Old Songs

Ever notice when you're in Target, or Sears, or the
grocery store, the music they pipe in is invariably
from the 50's-80's? Or on TV, the music in the
commercials is from that era too? Has the music
for the last 25 years sucked so badly that nobody
wants to hear it? Everywhere I go its Sinatra or
Dean Martin or the Beachboys or the Beatles. Or
the car songs from the 60's and Carly Simon from
the 70's.

Yes the recent music sucked

Hi Bob, what you are hearing is simply that the store is trying to match their typical customer's music tastes. You have obviously been shopping where a lot of Baby Boomers are around. Find a store with Gen-X customers and hear the 80's, and Gen-Y for 90's.

Quote: MarkAbe

Hi Bob, what you are hearing is simply that the store is trying to match their typical customer's music tastes. You have obviously been shopping where a lot of Baby Boomers are around. Find a store with Gen-X customers and hear the 80's, and Gen-Y for 90's.

Agreed. Next time you go to a mall, hop into Game Stop or Hot Topic (I'd pay money to see the latter). The music they plays caters to the clientele they think they will have, or is based on pschycology (you'll never hear a slow relaxing song at Burger King - get em in, get em out)

Quote: MarkAbe

Hi Bob, what you are hearing is simply that the store is trying to match their typical customer's music tastes.

Target? The DMV? My dentists office thats full of teens
and kids usually? I don't think so. I believe they play it
because its recognizable by every generation, and the new
songs of the last 20 years are so bad they come and go.
Also, country music radio stations have dominated the
airwaves for a long time now and yet I never hear any
of that stuff being piped in anywhere.

Quote: EvenBob

Also, country music radio stations have dominated the
airwaves for a long time now and yet I never hear any
of that stuff being piped in anywhere.

Country? You must not live in Los Angeles! We have exactly one Country station.
The only place I've heard country being piped in was at Silverton in Las Vegas. Again, the effort (at least in businesses) is to match the taste of the customers.

Quote: MarkAbe

Again, the effort (at least in businesses) is to match the taste of the customers.

I'm just not buying that. I go into Target and at least
half the customers are young blacks or Mexicans. How come
I never hear any rap or hip hop or Mexican music?
Its the same old stuff I hear everywhere.

Not sure how the music royalty business works, but I believe that's also a factor. Older material can be had at cheaper costs.

Quote: EvenBob

Target? The DMV? My dentists office thats full of teens
and kids usually?

My dentist's office plays Christian rock. Nothing against US Protestantism, but I'm getting pretty burned out on the music, to the point where I'm seriously considering finding a new dentist.

Can be kind of weird when you're at a Chinese or Indian restaurant and realize that the sound system is piping in the muzak version of the Beach Boys. Like with the dentist, there's some cross-cultural conflict that I didn't enter the establishment prepared to deal with.

The music played in big box stores are catered to the employees as well and to the company's image. It's about demographics as well. Just because 1/2 of the customers are mexican or young doesn't mean they're the biggest spenders or the company's ideal customer. Target's ideal customer is pretty much everybody, but their biggest spenders are likely parents with young kids. Walk into an Abercrombie and Fitch or 1/2 the stores in a normal shopping mall and they're playing crap from today because they're catering to the high school kid with the parent's money.

And no, not all of the music is crap today. There will be songs that apply and will be "standards" 20 years from now just as there are songs from the 80s that you still hear today. I mean, we claim that the music of the past is better. Part of that is because WE grew up to it and the songs when we are growing up are meaningful to us. Song played during my first make-out session: "Every Breath you take".... songs that play at the high school dance... Songs played on your road trips in the car... all have more meaning than the songs we hear today, because our daily lives in our 30s and 40s usually take us to and from work. When we hear the songs played from 20 - 30 years ago, we remember what we were doing when we heard those songs for the first time. Anything off of U2's the Joshua Tree always reminds me of camping trips, for example. My kid will have those "memory songs". She'll be hearing Train's "Hey Soul Sister" on the radio 20 years from now and remember instantly the Maroon 5/Train Concert she went to a couple of weeks ago. When she hears something from the Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas or Lady Gaga 20 years from now, she'll be instantly transformed into that teen she is today. Any Shania Twain song she hears will remind her of the car rides we used to go on, just as when I hear "Stand Tall" by Burton Cummings reminds me instantly of the eight track my parents put on on our road trip to Ottawa.

The 7-11s around my house play classical music to keep the young people from hanging around the store. The casino where I'm staying at now plays an indordinate amount of Shania Twain and Taylor Swift as well as music from the 90s and 80s because it's not unpleasant to listen to.

Quote: boymimbo

Part of that is because WE grew up to it and the songs when we are growing up are meaningful to us. Song played during my first make-out session: "Every Breath you take"....

An excellent point. Way back when I was in high school a teacher pointed out to us students that the music that we were currently listening to would be our favorite music for the rest of our lives. Which has more or less been true for me.

My first heavy-petting session soundtrack: Mozart's Prague symphony (no. 38, IIRC). Yeah, I'm a geek. Causes very weird moments for me when movie directors sometimes sample it.