Agreed, sir/madam. Just don't tell myself from 10 years ago, or he'll track me down and slap me like the bitch that I've become! 🤫 Kidding aside, I share your sentiments. :)
In recent years I have avoided certain restaurants, not because there was anything wrong with food or service, but because the music was awful. Amazingly, there is one local place (a Chinese restaurant) that still plays stuff like this. Very relaxing. Actually allows you to enjoy your meal.
Once the soundtrack of being out in public. I remember Muzak being played in almost every store, car lot, pool, bank lobby, hallway in almost every office building. It was everywhere.
MUZAK is more than music... Far more than a name, MUZAK has spearheaded the unique usage of music called functional music. Since 1934, Muzak has pioneered and developed this sound method of humanizing man-made environments. More than eighty years of continuous research, testing and development have wrought Stimulus Progression, a practical, inexpensive system for the advancement of areas where people work, shop and recreate.
A generation flying from the mainland to Hawaii via jet airliners for the first time! I'm sure this music would have put them in the mood! I recall the flight in 1981 from LAX to HNL. I was 10 an fascinated by everything in the plane, including the dedicated audio feed just for my seat! This music would have definitely featured along with some radio broadcasts and flight communication. The headphones were these orange contraptions that fit like stethoscopes! I also recall...we were in the smoking section! Imagine when THAT was a good idea! Folks were being serve themed meals... loads of pineapple... everything drenched in teriyaki sauce... little packets of macadamia nuts... orchids for garnish... and more than a few mai tais being imbibed. My first kiss from a girl who was not a relative was from the Hawaiian gal who gave us lais upon landing! I felt like James Bond!
Believe ANOTHER important reason this MUZAK is so fulfilling........is its rarity compared to what people of TODAY have to listen to. This is so beautifully different because it is so very unique. It gives real credence to "the art of listening." Also, the sounds here in are not aggressive with any messages bordering on malice. Quite a switch from the mainstream of today.
Thanks so much for making this available for all to hear. Muzak produced really outstanding music. Their orchestras, arrangers and composers were very talented. Many say it's elevator music, I say it's real music.
The people that would've been listening to this music at the time had perhaps gone through the depression, World War Il, and just wanted to enjoy their golden years stress free by traveling, shopping, and relaxing. I drive listening to Muzak in Japan, which my wife is beginning to like as well. I told her this was especially made to keep the driver relaxed and peaceful while driving.
Reminds me of a time 50-60 years ago when the world made sense to me. I would hear this music while I shopping in the local grocery store with my mother and finally when I lived on my of own. Very comforting and reassuring music I miss that era I despise rap and it's inherent violence
A vacation getaway for one's mind, for certain. A subtle mix of light orchestrations, a bit of lounge, with a light touch of international music, too. Just the thing to transfer your mind to an island getaway........without needing to purchase a ticket!
Very nice! I'm old enough to recall hearing this, as well as the Pop channel, aboard a United flight (DC-8 "Snowbird" service from Seattle, via Denver to Washington/Dulles)...The Pop channel, though only in mono, featured contemporary (December '72) hits, such as "Peaceful, Easy Feeling", "Pieces of April", and the long version of Cashman and West's "American City Suite"...One could listen w/ those stethoscope-style earbud/headsets, which plugged into the armrest. Stereo was available on certain channels (Classical, for e.g.); there must've been two separate speaker-drivers in the armrests. I kept the headsets, and could get better quality sound, from my Radio Shack "Realistic"-brand AM radio, by plugging it into the back of the box...Fun, simpler times!
There were rivals to Muzak; I tried to interview them in the early 1990s in Seatlle. I asked them about tapes I had heard in a supermarket I worked in back in NJ in the 80s; some of the cuts were extremely bizarre. Imagine "Flight of the Bumblebee" played on an organ, for example. She told me that probably wasn't a Muzak tape.
A great lesson in music: arrangements,melody, modulation, instrumentation, beginnings , harmony, endings etc...these wonderful sounds have taught us more about music than any school, all the while enjoying it!
I always loved it. I directly identify it with my childhood and early youth. Before I knew it was gone - all gone, in a couple of years. Now classical music stations are disappearing. All you’ll have soon is hip-hop and Lady Gaga. Disgusting.
Thanks for posting. I own one of the 4 hour reel to reel tape decks (PB 16C) that a Muzak franchiser would purchase. The deck uses 14 inch reels at 3 3/4 ips speed. 4 hour run time per side. The machine uses keying tones to stop or transfer from side A to side B depending on how the deck is programmed.
Fun fact: Airline music was never actually played on reels this big with the tape running at 7.5 ips inside the aircraft. The music was usually on a bank of cassettes...from the 1960s well into the 2000s (depending on aircraft type/age etc.). These reels were distributed to the airlines, then each airline dubbed them down to their own audio programs onto compact cassettes that would be played in specialized bulk cassette players. The masters were later shifted from open reel to cassettes themselves, then eventually to CDs by the 90s.
the musicians themselves said in interviews decades after muzak’s collapse that they ‘never in a million years would have thought they would be playing elevator music of all genres’
I worked for a beautiful music station in Seattle and our SCA carried music. I thought Muzak was better than our regular beautiful music from commercial disks. Certainly flowed better. Although in mono, I'd sometimes late at night would switch to the muzak output. No one noticed!
i think it had more to do with the theme of aviation and traveling, especially with titles like “Adventures in Paradise”, “Halfway to Paradise”, “Honolulu Baby”, and “If You Go Away.” evidently muzak didn’t care to censor anymore than what was regarded acceptable by popular culture 🤷♂️
Thanks very much for sharing this, and your efforts in putting this all together. Just came across your channel earlier today. Have been enjoying this out in the backyard this afternoon. Wonderfully transportive!
Thanks so much for posting this great video. From the opening notes is sweet all the way through! My dream is to someday have a reel to reel Tape deck again and return to listening to lots of great Verve label bossa nova tapes I have. I’ve been into easy listening and exotica music since about 1974, it’s one of my favorite genres of LPs & tapes to collect. HM, founder Highway Cinema
Track 3B: laia ladaia - 52:51 , this song composed by the brazilian musician Edu Lobo & lyrics [ in portuguese ] by Ruy Guerra in 1965 , originally entitled as "Reza [ that it means Prayer ]".
@@manitoba-op4jx Hello , perhaps you will dig this : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-67S-qPZd6R8.html Laia Ladaia in its original version by Edu Lobo himself [ 1966 ]
They recently put some of the Airline tapes on Spotify. They’re so much lower quality than these although and the ones on Spotify are highly compressed. I hope they fix that. They sound terrible on Spotify
Once again, thank you for the great 👍 work you have done ✔ on this musical 🎼 soundtrack, it keeps me company, I'm in the twilight of my years at at age 63+, I remember this "stuff" well, you're helping people out more than you may possibly know...
the video was shot separately from the music, it’s for aesthetic reasons. i do not have an SD card that’s fast enough to process an hour and a half’s worth of 1080p video
1B02 (If You Really Love Me) was arranged by Dave Terry. i forgot what transcription it was from but ill edit this when i look back at it edit: it’s track one from transcription X-972 side A
The problem I have with that kind of stuff is that it just feels so inappropriate in public. In certain contexts rap makes sense to me, but gosh, in public spaces it just feels wrong, like the DJ is trying to assert his tastes onto me or something. This applies to my own tastes as well - if I tried to play some of my favourite obscure retro video game soundtrack in public I would cringe too. Cause I know the shoppers would be cringing too. Certain genres only work in certain contexts.
