a lot of time in hotel lobbies/breakfast areas

please please bring back muzak instead of "barbara ann"

it's funny how someone like Michel Legrand I got to know via radio Muzak when I was a child, and now I'm writing a review of Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJWZxPW45c

this is soothing my wracked brain after a hellish past few days. otoh, it makes me want to spend money relentlessly.

http://www.roughtype.com/?p=6274

Once you accept that music is an input, a factor of production, you’ll naturally seek to minimize the cost and effort required to acquire the input. And since music is “context” rather than “core,” to borrow Geoff Moore’s famous categorization of business inputs, simple economics would dictate that you outsource the supply of music rather than invest personal resources — time, money, attention, passion — in supplying it yourself. You should, as Google suggests, look to a “team of music experts” to “craft” your musical inputs, “song by song,” so “you don’t have to.” To choose one’s own songs, or even to develop the personal taste in music required to choose one’s own songs, would be wasted labor, a distraction from the series of essential jobs that give structure and value to your days.

Art is an industrial lubricant that, by reducing the friction from activities, makes for more productive lives.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cf8ChN6XEAABNNo.jpghttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cf8ChNMWwAA8u_Y.jpg

love this artwork and design, makes it look like muzak is the american equivalent of the grm or something