("Research Carried Out by NOP...") Age too was found to be an important factor in how a person feels about background music as 45% of the 45- to 54-year-olds surveyed found piped music to be annoying compared to 21% of the 15- to 24-year-olds. (Ibid.)
Background music is particularly annoying for hard of hearing people since it drowns out important sounds such as speech and announcements for them. Even those using hearing aids find muzak problematic as most hearing aids amplify all sounds equally, making speech and background music become very hard to distinguish.(Ibid.)
The worst places for background music, according to a majority of the people who find piped music annoying, are shops, supermarkets, restaurants and cafes. For hard of hearing people, background music in restaurants is the biggest nuisance as they feel excluded from conversation and/or are unable even to hear the restaurant staff. The NOP survey also found that wealth was a significant factor in the way piped music affected them -- people with higher income found it more annoying. Women disiked the playing of in supermarkets, while men regarded piped music in restaurants and cafes to be intolerable.
Annoyance is not the only feeling that people experience while hearing piped music. Some people have even accused it of being a form of brain washing technique that is used by corporations for manipulating consumers into "happily buying things they do not need" or as a "vehicle for implanting subliminal messages" in our brains. ("Muzak: Past, Present and Future")
Whether we consider piped music an effective marketing tool, find it relaxing, or detest it as an annoying nuisance, it has become so much a part of our everyday...
"Red Tape: That Kind of Muzak Don't Soothe the Soul." Daily Nexus.
November 19, 2001. June 15, 2005. http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/opinion/1969/1821.html
Hagenbaugh, Barbara. "Muzak thinks outside the box." USA TODAY. August 05, 2004. June 15, 2005. http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2004-08-05-muzak-cover_x.htm
Muzak: Past, Present, and Future." BBC.Co.uk. 27th December 2000. June 15, 2005. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A497856
Research Carried Out by NOP into Attitudes to Piped Music." 1998. June 15, 2005. http://www.birchmore.info/muzak/Research_Carried_Out_by_NOP_into_Attitudes_to_Piped_Music.pdf
The Truth About Piped Music." Pipe down. 2005. June 15, 2005. http://www.pipedown.info/facts.php
The brandname Muzak has since become synonomous with all background music, aka other popular brandnames such as Coke, Kleenex, and Band-aid.
Muzak is not the only company producing piped music, but it is estimated that 60% of all U.S. businesses that subscribe to music programming do so from Muzak (Hagenbaugh)
The research was commissioned by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) and covered hard of hearing as well as the general population in England, Wales, and Scotland
This finding, perhaps, reflects the fact that women spend more time in supermarkets, while men spend more time in restaurants
In a "Sunday Times" survey published in January 1997, 17% cited piped music as "the single thing they most detested about modern life."
Piped Music
