Elevator music
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Elevator music, also known as piped music or Muzak, refers to the gentle, bland instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for play in shopping malls, grocery stores, telephone systems (while the caller is on hold), cruise ships, airports, and elevators.
One example of the music being played is in the film, The Blues Brothers. In the film, the Brothers are riding an elevator where a soft music version of "The Girl from Ipanema" is being played to comically contrast to the noise scene of a massive force of police and national guard troops pursuing them.
The Muzak corporation is perhaps the best-known supplier of such music. However, the Muzak Corporation discontinued this type of music in 1982 and now uses only "original artists" for its music source.
The term is also frequently applied as a generic term for any form of easy listening or MOR music, or to the type of recordings once commonly heard on "beautiful music" radio stations. While some people find this style of music pleasant or soothing, others find it annoying to the point of vexation. The term muzak has become an epithet for excessively bland music.
Elevator music is also a term used disparagingly by jazz purists to describe smooth jazz.
See also
External links
- [Elevator Music] A Surreal History of Muzak, by Joseph Lanza
- [Anti-muzak site in the UK]
- [Take Control] Customize your background music with American Music Environments.
- [The King has Just Left the Building]: an art project related to elevator music.
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