The Whole Music Experience

In a previous post I spoke about the noise level with many businesses.  I have reached the point where I wouldn't even want to work for business or organization where I must listen to music all day long.  Don't get me wrong, I love music and I feel passionate about it.  However, too much music is hardly a good thing and can lead to fatigue. As this topic has occupied my brain for some time, today when I was placed on hold for a company I called and had to listen to the company's advertisements and music blasts, I decided to write this post for businesses who still don't get the concept of silence.  And then they wonder why 15 minutes later (hold time) they deal with irate customers.  I would like to see the psychological studies that prove that customers enjoy staying on hold while having advertisements blasted in their ears along with music they might have never liked in the first place.  And who decides the best music for the diverse customers or...

Music Consciousness in the Work and Market Place Seattle, photo by Patricia Herlevi So many times I walk into a business or shop and leave immediately because I don’t enjoy the music playing in the store. In some cases, I’ve heard NPR or some other news source blasting from a radio. In either case, those shops lost my business because I felt unwelcomed by the audio choices. I’ve been blasted with heavy metal at an Aveda beauty school (Seattle), I’ve had to listen to 70s and 80s pop music getting my hair cut at other beauty schools and also strangely enough waiting for a counseling appointment and ditto for a naturopath clinic. Nostalgia is a dangerous thing and drum machines pattering away do not provide a healing environment. Some lyrics might trigger painful memories. This is why massage therapists and other energy healers provide either silence or soothing tension-free music to their patients. All of the above scenarios portray unconscious music/audio choices that might...