Muzak

I misread the WDUV post. I see now what the song titles are. I heard "Time of the Season" and "Black Magic Woman" but not "Evil Ways" (though I probably was just listening at the wrong time) on Unforgettable Favorites, a satellite format obviously programmed by a chimp because it didn't know what it wanted to be. Some people called it adult standards, which was ludicrous. Even now, in its revamped form as Timeless Favorites, playing some of the standards that used to be on Timeless Classics, it's not standards.

Here, I'll put in 2 cents...When I worked in a grocery store in the 90s, the store's Muzak player played what I thought was an interesting selection of music..."Blue Moon" by the Mavericks, "Long May You Run" by Neil Young, "Miss Chatelaine" by I think was kd lang, as well as regular AC and oldies stuff. When the customers complain about the music, the player switched back to instrumental and light jazz. After the switch, a lady told me, "The music is much better!"

ddsparxx said:

Here, I'll put in 2 cents...When I worked in a grocery store in the 90s, the store's Muzak player played what I thought was an interesting selection of music..."Blue Moon" by the Mavericks, "Long May You Run" by Neil Young, "Miss Chatelaine" by I think was kd lang, as well as regular AC and oldies stuff. When the customers complain about the music, the player switched back to instrumental and light jazz. After the switch, a lady told me, "The music is much better!"

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I wish that had happened more places. A lot of places play AC and not soft AC. Sears seems to have it all figured out, and so does McDonald's. On more than one occasion I've gone in Sears and if I didn't like the style of music I was hearing, I just had to wait and they'd switch to smooth jazz a few minutes later. One day that had something like Sinatra on and, even though I couldn't find anything I wanted, I didn't want to leave.

One McDonald's I went to a few years ago was doing the same thing.

I recognized a couple of songs in my grocery store.

They weren't newer songs but they weren't that good either.

One was "I'm Like a Bird" by Nelly Furtado. The chorus is perfectly acceptable in the environment, while the rest of it is just inappropriate pounding.

The other song was called "Kiss Me" but I don't know who did it. It's a female voice, but Sixpence None the Richer, whose name I usually see with that title, is an mostly male group. Wait, they do have a female member. Or did. Wikipedia is your friend.

Was hearing Disco Nights by GQ at McDonald's today, that was cool. The Bic Runga song..it is the same song but the version played on Muzak is a female singer. It was the same version I heard in the bedroom scene in American Pie but this was on basic cable, it;s possible they subbed it for rights reasons.

gr8oldies said:

Was hearing Disco Nights by GQ at McDonald's today, that was cool. The Bic Runga song..it is the same song but the version played on Muzak is a female singer. It was the same version I heard in the bedroom scene in American Pie but this was on basic cable, it;s possible they subbed it for rights reasons.

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Bic Runga is indeed a female singer. Real name Briolette Kah Bic Runga. She was born in New Zealand. Like vchimpanzee said, Wikipedia is your friend!

Thanks...but this was a different female singer

I am a Muzak fan. They are like a Variety Hits station except a lot deeper and wider. They play tons of "oh wow" songs. I recently was in a store that played two songs I love that I haven't heard in ages. Chi Coletrane-Thunder and Lightning and Nik Kershaw-Wouldn't It Be Good.

I heard the lyrics. Now I don't remember what they were. Anyway, I was subjected to junk at the grocery store, and the one classic was "Only the Lonely" by the Motels, which is not any better.

I heard a song with "woman" in the title which sounded like it involved Michael McDonald, and now I can't remember it.

I was subjected to a teenage girl yowling about a mountain last Saturday. I really wasn't in the mood.

"Kiss Me" was done by the Sixpence None the Richer.

I'm happy to say my grocery store isn't doing Christmas music yet. At one time, I could go from there to the drug store next door and hear the same thing.

I heard "Kiss on My List" last Saturday. Plus a bunch of what I call "One Tree Hill" junk. I made a decision to remember what I heard and I didn't. On the other hand, that drug store had Christmas music.

So did Kohl's last Wednesday, but I don't know who provides their music. I also don't know if the second song I heard was a Christmas song. I've never been in a Kohl's, but all libraries were closed Wednesday (supposedly) and I took the opportunity to return to the college I graduated from. They charge $8 for parking now, so I parked across the street at Kohl's.

I kept hearing the words "Thinking of you" in the grocery. And the female voice singing them wasn't pleasant. I think it may have been Katy Perry.

vchimpanzee said:

I kept hearing the words "Thinking of you" in the grocery. And the female voice singing them wasn't pleasant. I think it may have been Katy Perry.

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And I heard that same song Saturday. And there was another song with the words "too young".

As I left the grocery, I heard "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne, which is a good song. I went in the drug store to get something I couldn't find in the grocery, and there it was again. A few months or years ago the two stores weren't doing the same thing, and I was told Muzak was doing a custom program for the chain of grocery stores. Now, it appears they're back to using the regular format in the grocery.

This is a first. I can wait and see if they play this song again, and listen from somewhere where I can actually hear the words, or I could call, though I don't know what I'd ask even if Muzak still gives out this information.

I actually heard an AC song I liked in my grocery store which was not something ancient.

I thought it was too loud, like so much of the junk that AC radio plays today. But then I realized it was actually Latin-flavored and it sounded good.

Yesterday in my local Kroger I heard a Van Halen song. It is nice to be able to walk the isles and not fall alseep from boredom. It certainly got my attention. This store generally has a variety of 80s and 90s music playing.

Occasionally in this store I hear people singing along to the music while they shop.

Michael said:

Yesterday in my local Kroger I heard a Van Halen song. It is nice to be able to walk the isles and not fall alseep from boredom. It certainly got my attention. This store generally has a variety of 80s and 90s music playing.

Occasionally in this store I hear people singing along to the music while they shop.

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Unless the song was "Finish What Ya Started" I think such a thing is totally inappropriate in a conventional store. KMart plays mess like that, but I don't know what company supplies the music. It's sort of an AC-based format, with some oldies, but it can really get loud.

If I'm subjected to van halen, the store will have to turn off its music each time I enter the store. I was doing that back when they first changed from instrumentals because the chain considered being able to hear adveritisng more important than customers' happiness. It got on their nerves, but if I got attitude the corporate office heard from me. I even got a manager sent somewhere else.

Instead of Van Halen, I'd rather hear the eclectic forgotten hits and undiscovered gems that Muzak is known for. Here are some I've heard:

Rosanne Cash - Seven Year Ache
Al Stewart - On The Border
Belinda Carlisle - Circle In The Sand
Westlife - Swear It Again
Stevie Nicks - Sorcerer

Playing "forgotten" songs is exactly the wrong thing for stores to be doing. (And I'm sure major mass retail stores will turn off their music because one shopper happens to somehow find Van Halen playing in the background to be a problem. : )

I don't see many people walking my local Kroger store who listen to Rosanne Cash.

If the customers of the store where in control of the music and got their way it would be Classic Soul, R & B, or dirty south rap in my Kroger store.

I have to say when I have hear a John Legend song or Luther Vandross song come on you see lots of people singing along.
It more fun when the next song is someone like Cyndi Lauper and the same customers keep singing along.