Overwhelmed by the Music We Once Couldn’t Get

I enjoy music as much as the next guy.

Just not enough to follow every new music trend. Back in the AM radio days I often had to ask the name of the band we were listening to. And I almost certainly never learned the lyrics, nor cared to. Girls did that.

But music was and is important in our lives. It’s just that, today, music seems like it has sort of lost its way. There’s so much of it that it’s now gotten too diverse. I’m not criticizing new types of music. I welcome it. It’s just that today you couldn’t even begin to listen to all of it, even just once.

I remember using a microphone to record my favorite Top 40 songs as they played over the air on AM stations KDWB or WDGY since I couldn’t afford to buy the records. Well, times certainly have changed. Now there are so many avenues to listen to music, you need a map. We still have radio. Even vinyl records have made a comeback of sorts.

But no doubt the most profound change to the music business came when it could be digitized. This led to CDs that were convenient to carry and play in your car. There are internet radio stations, sometimes run by people in their underwear from their homes. Now, with streaming music you can scroll through almost every type of music since forever. It’s not a recent invention. It’s just really grown and improved.

What’s In Your Playlist?

I subscribe to a music streaming service that not only finds and plays practically any music I want to hear, it makes suggestions and can create playlists based on my interests. It’s both amazing and overwhelming. There’s even a music playlist called Elevator Music, just in case you want to hear the Golden Strings play “Hey Jude.” There are even free versions of music streaming.

My cable TV service has loads of music channels that I never use. They seem more appropriate for a dental office waiting room. I grew up with cars that didn’t even have radios. Now my current car can stream music from a satellite.

Anyone can record themselves singing or playing an instrument and post it on the internet for free and for the world to hear. Some years ago, a buddy and I even created a couple instrumental CDs of us playing some songs we made up.

Music is not only everywhere, all the time now, it has become insidious, sneaking its way into everything we see and do. You could take a hike in the woods to get away from music. But, of course, even then you could still listen to music with your smartphone and wireless earphones.

We’re so used to music that we don’t even notice it playing in the background until those same songs start playing over and over in our heads. That happened to me many times while working in places that had background music.

Fiddler on the Mind

In 1971 when I worked after school at Erickson’s drug store, their background music was on a tape loop. I heard “Fiddler on the Roof” way too many times. And I only worked part-time. It still sometimes plays in my head. I read about someone who worked at a large grocery store who said the exact same song played just as he started work each day and at exact times throughout the day. It drove him so crazy he thought about pulling the fire alarm.

Music on TV is the worst, mostly because of the millions of ads that play their jingles over and over. Like the grating harmonies in the ads for Rusco and Paul Bunyan Plumbing and Drain. It’s also annoying when you’re watching a show and the music suddenly comes on so loud you can’t hear the dialog. So you turn it down which just makes the dialog even harder to hear.

Remember awhile back when the FCC ordered networks to lower the volume of ads? It was getting so bad, especially the music, that you had to be ready with the mute button. The volume did get quieter – for awhile. But, just like kids who test the rules, TV ads are getting louder again, subtle but perceptible.

Lately, I’ve been struggling with all the ads for seniors. Some, notably the big drug companies that can afford it, catch your attention by playing a slightly modified popular song you heard years ago, something like “Oh, oh, oh Ozempic!” The original song, “Magic” was by a band called Pilot. I recognized the tune but I had to look up the band name. The original lead singer was hired to just record the opening line, substituting “Ozempic” for “it’s magic.” Easiest gig ever.

Because the names for many of these drugs don’t look or sound normal, it’s very important for the background jingle to emphasize the drug name and repeat it over and over. You might not even learn what the drug’s intended use is but you’ll remember the song.

With all this music overwhelming us, I do note one improvement. When you’re put on hold you sometimes now have the option to turn off their on-hold music.