Muzak

"We've Only Just Begun" - awesome! No one plays that anymore, even the "greatest hits" stations. But it was all over AC in the 1980s.

I found out something interesting - Muzak can be heard on the AMC-1 Ku Band satellite at 103.0W - I think it's all digital MPEG2. There are many regular Muzak channels but there are several that are for different stores, like Stater Brothers, McDonalds, Chase, Curves and Petsmart. Wonder if anyone has a 4DTV or KU Band dish and can pull these in.

-crainbebo

I heard "Standing Still" by Jewel at my local Panda Express last night. Are Panda Express' Muzak or DMX?

-crainbebo

vchimpanzee said:

My newspaper described the differences between various adult contemporary radio stations back when "Jack and Diane" was popular. The most conservative AC at the time probably didn't play it, and I don't recall the station being mentioned in the article. but another station wouldn't play it because of the lyrics. I thought the conservative stations wouldn't have played it because it was too loud, and in fact that's part of what defines what is appropriate in offices.

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That's the way most AC's were in my neck of the woods concerning that song. Not only was it too loud for the format but the lyrics were inappropriate for the format as well.

Ahh this thread has slowed down. Lots of style changes on FM1 the last year since Mood Media took control

The thread on the other site is still quite active. When this site shut down I just started posting over there.

Followup-To: http://radiodiscussions.com/showthr...never-see-on-radiodiscussions-com#post6067108
Xref: http://radiodiscussions.com/showthr...ot-Foreground-Music-One-quot-13-February-2002

"Muzak premieres on 50 HD-2/3 subchannels throughout the nation"

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Actually I wouldn't be surprised if they were to try that. Being that the Ibiquity system supports access restrictions (supposedly), this wouldn't be too far outside the realm of possibility. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if some little podunk FM station somewhere was actually doing it right now.

The grocery store I go to most supposedly still uses Muzak. Based on my description of the music, someone told me it must be Hot FM now, while it was FM-1 when I started this topic.

The comments I heard about that format included the fact that it did not include old songs.

I heard lyrics but forgot them. However, what I heard for the first time in that grocery store was rap.

I know that's not AC (Hot AC has its own topic), but the Muzak topic is here.

Does anyone remember the playlist, Jukebox Gold on the Muzak/Mood service? It is now known simply as Classic Hits. I was able to get the playlist used at the store I used to work at. It was the BEST playlist in my opinion. The format was a mix of the 50s through 1990. They'd play a 50s or 60s song, then a 70s song, an 80s song, then go back to 70s, 60s, and so on. They had anything from Chuck Berry and Elvis to Madonna and Janet Jackson. It was where I discovered several rare titles. In early 2016, Jukebox Gold was renamed to Classic Hits and a few months later, they wiped out nearly half of the songs they had, completely eliminating 50s and early 60s music (nothing past 1963), and songs from 1987-1990, which was my favorite era of music. They also added questionable songs from the early 80s that really did not stand the test of time. I had written back and forth with Mood Media asking why they eliminated so much material. I even had a phone conversation with the director of programming. They claimed the Jukebox Gold name was irrelevant and that they were trying to reduce repetition of songs on all playlists. What they did was make the new Classic Hits VERY repetitive and bland. They still had some good songs. Over the past two years, they weeded out some of the weaker songs and added in some new ones, but at the moment, it seems that this playlist is so small that every song repeats every 18 hours or so. Disappointing.

Prior to the store playing Jukebox Gold in 2015, they had an instrumental playlist, then a late 60s playlist, then 50s and 60s Hits (which increasingly became SO annoying, people started complaining), and 70s Hits. I never understood why a store would only play one decade.

Muzak FM-1 (Foreground Music), the service heard in many stores, restaurants, malls, etc., has now dropped virtually all 1970s music from its playlist.

As someone who monitors FM-1 closely wrote on another forum:

FM-1 is Muzak's most popular program. By far and large, it is the channel you hear if you're out and about at a Muzak client. There's a good reason for that, too -- the selection and wide variety of music from many decades makes it more appealing and better than any radio station you'd find on the FM dial.

Sadly, FM-1 has undergone what I believe is a dramatic change that destroys the format. At the start of the year, they eliminated all music from the '70s from the format except for one lone holdout: "What You Won't Do For Love" by Bobby Caldwell from 1978. Everything else is from 1980 or newer. They did the same thing with '60s music 10 years ago, so while this isn't surprising, it's still disappointing.

To make an accusation that the format is now "destroyed" requires a bit of explanation. First, from the inception of FM-1 in 1985, '70s music has always been a staple in the rotation. Second, eliminating an entire decade of music for what seems like no reason at all increases repetition of the remaining songs from other decades. Third, while much of the '60s music in the rotation was admittedly starting to show its age when it was removed from the format 10 years ago, much of what was played from the '70s sounded timeless and had aged well. Finally, it's extremely questionable why they'd axe a decade of music that's not only still very prominent on "classic hits" radio stations but is now becoming increasingly popular with a whole new generation of listeners thanks to movies like Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Destroying the format is overwrought hyperbole.

DavidEduardo said:

Very late 70's and 80's, on the other hand, has a sound that is not perceived as "ancient" and won't form "I'm in my mom and dad's store" feelings by younger consumers.

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Really? The Disco era is terribly kitschy, and '80s music is full of crude synthesizers that quickly went out of style. On the other hand, a piano ballad hasn't really changed regardless it's Elton John from 1970, Garth Brooks from 1998, or Bruno Mars from 2013. And in rock music, guitars are still guitars and drums are still drums regardless if it's the the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, or Green Day and Weezer.

'80s music may be "still familiar", but that doesn't automatically make it "not ancient".

It does, however, if the general consensus of the target audience feels a given way. Disco in and of itself is not the only sound of the late 70s (and into the 80s).

How is research a dreaded word?

I used to hear "Like to Get to Know You" by Spanky & Our Gang on Muzak a lot. Maybe it was their way of encouraging friendliness between strangers!

DavidEduardo said:

70's music is starting to have a disconnect with younger Gen-X consumers and is pretty much lost on Millennials. Very late 70's and 80's, on the other hand, has a sound that is not perceived as "ancient" and won't form "I'm in my mom and dad's store" feelings by younger consumers.
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I've aged out of the money demo, graduated high school in 1979. A lot of 70s music was lost on me when it was new! My ideal format would mix songs that would center 20 years on either side of 1986, but leaving out most of the 70s. All I need to do now is set up Pandora or Spotify...

Major retailers aren't giving up on '70s music. J.C. Penney's latest radio commercial features Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" from 1973. And Walmart has a radio ad featuring Gary Numan's "Cars" from 1979 (although that's an honorary '80s song because it didn't reach its Billboard chart peak until 1980).