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The 'background music' one hears at restrauants and such!

catman

catman

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The 'background music' one hears at restaurants and such!

G'day all, a quick trip to our nearest city today for 'chaffeuring duties' :D and we had lunch at one of the well known restaurant chains. Whilst there, although it was only just discernable above the usual lunchtime crowd noise, I noticed what seemed to be an Australian Music playlist being played on the background music.

I recognised three Australian Music songs, Richard Clapton's gorgeous 'Capricorn Dancer' from the mid 1970's, Aussie rockers, The Screaming Jets with 'Better' and Crowded House with 'Now We're Getting Somewhere' off their debut album. All pretty good songs. It's a shame that they weren't a bit louder. :yes:

Speaking of 'background music', years ago I was stunned to hear The Beatles with 'Strawberry Fields Forever' in a large department store. I just stood there and listened. Around the same general time in another store I recall being equally stunned to hear The Jimi Hendrix Experience with 'May This Be Love' off the Are You Experienced album at another department store. You never know what eclectic music one might hear at your local restaurant or department store. :yes: Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
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I heard "People Are Strange" by The Doors at a McDonalds a few months ago. I was surprised. I started eating my food at a slower pace at that point. The same McDonalds also has a jukebox that I play some good 50s/60s tunes on that I enjoy. :music:

I also hear a few Zeppelin tunes at Best Buy rarely.
 
Every once in a while something out of the ordinary gets played, and I usually stop whatever I'm doing and listen. It makes an otherwise mundane experience rather nicer.
 
When I lived in the Czech Republic I would sometimes hear raunchy American songs like Bloodhound Gang in the supermarket. An employee who spoke English apparently found it amusing.
 
I work at Perkins restaurant.
We have Sirius satellite radio, but all its ever tuned to is 70s 90s or country.

No matter I run an old H/K reciever thru some zenith allegros
in the kitchen.

;-)


Matt
 
I once heard The Ramone's "I Wanna Be Sedated" in the local Shoney's, mixed in with the typical 80s new wave hits.

The first time I ever heard the Cocteau Twins' cover of "Frosty the Snowman" was the Christmas music being played in Toys R Us. I had been trying to track down a copy of the single without success, only to hear it there first.
 
I really like the Lounge music that they play at wine bars and other chic restaurants. It's great for entertaining or background listening when you want to hear music that doesn't necessarily have to grab your attention.

It's often well recorded too. :thmbsp:
 
I'm developing a new axiom: the larger the franchise and the cheaper the food,the louder and more irritating the music.

Cases in point: visit a Chilis, O'Charleys, Red Lobster (to me one of the worst) or Friday's and the music, to me, is quite irritating. Classic rock, or new rock usually.

Now visit an upscale, usually locally owned restaurant:quiet jazz piano, light classical or in most Italian restaurants the ever-present Sinatra or light opera arias.

I know, just my opinion, but it's gettig to the point where I'd rather just spend a few more dollars to have an overall better dining environment with quieter music as a background
 
GuyK said:
Every once in a while something out of the ordinary gets played, and I usually stop whatever I'm doing and listen. It makes an otherwise mundane experience rather nicer.
Click to expand...

A local supermarket plays various kinds of irritating crap, with an emphasis on 70's soft-rock. But one day I heard the music segued from "Summer Breeze" by Seals & Crofts, to David Bowie's "Queen Bitch." Totally unexpected & it made my day. Then for the next track, it was back to Lobo or something like that. I guess some music programmer decided to mess with peoples' minds.
 
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I can't imagine working at some of these businesses.
Ted's Montana Grill restaurants plays "western music".
I enjoy western music but would go stark raving mad listening to it all day, every day :screwy:

Roger
 
All that music is choosen by the corporate offices from playlist which music companies offer. Musak, DMX, Playnetwork, AEI music, all are music providers for corporate or mom and pop business's. Many of them have the ablity for the store managers to change the channels of what kind of music they wish to play, but all of the tracks are slighty different in most cases of the versions you here on the radio or in your music store, other than oldies. And every track in most cases has been picked by corporate offices of the buisness to insure that nothing is there that they might not wish played in there establishments. Most the music is refreshed via an ethernet connection to the audio processors. Any business that plays a Radio or CD's can face some serious fines, as the artist all get extra money from the royalities from the music that is sold to the business. Most of the music has been produced just for those music providers. Playing music in commerical establishment without paying for the rights is a violation of the law and has some really high fines.
 
Most of the New Mexican/Mexican food take-out type restaurants, are almost all tuned to Spanish-speaking radio stations.

Steve
 
G'day all, here in Australia, APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) who enforce all the music copyright stuff in this part of the world, have been known to get quite tough about these sorts of things. :yes: Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
When I go grocery shopping I like to get in and out as fast as I can because well, I can't stand grocery shopping. Anyway, they tend to play a good deal of "eclectic" music one would not expect to hear in a grocery store. (I remember when they used to play elevator music in grocery stores and I must say that things were a bit better back then).
That said though, once in a while a store will decide to play some good 60s/70s rock or folk and I will stay in the store purposely long enough to get a bit more music. Just a couple of weeks ago I heard The Mamas and Papas in the store and had to stay till the song was done.
Sometimes it's not so good though, I once heard Vons playing AC/DC. Nothing personal against the band or anything like that, but it sped up my shopping so I could get out of there mostly because I was confused about it. AC/DC background music in a grocery store? Really? I wonder where it fits in the whole marketing scheme?
 
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It goes both ways. It's my understanding that a lot of Larry Wild Man Fischer's songs were based on Muzak he heard when institutionalized.

To that end I once heard a Muzak ditty and recognized it as the base tune to Miss Jennifer Jones (is lying dead on my porch).
 
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