Muzakâ„¢ files Chapter 11, press remains stuck in elevator...

...in the 1960s:

We begin with The Consumerist (who I would have expected to know better)^[1]:

Ever acoustically bankrupt, Muzak,the makers of elevator music, have declared themselves financially bankrupt by filing for Chapter 11.  The company’s unique style of precisely limited in tempo and dynamics and unswervingly bland music may not be long for this world.

USA Today headline:

Elevator music maker Muzak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Here’s The Telegraph (in the doctors’ office):

Waiting in the doctors’ office listening to a pan pipes arrangement of Robbie Williams’ Angels may never be the same again.

A really stupid article by Jonathan Brown in The Independent:

...With its mushy strings and cloying tones, the sounds which once emanated from Muzak’s laboratories of sound at their height in the 1960s colonised almost every public space threatened with the spectre of silence.  From the hotel lobby to the dentist’s waiting room, from the shop to the airport lounge, Muzak was at once a company and a musical form, as well as a byword for corporate blandness in an age of consumer soullessness.
...
It might come as no surprise to those many millions who have grown to hate elevator music and its bastard offspring on-hold messaging, but the origins of Muzak can be traced to [cue scary music Muzakâ„¢ - o.g.] the United States military.

(Given the author’s tone, I just knew he’d find a way to drag in the U.S. military somehow!)

Meanwhile, NPR does (a little) better:

Its business is more focused now on creating playlists for use in retail stores, installing professional sound systems and other services.

Have to leave it to The New Yorker (from three years ago!) to explain how the business has changed.

Elsewhere:

Did you know that André Previn wrote an article (for Punch, unfortunately not online): “In Praise of Muzak”?  Really!

HT to “Hungry Mohican” for the New Yorker story.
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Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 19:28:54 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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