# public places: TURN THE MUSIC DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Why - I ask you - _why_ do coffee shops, hamburger places, clothing stores, Indian restaurants, 7-11s, soap shops, donut shops, diners, all kinds of places feel the need to

blast

techno music

and other stuff with huge massive beats and nothing interesting about it

at full blast

as loud as a stinking night club

I might begin to vandalize these places.

Please someone find or start a coffee shop that promises NO LOUD MUSIC

so that I, meek little mere I, can listen to my Errol Garner. 

Thank you.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

A bookshop I frequent has noodling background jazz playing all the time. Too quiet to properly hear, too loud to ignore. Deliberately chosen I expect to be as inoffensive as possible, to suggest cerebral culture along with refinement and studied coolness. It is the most annoying and obnoxious music I can imagine I would much prefer to hear banging techno, naff pop, 50s crooners or death metal. Just about anything would be an improvement over that horrible dribbling noise.

In summary: different tastes.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

They do it because it attracts more teenage customers







I have heard that some places play classical music to get rid of teenagers.


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

It's one of the things I most hate when going to a restaurant or a bar.
Needing to yell in order to communicate is exhausting and obnoxious. I guess the loud music can minimize the awkwardness people experience with the occasional "silent breaks", but people should understand that sometimes silence is more worthy than the crap the spit most of the time. 

Also, those radio top hits usually makes my brain go numb. They tire me and induce a very unpleasant feeling. Sometimes you can hear it playing even in bakeries that at first seem humble and comfortable, but this image is shuttered the moment you hear the radio playing.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

One of my two locals has a well-designed and pleasant beer garden facility (with a separate smoking area) but sadly there are two or three speakers dotted about which have nothing but turgid 80s chart pop piped through them courtesy of the loathsome Heart FM. It's not overly loud but the unimaginative autopilot-style radio station playlist is really very grating. Any places that blast out lowest common denominator dance trash, pushbutton r 'n' b and the like I avoid - most of these establishments in my neck of the woods tend to be little more than testosterone-driven and alcopop-fuelled town/city centre meat markets where there's a good chance of finding trouble.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Oh don't even get me started. Like most, I see dining out as more of a social experience... a time when I can relax and talk with my wife, family, and/or friends. Yet for whatever reason, nearly every restaurant assumes (perhaps rightly) that most people today cannot think for themselves without the continual input of external stimuli... in the form of constant pop music blaring. In many of restaurants... and certainly those that model themselves as "sports bars"... this din is further "enhanced" by banks of television sets all set to a different channel.

The most "surreal" experience I had with televisions in public occurred in a strip club. A group of us had gathered to celebrate one of our friend's bachelor parties. On the central stage was a bevy of beautiful fully nude dancers. In the back of the room the television was set to the sports channel. The hometown baseball team was in the playoffs and three quarters (if not more) of the crowd was gathered around the TV set roaring and chugging their beers... completely oblivious to the naked girls in the room. Some individuals surely have a warped sense of priorities.:lol:

The worst experience of public noise, however, has to be the recent obsession with television sets in the doctors' waiting rooms. When I was a kid, the waiting rooms were nearly silent, and both the adults and children whiled away the time with magazines. Now you can't avoid a waiting room with the TV blaring re-runs of Oprah or some cooking show. Now if I'm at the doctor's office, chances are I already don't feel up to snuff, and the last thing I need is noise blaring in my ears. I stopped going to one doctor's office for the very reason that they imagined that if one TV was good, two would be just great. Thus I sat there feeling under the weather, my nausea and headache increasing as one TV blared the local news and another some inane woman's talk show. 

It took years to eliminate smoking in restaurants and bars in order to do away with the experience of second-hand smoke. Now if we could set about dealing with the "noise pollution"... and while we're at it... let's get rid of all those noisy children whose parents are incapable of controlling them in public.:devil:


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## Praeludium (Oct 9, 2011)

I hate this. The most awful things about this is that there are chances thousands of places like that blast _the same_ commercial music...


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

The worst place I was ever exposed to such noise was at Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk. The casinos' boardwalk entrances all had their own music blaring, and then the little shops each had their music too, some made to blare louder than others. was also very poor music in general, just rap, but sometimes Indian or Latino pop. My mind is so use to hearing that music that I can shut it out, but when it's that amassed and_ on top of each other_, it's quite chaotic.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I don't patronize those places. My preference would be a Walking Tall response, with a baseball bat quickly eliminating the source.


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## Romantic Geek (Dec 25, 2009)

Hey hey! I enjoy my popular music too. I will not stand for this hatred spewed on this board!!!

:devil:


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

jani said:


> They do it because it attracts more teenage customers
> View attachment 5796
> 
> I have heard that some places play classical music to get rid of teenagers.


What about me and the other 1 or 2 teenagers around here?


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## Abracadabra (Jun 6, 2012)

MaestroViolinist said:


> What about me and the other 1 or 2 teenagers around here?


I was a teenage once!

Although the truly funny thing is that now at 63 I actually prefer music with a pulse.

I came onto this classical music forum for questions concerning music theory.

I really have very little interest in classical music anymore.

But I did at one time.

But like I say, now at 63 I like music with a pulse again. :devil:

Gimmie some good funk drummer, some New Orleans rag, a saxophone, trumpet, or guitar and I'm happy.

I even play fiddle music on my old violin now. 

I must be in my second childhood. 

