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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!unccvax!dsi
From: dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.music,net.music.classical
Subject: Background music pollution
Message-ID: <312@unccvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Oct-85 11:16:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: unccvax.312
Posted: Sun Oct 13 11:16:43 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 06:06:51 EDT
References: <1227@ihuxe.UUCP> <771@rduxb.UUCP>, <1552@hammer.UUCP>
Organization: UNC-Charlotte
Lines: 58
Keywords: Stimulus progression, noise, hum, distortion
Xref: linus net.flame:11418 net.music:8421 net.music.classical:1013


   Tolerating other people's annoying faults is what public means...
                                                 Fran Liebowitz (sp)?

     Why work up such a stink about popular music. Instead, put your energy
into hating the musical equivalent of velvet Elvis posters...background music!!
Delivered fresh to your local (elevator, lobby, restaurant, retail store..)
business via the SCA of an FM station. I just purchased an SCA receiver for
a client who receives UNC football and his ABC Contemporary Radio feeds
via SCA, and you wouldn't believe how paranoid the receiver manufacturers
are about background music piracy (they must be joking, arent they??)...

     Anyway, I got to thinking about background music once again during all
this, walked in my local Burger King yesterday only to hear a fine rendition
of "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" and "All She Wants to Do is Dance"
by the Phenobarbitol Philharmonic, Valium Quaalude, Conductor. Talk about
an invasion of privacy? MUZAK (tm) actually makes "behavioural modification"
claims for their brand of background music.  Their tunes are precisely 
selected for tempo, spectral composition, length, etc. to increase worker
productivity and the "urge to purchase." MUZAK is also scientifically blended
so that average persons would not tend to listen to it.

     However, this Burger King (the one which tests the dielectric absorption
of every cheeseburger) had an "inferior" background music. One which was 
cranked LOUD and sounded HORRIBLE. Why should the public be subjected to
large amounts of hiss, 10% THD, severe crossover distortion, the annoying
"splat" of an SCA carrier muting which isn't adjusted correctly, and a 
narrowband signal which is worse than AM ?  I get particularly p**ed off
when I hear some mellow song (like Dan Fogelberg) which has been remixed
for the Buick Estate Wagon crowd.  Why should an intimate dinner with my
spouse at a fine restaurant be interrupted by an SCA receiver which can't
distinguish between the neon "Beer" sign at the 7-Eleven down the street, and
the 67 kHz signal from the station?  

     When you are in your favourite establishment, you can tell Muzak 
brand background music (oops, stimulus progression) by the fact that they
break for 90 seconds on the quarter hours. Listen, as the local chatter 
level in the establishment rises at least 10-15 dB after these breaks.


     WHY DON'T BACKGROUND MUSIC VENDORS USE RECORDINGS OF THE GREAT CLASSICAL
REPERTOIE or, for that matter, jazz and the original rock 'n roll/country/soul
songs which they rip off anyway? Broadcast with DBX noise reduction ,
and deliver background music without severe compression and
peak limiting.

     Rock and roll bands in city parks are transient affairs. Houses in the
country are made just for people who can't stand noisy neighbours, and there
are private swim clubs where Dee Snider isn't cranked to 110 dBA. However,
unless one can afford the luxury of several personal servants and wants to
stay inside a Sonex-padded room forever, you have to endure (or be manipulated
by) background music. 

     Now...about people who expect me to work when a 60 Hz hum is roaring
from an about-to-be-smoked fluorescent lamp ballast....grrrrr

David Anthony
DataSpan, Inc