Music in Everyday Spaces

I don't really like the concept of background music, at least in the way that the article described it. While I'm completely fine with having music in the background of say, a social gathering or party, I'm not too keen on the idea of using it as a tool to bring customers into stores and keep them there for longer. Music is something to be listened to and experienced, not something that companies should be using to lure people in to spend money. I do agree that music can and should be used to enhance your general surroundings, but no artist creates a song thinking "hey this will bring those kids into Hot Topic to buy more ironic t-shirts". That's absurd and, to me at least, seems disrespectful of music as a conceptual whole.

Furthermore, I feel like using music in such a way deadens it. I worked at a Sear's Hardware Store throughout high school, and I heard probably the same 30 or so songs (plus 10 Christmas - oops, "Holiday" songs) the entire time I worked there. Now while some of the music was admittedly bland, they also played some songs I really liked by artists like Aerosmith and Queen. The problem is that the atmosphere in which it was played, in addition to the delivery of the music, completely sucked the soul out of it. It was as though the music was an afterthought, which it honestly is. People are there to buy things, not listen to some poor rendition of "Billie Jean". Customers are looking for socket wrenches, not pondering the repercussions of their misguided interactions with women. Or maybe they are, but certainly that isn't foremost in their minds. Thus it almost seems absurd to try to listen to music in such an atmosphere, although I suppose that isn't really the point now is it? I guess when it comes down to it, I'd rather them use ambient music - collections of soothing sounds or generic melodies that a target audience might like. But please, please, refrain from using songs that I know and love. It's unfair to the artists who wrote them and its unfair to us as music consumers.