Even the mice at my house sometimes join in the Jazzmatazz


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think the reason they do it is to get you in the mood to shop. Well, in retail stores anyway. Doesn't make me shop more, not much difference to me, but that's the theory of the marketing guys.

I don't know what's the point though in pubs, where this stuff is blaring and you can't hear yourself think, let alone have a conversation without shouting.

I'm okay with 'muzak,' though. Stuff that's fairly innocuous and mixes with the sounds of the city. Some might say it actually takes your attention away from sounds like traffic noise, babies crying and coffee machines in the cafe, etc. So I don't mind it if it's like that, and that's what it tends to be here in cafes and supermarkets. Sometimes its even light classical, like Mozart's _E.K. Nachtmusik_, etc. At Christmas in the shops, inevitably you get Bing Crosby's _White Christmas _and stuff like that.

I'm not so bothered about that, but hate the noise in pubs for sure. Hard to find a pub these days without that kind of thing going on.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I don't know what's the point though in pubs, where this stuff is blaring and you can't hear yourself think, let alone have a conversation without shouting.

Come on Andre... think! The answer's obvious. With all that loud music blasting you need to speak louder... shout... in order to be heard. As a result... you dry out your vocal chords and need another drink. Cha-ching:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

It is not 'to attract' anyone. The psychology of these retail places is to stimulate you to buy, and not linger. They might as well post a sign, "Spend your money, then get the ____ out." That IS the intention.

Upscale restaurants know the phenomena too - during the peak hours, they will play faster music at a louder volume: the natural response is to eat faster, talk over the sound (adding to the volume and 'excitement') and again, not linger. Those tables 'turn over' more quickly the faster the tempo and the louder the volume. They also turn up the lights. In combination, it has the desired effect. They get more customers per hour that way. Later hours, the music is slower, softer, and the lights are down.

Sad but true....


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Talking to this topic at least in some ways, the poster 'keep calm and shop' is appearing in shop windows all over the place here. & what was originally probably meant to be ironic no longer is. They seriously want you to do just what the poster says.

'Sad but true' indeed, PetrB.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Sid James said:


> Talking to this topic at least in some ways, the poster 'keep calm and shop' is appearing in shop windows all over the place here. & what was originally probably meant to be ironic no longer is. They seriously want you to do just what the poster says.
> 
> 'Sad but true' indeed, PetrB.


A poor tactic, obviously a slap at those suffering from *Tourette Syndrome*.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

It’s not too bad in the UK, most places (during the day) have the music on in the background and not to loud.
More annoying is sitting near someone on their mobile phone, have you noticed they always shout!


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

Almost daily I take breackfast on a Mc.Donald 6 blocks from home. No place offers equivalent products cheeper, and the coffee is really good. Only problem is they have turning on all time the radio at high volume, and on a station that only have Argentine rock, which is pure and total crap. In summer there's no problem because they have an external place separated from the main premises, and there's no sound. But in winter (now's winter here), only chance is a large room anexed to the local, where there's a key to turn on or off the radio. But it is on a wall and to get there you have to be seated very close. So, if the table is ocupy, I have to ask the people if they don't mind turning off the radio. And sometimes they do.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

presto said:


> It's not too bad in the UK, most places (during the day) have the music on in the background and not to loud.
> More annoying is sitting near someone on their mobile phone, have you noticed they always shout!


Haha! Yes they do always shout.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

Odnoposoff said:


> Almost daily I take breackfast on a Mc.Donald 6 blocks from home. No place offers equivalent products cheeper, and the coffee is really good. Only problem is they have turning on all time the radio at high volume, and on a station that only have Argentine rock, which is pure and total crap. In summer there's no problem because they have an external place separated from the main premises, and there's no sound. But in winter (now's winter here), only chance is a large room anexed to the local, where there's a key to turn on or off the radio. But it is on a wall and to get there you have to be seated very close. So, if the table is ocupy, I have to ask the people if they don't mind turning off the radio. And sometimes they do.


You must be mad!
Why don't you do your own healthy breakfast at home at a fraction of the cost and enjoy your own choice of music.
That Mc Donald's sounds like living hell!


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

Because I want to dedicate at least an hour each morning to read a book, and I can't at home, and because I should get out and walk every day. The radio is a nuissance, but with my training, I don't hear it and can concentrate on my book.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Eh I don't let it bother me.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I am never again going to a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. 

I have realized, they don't want me here. Sure, they're happy to sell me a beverage, but they want me to leave. They keep the place uncomfortably hot - I'm sweating as I sit here, and air conditioning was invented a century ago. They don't have sockets to plug in a computer - how much clearer can they be? Get the **** out, with that laptop! 

And, apropos of this thread, they play loud, fast music - and the surfaces are all hard, designed to reflect sound efficiently so it stays unpleasantly noisy, just from the chatter of the people unwise enough to be here. 

I hope they go bankrupt. I applaud any rioters who have ever broken the windows of this vile company.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Most locally owned, independent establishments don't force commercial radio schlock on their customers. You can always tell the management what you think. Sometimes it can't be avoided. I need to put gas in my car, and all of the stations pipe crappy music in your ear.

Now the internet advertisers are attaching ads to text. I hate this crap!


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

What about public transit? I hate it when someone is blasting music with a heavy bass drum. I'm surprised they're not deaf yet...


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## Krisena (Jul 21, 2012)

When there's a blast going on, there's only one thing to do.

unf. unf. unf. unf. unf. unf. unf.


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