BACKGROUND MUSIC

When we were young and giving parties every few weeks, we would have friends over for snacks and drinks and good conversation. Likewise, our friends would invite us to their homes and usually, a good time was had by all.

One of the features of most of the parties, in fact almost de rigueur, was the stereo (remember this was at the birth of the component boom) tuned to some station or playing records or tapes with what some people considered suitable mood music for the occasion.

I never saw (or heard)  it that way since it was difficult to hold a conversation among a group of people while the music was either a distraction or interference. Many times, when a  conversation got a bit boisterous, the host would increase the music volume in order to hear the music over the buzz which only served to make the conversation even louder as the participants in an animated discussion tried to drown out the program which led to another increase in volume. You can figure out the rest. With other hosts, the volume would be kept to a minimum at first and when only a few people had arrived it could be quite pleasant (depending upon your individual tastes) but as the crowd increased there would be an inevitable call for an increase in volume so that the music could be heard.

At that time, some engineers and psychologists came up with the idea that if every salient note would be taken out of music it could serve as a universal palliative which would calm people in public venues so that something would soothe them but not engage them. The invention was called Muzak. Some famous playwright would have one of his characters refer to it as "elevator music."

Elevators were actually a perfect location for this new kind of music because usually, (except for Alfred Hitchcock) people are silent there, shuffling about, staring at the floor indicator, clearing their throats and looking everywhere up and down except at other passengers.

Supermarkets and the lobbies of public buildings also became places who subscribed to Muzak although its purpose there is less undestandable.

Another type of background music was "mood" music, supposed to evince a scene of low light, candles burning, table set for two with fresh flowers and a woman lounging on a couch dressed in a long silky gown in front of floor to ceiling windows showing the dusk skyline of a large US city. Remarkable  about this music was its dullness and lack of excitement. Maybe that is what it was meant to convey.


A disturbing use of "background music" is its implementation as an accompaniment to the spoken words in videos, typically those created for institutions for display at their fund raisers. Someone is depicted in an interview or making a speech  with a dubbed bass accompaniment. The designers and producers of these oeuvres insist that the music is necessary in order to avoid boring the audience. I can't understand this kind of thinking. Just imagine the President of the United States making a speech  
 le an orchestra alongside him plays music long on beats and short on melody.

Although these days everyone carries around his own personal entertainment and communication center and wears earbuds from wakeup to bedtime (and even during sleep) most public places still have enough background music to impact on the general noise level that modern man is subject to.

It's time we concentrate on the foreground.