Hatred of elevator music

Anonus · 2014-03-23 00:20:07

Why?

Obā-san · 2014-03-23 00:22:57

because it's bland and pointless?

Anonus · 2014-03-23 00:24:14

See, I don't get why blandness offends people so much...

I admit to finding certain kinds of elevator music enjoyable...

Salix Babylonika · 2014-03-23 00:27:28

I don't even know what "elevator music" is.

Like I have lived two entire decades without ever hearing music piped into an elevator anywhere.

Anonus · 2014-03-23 00:29:51

well, other terms for it are "beautiful music", "easy listening", the genericized trademark "Muzak"...

Princess Alice · 2014-03-23 00:30:48

It's the generic instrumental music you hear over the PA systems in a lot of public places. I've heard it at McDonald's and the like more often than in actual elevators, but still.

Salix Babylonika · 2014-03-23 00:33:31

Every McDonald's I've ever been to pipes in a radio station from somewhere else. Same goes for every fast food place I've ever been to, and every grocery store.

Burger King tends to use Sirius XM.

Anonus said:
well, other terms for it are "beautiful music", "easy listening", the genericized trademark "Muzak"...

what like Esquivel! ? I like Esquivel!

Obā-san · 2014-03-23 00:35:53

Burgundy Queen said:
Every McDonald's I've ever been to pipes in a radio station from somewhere else. Same goes for every fast food place I've ever been to, and every grocery store.

this is because everyone can agree that anything is a step up from elevator music

Imipolex G · 2014-03-23 00:39:00

if this counts, then I am all in favor of it

listened to this stuff in the car today, classic

MetaFour · 2014-03-23 00:50:19

Burgundy Queen said:
what like Esquivel! ? I like Esquivel!

Pretty sure Esquivel (and all the space age pop musicians, and the exotica musicians to boot) was too weird to really qualify as muzak.

SF_Sorrow · 2014-03-23 02:02:29

outer-space easy listening sounds from beyond the year 2000

Section42L · 2014-03-23 02:12:00

Elevator music may suck, but what about theme park ride music?

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2014-03-23 11:14:08

*drifts into a 1970s dream with Imipolex G*

Fossilmaiden · 2014-03-23 11:22:44

Imipolex G · 2014-03-23 12:09:35

Miko said:
*drifts into a 1970s dream with Imipolex G*

ITT: We go grocery shopping in 1975

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2014-03-23 13:38:25

:)

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2014-03-23 13:39:58

^^^ That sounds a bit similar to the Costa del Sol music from FF7.

Tre · 2014-03-23 14:48:30

-insert embed of Elevatorstuck here-

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2014-03-23 14:51:25

Fun fact: That piece of music is used more times in Homestuck than any other track. ^_^

Anonus · 2014-03-23 15:01:30

This place exists and it was, last time I was in there (August of 2010), pretty old-fashioned

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the interior

Bee · 2014-03-23 22:39:09

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2014-03-23 22:42:46

Mega Man!! :D Also, one of the good games in the X series. ;3

Princess Alice · 2014-03-23 22:42:57

Anonus said:
This place exists and it was, last time I was in there (August of 2010), pretty old-fashioned

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the interior

We should go there together sometime

MetaFour · 2014-03-23 22:52:07

Come to think of it, bossa nova is a common source for elevator music. (Including "The Girl from Ipanema", that song that shows up in every elevator in movies or TV shows.) And I shamelessly love that stuff.

Bee · 2014-03-23 22:59:23

Eh, I thought X8 was pretty mediocre, if still a relief after X7. But damn did it have some epic music.

I think my favorite real elevator music was the Venetian in Vegas, but I also have a thing for Phantom of the Opera.

MetaFour · 2014-03-23 23:11:02

And any electronic subgenre with "ambient" in its name is pretty much elevator music for Millennials.

Obā-san · 2014-03-23 23:33:45

hellevator

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2014-03-23 23:58:00

Bee said:
Eh, I thought X8 was pretty mediocre, if still a relief after X7. But damn did it have some epic music.

I think my favorite real elevator music was the Venetian in Vegas, but I also have a thing for Phantom of the Opera.

