the history of muzak

from The Comet - April 2022

paper cuts ii

By Ron Evans

Muzak. Many younger folks may not even know the word — while many of those who are middleage or older still shiver in their stockings when they hear someone dare speak its name aloud. Known on the streets as ‘Elevator Music’ — Muzak could safely be described as Easy Listening, mostly instrumental, covers of pop standards designed to be background music in department stores, hotel lobbies and yes…elevators. This is the story of how this bizarre and -perhaps surprisingly- popular music genre once infiltrated every nook and cranny of everywhere people gathered, waited or shopped. And keeping in mind Muzak’s insanely long lifespan - from the premiere of The Wizard of Oz to the release of Jurassic Park! - consider this a seriously abbreviated version of the story. Oh, and what does this have to do with Seattle? Hop on in to find out. There’s room for one more in the elevator.

BIAS DISCLOSURE: I kinda have a thing for Muzak and Easy Listening music of the late Mid-Century. I understand if you no longer wanna share the elevator with me. Although, I prefer them empty if I’m being honest.

These days most public spaces are likely to play whatever music fits the vibe of the establishment, but that freedom comes at a cost. Up to $150 a month if you wanna cover all your licensing bases. Play for free now if you want but BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC (the big three in music licensing) will eventually find you, as I found out running RadarStation. They actually send out “secret shoppers” to find sinners not paying for the music they are playing as background atmosphere in their business. They may casually ask, “hey. What are we listening to, friend?” Then hand over their card, with authority. What a job, eh?

So...many shops, bars and hotels opt for a music service subscription for filling the awkward silence while hopefully stimulating productivity out of employees. These services stand directly on the shoulders of one of the most hated music genres in history.

Now, if you were already on the hater techniques. While radio was a thing by this point in time, the setup and equipment for the transmitters and receivers in these early stages were expensive, clunky and non-intuitive. Thus, in 1920, Wired Radio Inc. was born. But it wouldn’t be until several years later when, power and utility conglomerate, North American Company acquired the patent from Squier - that the business would start to see widespread in-

Major General George Owen Squier (pronounced ‘square’ which I invite you to enjoy. - WikiCommons side of Muzak, the fact that it was invented by an American Major General will do little to convince you that it was not meant to be a weapon. Major General George Owen Squier, who invented telephone multiplexing in 1910 - shared/split phone lines - also came up with the idear of transmitting music using similar equipment and terest. The variety of music that was being “piped” into homes via Wired Radio was as varied as popular music from the day in general. Jazz, blues, gospel, classical and opera. Performed by many of the hitmakers and stars of the day, NCA saw the benefits of using the technology for providing music, news and information to households and hotels. And, seeing as they controlled a buttload of the power that people already relied on, it was a no-brainer to pitch their customers the music service as an add-on to their power bill. And it took off. That is, until around 1934, when radio was starting to get its act together and was rapidly becoming a popular way for the average folk to get their audio fix. Amidst dwindling subscriptions to the service, NCA shifted its focus from living rooms and hotels toward retail shops and, especially, department stores - which were becoming more prevalent.

Squier had continued to be involved with Wired Radio Inc. even after NCA bought the patent and it was his idea to rebrand the company as Muzak. The tale goes that Squier was a fan of the simplicity, musicality and made-up-ality of the brand name, Kodak. It was a snappy enough title to get the attention of Warner Bros., who bought Muzak in 1937 and helped to spread the service into more locations. Soon though, they too lost steam on the project and sold it to entrepreneur William Benton. Benton was the fella who thought Muzak was broader than just shopping experiences - he pitched the service to clinics, hospital waiting rooms and dentists. In other words, ‘let’s make our product the very soundtrack of fear and pain.’ A great and terrible business decision all at once. Talk about poor association planning.

Another major change from the early days of Wired Radio was less of a focus on pop music in lieu of less “intrusive” numbers, as to not overwhelm shoppers, clients or patients. Familiar tunes you can tap a toe, hum along, or rhythmically clench a sterile pillow to - was now the name of the game. Muzak officially found its calling.

The real genius of the way the songs were paced and dynamically arranged was that it was not only designed to stimulate shoppers to part with their WWII era nick-

One of the last Muzak “boxes.” Haha. The um...future. - WikiCommons

Engineer Fred Graham at the knobs of an early Muzak tape machine.- WikiCommons

When you wear your mind control on your sleeve! - WikiCommons The end of grunge? - WikiCommons Where we are now. Mood media (Muzak) the app

els, but also to motivate employees to step it up and keep moving them units. Whatever them units may be. This was no accident, but a “science” that Muzak proudly called Stimulus Progression. The company claimed that they could customize a playlist of music that was “paced out” in a manner (15 minute blocks followed by 15 minutes of silence) that the tempos, melodies, and even the breaks in music - could actually get your employees to work faster and with better attitudes. Or…keep customers in the store longer. Sneaky bastards. And the purpose of fi lling the empty air of an elevator with Muzak? Well, just that. After all, is there anything worse than spending elevator time with strangers and no music? A fart would almost be better than silence. I said almost…

