mind you I love music …
but I seldom listen to “canned” music and if I listen to music I can’t do something else.
BUT
you go to a restaurant: music in the background
you go to a shop: music in the background
even if you go to the toilets: music in the background!
I dream of a restaurant with a poster saying
“please enjoy our food, enjoy conversation! We won’t bother you with music in the background!”
Ah, you mean muzak.
Couldn’t agree more.
Spike Milligan was a vociferous opponent of it.
Keny G walks into a lift.
“Man!” he exphlaims, “this place is happening!”
Week
Veal.
I could definately agree that elevator music is not the greatest!
I don’t know. About half the time I find it uplifting.
Yeah, but on average it doesn’t change your mood at all, does it? 
How do you know? I think for me it depends on the actual music; there’s a wide range of muzak, from brain-numbing anti-think to halfway decent variations on pop songs or classics.
When I read the title, I thought this thread was going to be about rap. 
For modern pop the muzak versions are actually better.
you’ve all clearly missed the point…
the music is there to fill the silence and dull the non-silence.
music in restaurants / cafes - drown out the some of the menial chatter around you and other forms of mouth actions usually found in restaurants / cafes. also to keep company anyone who is alone, else they would be left to listen to the previous.
without something in the background all you get to hear is the kitchen doing their thing, and everyone else eating at the trough and blabbing about some boring crap.
music in elevators - can you imagine standing in an elevator with a stranger and no music in the background? when it happens you almost feel the need to say something to the other person/s, but with music on you can just focus on that until you get to escape the box of doom into freedom.
music in toilet - drown out your brown a little and the guy in the next stall doing his brown.
music in shops - drown out all the other mouth-breathers.
…
seriously, if all these places didn’t have music in the background you’d go insane HAVING to listen to everyone else talk and make noise. music gives you something to focus on instead. if all these places didn’t have music it would be a lot like putting on a pair of speedo’s and going to school / work / shops / anywhere. people can feel comfortable in speedo’s if they are swimming in a pool or in the ocean, but take away the privacy and isolation of water and you are almost naked to the world. take away music from social areas and all you are left with is the people.
do you listen to an ipod or something if you need to travel somewhere on a train, even if you are also reading a book? trains don’t have music (here they don’t) but you probably won’t find a place with more ipod’s except an apple store. no one wants to listen to that kid crying. no one wants to listen to that stupid teeny-bopper complain about her dead-brain “boyfriend” of the day. no one wants to listen to that pathetic “tough-guy” talk smack amongst his 10 year old buddy’s, impressing no one but them. no one wants to listen to that physically broken mutation mouth-breathe.
I play elevator music real quietly to annoy my parents.
It works far better than any lame rebel song.
So american. In france people just talk to each other and find out why they are in this elevator together. No need for music!
does anyone here know the name of the cliche elevator music.
edit found
Girl From Ipa Nima
I can’t imagine why anyone would hate music. I love (almost) all kinds of music! I even enjoy elevator music. I think that music is a great way to emotionally connect with others.
It’s not always the case. But, thinking about it, you make a good point:
You can run a good and enjoyable conversation just by saying “good morning”.
On another hand I would say that french people spent far less time in elevators than american people, given our respective building height… and they don’t play musik or muzak on a regular basis.
We don’t have many tall buildings in North Wales. The only elevators (lifts) that I go in with any regularity are the ones in the hospital or the ones in the shopping centre, neither of these have music playing in. The people in the lifts often talk to each other. It’s nice.
not necesarilly: I don’t want even good music in the background.
I want to listen to the Beatles not to hear the Beatles.
I agree that muzak could be ok to smoothe the fears of people stranded in a parking 12 levels beneath the ground …
but frankly even when I am alone in a train or a restaurant : I don’t want music! I never get bored: I am always thinking about something or daydreaming and I don’t want to be obliged to hear that @ç#%µ! saxophone solo!
that’s great and all… except i’ve never been to america. perhaps french people just like listening to their french selves speak french all frenchy day long? ooh la la. i think your example is a bit like someone living in the tropics saying to someone from the north pole how “they just walk around in t-shirts and shorts” and expect it to make sense and seem ‘everyday normal’ to someone who lives in freezing conditions. different strokes for different folks, and you can’t speak english to a martian, or drive a bus on a lake.
i’d rather hear that @ç#%µ! saxophone solo than that @ç#%µ! kid crying or group of teenagers blabbing on about some crap etc.
you’d do far better with the fraggle rock song. that thing embeds itself in your brain and you can’t shake it no matter how much you catch yourself starting to sing it. i hear they use it at Abu Ghraib.
Maybe Australian muzak is powerful enough to drown out a crying kid–that would have to be awfully damn loud! 
In other words, you can usually hear both. Is your point that you like having the background music, or that you think we all must like said music because you do?
I’m guessing you are age 22 or younger. You don’t have to confirm or deny, just testing. I know I was much more sensitive to music (craved it) in my younger days, and now it seems like more of a distraction depending what I’m doing. I don’t like playing it while working at the computer, for example. Background noise can be actively ignored with a little practice. Except for that one, super-loud kid who needs a good dose of duct tape…
In recent years I’ve noticed background music getting a lot more listenable. I hope it’s the music and not me! I used to hear lots of really watered down, do-nothing music but now there is more and more original light rock or other popular music, not a sad re-do. You might not be a fan of those pop songs, but they’re a lot better than the old stuff!
I think the term Muzak is actually a brand, and may not be appropriate as a name for a certain style of music. Without looking it up, Muzak was a company that installed/maintained background music systems for business. They may also have had a hand in the creation of that old-school, brain-dead music that was played too though…
I was just reminded of this thread, and interesting discussion to follow alongside this one.
Elevator music is just a term for canned, non-offensive music that is played in the background. The term has been separated from its origins.
I’ve never even ridden in an elevator that had music, now that I think of it…