Maybe the bar just wasn't very high. ^_^; Anyway, Phantom of the Opera! :D

Justice4243 · 2014-04-15 02:58:38

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 11:28:59

Yon Assassin said:

Burgundy Queen said:
Every McDonald's I've ever been to pipes in a radio station from somewhere else. Same goes for every fast food place I've ever been to, and every grocery store.
this is because everyone can agree that anything is a step up from elevator music

Well, generally speaking, yes. But at the same time, there is plenty of library music, exotica and incidental stuff that is, as Imipolex and Meta have demonstrated, quite pretty and strange. Sure, a lot of it is hella cheesy, but sometimes that's part of the charm.

Anonus said:
See, I don't get why blandness offends people so much...

I admit to finding certain kinds of elevator music enjoyable...

Well, what sorts of elevator music do you like?

Also, "blandness" is sort of a broad term. How do you define it, precisely?

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 11:33:58

MetaFour said:
And any electronic subgenre with "ambient" in its name is pretty much elevator music for Millennials.

As Yon Assassin has demonstrated, dark ambient is probably not good background music outside of very specific contexts...

Odradek · 2014-04-15 11:35:06

They could play nothing but "Jack and Diane" and "They Paved Paradise" in restaurants and no one would notice.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 11:38:50

"Jack and Diane" may be the most overused song on Earth, and it's just so... average. Like, there are so few distinctive features to it and yet it is immediately recognisable because of overexposure and general, mostly flavourless catchiness.

Imipolex G · 2014-04-15 11:42:31

By "They Paved Paradise" do you mean "Big Yellow Taxi"?

Anyway, I would gladly trade in [local pop radio station] to have elevator music instead. Much more tolerable.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 11:43:57

(As an aside, I don't think that music needs to arrive at a destination or aim for a particular goal past atmosphere to be interesting or enjoyable, but most music that aims only to be inoffensive background sound or to set a "calm" tone succeeds far too well, to the point that it ceases to have any other function, making listening to it akin to eating one of those basic ice cream cones without any ice cream in it.)

Odradek · 2014-04-15 12:02:51

Imipolex G said:
By "They Paved Paradise" do you mean "Big Yellow Taxi"?

Anyway, I would gladly trade in [local pop radio station] to have elevator music instead. Much more tolerable.

Yes

Sredni Vashtar said:
"Jack and Diane" may be the most overused song on Earth, and it's just so... average. Like, there are so few distinctive features to it and yet it is immediately recognisable because of overexposure and general, mostly flavourless catchiness.

It's of a certain breed of rock that's so utterly de-caffeinated that it can be played anywhere and nobody will object.

I don't know why people complain about Justin Bieber or Katy Perry or Lady Gaga killing music when Billy Joel's more boring songs and fucking Jack and Diane are more of an insult to music that is intended to inspire emotion and more perniciously overplayed. The only recent pop song that feels like that level of soulless background noise is maybe Replay by Iyaz and some Jason DeRulo stuff.

lee4hmz · 2014-04-15 12:06:51

ahahahahah Iyaz

Bee · 2014-04-15 12:44:44

Maybe it's just Western Oregon, but I've heard Jack and Diane like once outside of commercials selling "classics". Ever.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 12:48:10

Bee said:
Maybe it's just Western Oregon, but I've heard Jack and Diane like once outside of commercials selling "classics". Ever.

You lucky bastard.

lee4hmz · 2014-04-15 12:50:25

I just have that Jessica Simpson song that sampled it in my head now.

Obā-san · 2014-04-15 12:52:07

listening to jack and diane now

i can't recall ever hearing it before

Salix Babylonika · 2014-04-15 12:53:54

I actually quite like "Jack & Diane" (and a lot of John Mellancamp songs that I have heard in days past). Part of that may be childhood nostalgia, I used to hear it on 100.7 a lot when I was younger back when said station lived up to its claim of playing classic pop.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 12:57:01

It has a few good moments (that thumping breakdown), but it's just not that interesting, at least not so interesting as to warrant the overexposure that it has seen in some parts of the country.

Salix Babylonika · 2014-04-15 12:59:35

I like the riff. The handclaps are pretty nice too.

I'm not saying it's terrific, but it's one of those songs that gets a bad rep due to overexposure.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 13:02:00

I suppose that's fair. Overexposure can make a decent song sound nauseating if intensive enough.

Obā-san · 2014-04-15 13:02:43

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-04-15 13:11:23

^ ...that's the "Cavern"/"White Lines" bassline down there, isn't it? Or barely different.

Hatred of elevator music

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