By the 1950s the company was essentially acting more as a proper record label and they formed their own orchestras to perform hours and hours and teeth-pulling hours of instrumentals. This gave the company even more control over the masses as they could now dial in every little nuance of musically encouraged psyche arrangement. In fact, accusations - even lawsuits - were slung toward the company alleging mind control and subliminal messaging, but these cases never went anywhere. The usage of “mind-controlling” Muzak was not limited to shopping experiences however - during WWII the company was feeding their instrumental tunes of manipulation into the factories where guns and bombs and planes and tanks were being assembled. There’s a thought.

It’s important to note that in the early days of popular recorded music, Pop Standards were all the rage. Meaning that essentially anyone could record their version of many of the hits of the day that were being passed around like a doobie in a smoky pool hall. And even a bit later, acquiring the rights to record instrumentals of such acts as an up and coming sensation called The Beatles was reasonable. Thus, Muzak Beatles was not only a thing - it was an incredibly popular thing. And lucrative.

But as a young Bobby Dylan sang, the times were a -changin’. By the late 60s, the singer/songwriter movement was in full swing and suddenly the ‘standard’ model of pop music gave way to the notion of original songs by the original artists. Another thing the young hip folk wanted more of? Lyrics. This was the death knell for Muzak’s odd but fruitful journey in pop music - but it was by no means the end of the company. The focus simply shifted fully to the background music mode - which was its true calling all along.

As the years ticked by, the company struggled but managed to stay afl oat by making shrewd but questionable creative business decisions. By the mid-1980s, the lush and elegant production of symphonic strings, horns -and whatever the hell an oboe is- had given way to cheaper, hokier synthesizer soundtracks that feel more like someone hit the DEMO button on the Casio keyboard their aunt Connie got them for Christmas. This is the version of Muzak that most Gen X’ers remember. “Attention K-Mart shoppers…” etc.

By the late 60s, Muzak competitors had started popping up - most notably, Seattle-based YesCo Inc. YesCo’s slogan was “Foreground Music,” an obvious play against what Muzak was now famous for. The major diff erence was YesCo was licensing original recordings of popular music of the time as opposed to the outdated symphonic re-recordings that Muzak had pioneered.

If you can’t beat them, join them - in 1986 Muzak merged with YesCo and relaunched as Muzak 2.0 essentially. Instrumental light jazz or rock songs continued to be big business (anyone who was ever on hold in the 80s or 90s can tell you that) but the company continued to grow by reaching further into the foreground market. In fact, what Muzak was essentially doing in the late 80s and early 90s was laying the groundwork for future cable and satellite radio services like XM, Sirius and DMX.

It was during this time that a few key players in the forthcoming Seattle grunge explosion were unhappily employed by Muzak. Mudhoney’s Mark Arm worked

in the duplication room and has since referred to the job as “soul-sucking.” Bruce Pavitt worked in the warehouse at Muzak while he was also running a fl edgling little indie music label called Sub Pop. During an interview for Decoder Ring podcast, Pavitt said these guys all got together during working hours and shot the shit about local bands and listened to demos and other tapes that had been passed around. Pavitt even claims the fi rst time he ever heard Nirvana (a band Sub Pop would later have a little bit of success with) was in the Muzak building.

As time went on the world’s music habits continued to change and it only seemed to wander further and further away from whatever Muzak was cranking out (and the methods they were using). So it may surprise you to hear that in 2011 Muzak had been acquired by Hold Music moguls, Mood Media (for over 300 million - impressive for a seemingly obsolete, universally hated entity eh?). Mood Media still hawks their background and foreground tunes to businesses all over the world. Gone are the bulky boxes, remotes and cables - these days an app on your phone will do just fi ne.

You can still spot a few Muzak vans cruising around Seattle to this day, and many businesses are still employing some of the ideas and tools invented (or at least perfected) by the company. And perhaps it’s little surprise that there has also been a resurgence of interest in Muzak and elevator music in recent years. Much like the cocktail lounge and Exotica revival of such easy listening armchair travelers as Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny - hipsters and collectors alike are out scouring Goodwills, swap meets and yard sales on the hunt for vintage Muzak reels, LPs and cassettes. Even amidst the grunge takeover, Muzak was being “honored” by Seattle musician Sarah DeBell who formed Grunge Lite and self-released a cassette of easy listening versions of notable songs by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc. The cassette became quite popular and even Kurt Cobain thought it was great and once stated he hoped it would stand as the last chapter of the Book of Grunge.

So the next time you really wanna sustain the party - or motivate the troops at work - maybe keep the Radiohead and CardiB on the shelf and program a groovy, non-distracting-but still-toe-tapping playlist of Muzak instead. In 15 minute blocks of course.

Please use responsibly. C