The Day The Muzak Died

"MUZAK CAME UP with Stimulus Progression, the belief that piped music in the workplace, properly played, could stimulate production. Obviously, true music lovers should look away now, but this quasi-scientific (some might argue pseudo-scientific) theory claimed that an individual's mood could be lifted through listening to programmed sound in 15-minute segments. Within each block, the music is ordered from least to most stimulating, with the final and most upbeat track followed by a quarter of an hour of silence." The Independent reports on the demise of Muzak Holdings, the company behind piped music heard in lifts, stores and other public places since the 1940s. Personally, I can't recall the last time I heard the creepy "mushy strings and cloying tones" of muzak. Maybe that's because I live in London, where everyone is snidely cool. I find it hard to believe that any corporate entity could see any positive outcome to subjecting their workforce/customers to Muzak. Still, the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there. We've got Beyonce to listen to in stores now. That's progress, apparently. Elsewhere: The Muzak's over: It's the end for the most reviled phenomena of the 20th century