The Tyranny of Pop Music

[ahinton]

Certainly not, madam!

My words were as clear and as unambiguous as those of the admirably transparent Mr Scruton's himself and meant exactly what your official dictionary definitions should authoritatively reveal.

The straight and honest words of Mr Scruton, even if automatically condemned by the usual forum nay-sayers, cannot possibly be associated with any known form of media jargon or be considered to be fashioned by institutionalised political-correctness, which, sadly, is so insidiously prevalent among our political and social elites today.

I trust it will never again be outrageously implied by any member (however rightly valued and honoured) that my words might mean the exact opposite of what I both intended and typed. Let me make that abundantly clear for the future avoidance of any lingering misapprehensions!

Furthermore, in the course of this new day, and barring any unexpected vicissitudes, I feel confident that we might shortly receive ahinton's third-party ruling on the matter.

On what do you base such apparent confidence? Which third party and who belongs thereto? Rules here are made by FF.

[teamsaint]

Sometimes, despite the divisiveness it often caused, I miss the P and CA board.

Instead of discussing this rather hopeless 10 minute point of view, we could be discussing why Hatie Hopkins is at liberty, or how on earth it is that we have people like Amber" of course I Don't need to know how many power stations we need in order to be energy secretary" Rudd running the country.
But we can't.

[jean]

...The straight and honest words of Mr Scruton...

...this rather hopeless 10 minute point of view...

Unfortunately, straightness and honesty are no protection against hopelessness.

[jean]

If I ever do a cruise, I'd select the one my married neighbours chose. It was on a cargo ship...

I've done that, from Gdynia to Felixstowe with Euro-Africa Lines. Room for 12 passengers. I was doing it to get home, but some of them were there for the ride.

But I have been on other sorts of cruises too, and there was no piped music. I just thought you ought to know.

[ahinton]

we could be discussing why Hatie Hopkins is at liberty

I couldn't; I've never heard of him/her.

[Lat-Literal]

I've done that, from Gdynia to Felixstowe with Euro-Africa Lines. Room for 12 passengers. I was doing it to get home, but some of them were there for the ride.

But I have been on other sorts of cruises too, and there was no piped music. I just thought you ought to know.

Interesting.

The latter point is fine.

No people walking with their eyes closed as they shout into mobile phones;
(I don't own a mobile phone)
No babies screaming their heads off;
No piercing artificial light;
No youths playing football by the frozen food section;
No working parents racing round corners as if they are warming up for Silverstone;
No pensioners standing in the entirety of an aisle talking about 1939;
No one stacking shelves suddenly standing three paces back;
No one of any age pushing, shoving and barging; and
No need actually to coordinate or function.......

.......I doubt that any sound to take the considerable edges off is necessary.

He actually is used to the sort of noise I would personally find unbearable, having been a part of "maintenance" at Formula One all round the world for several seasons. However, we have had several conversations about the wonders of listening to the sound of the rain, not least because in South Africa so many of the houses had corrugated iron rooftops.

[jean]

...except that on the Mersey Ferries ones, they play Ferry cross the Mersey at you at the end. Which is piped, and it is a pop song. And it's irritating, but only for a few minutes.

What no-one's pointed out is that 'Muzac' was originally a trade name for specially devised non-music music intended only as background. It never was 'pop' music.

[P. G. Tipps]

Unfortunately, straightness and honesty are no protection against hopelessness.

Well there are only two obvious alternatives to 'straightness and honesty' and these are 'crookedness and dishonesty'?

However, considering the current reality, I agree that the 'hopelessness' of Mr Scruton's stance is hard to argue against!

[Lat-Literal]

...except that on the Mersey Ferries ones, they play Ferry cross the Mersey at you at the end. Which is piped, and it is a pop song. And it's irritating, but only for a few minutes.

What no-one's pointed out is that 'Muzac' was originally a trade name for specially devised non-music music intended only as background. It never was 'pop' music.

Really?

Would that be better or worse?

In post 1960s routine environments where people are required to be so appalling that even Westlife are marginally preferable?

[jean]

Muzak, I should have written.

[NatBalance]

Because out Natty’s original question was about the volume knob.

My reference to the volume … perhaps we are safer calling it a dial …. was related to my suggestion that any music can be turned into muzak just by turning its volume down sufficiently. To which the response was words to the effect that volume has no affect on the emotional impact of a piece of music, to which I replied "So what's the point in a volume dial then? Also what's the point in amplifying pop music?". I'm not saying that pieces like Wagner's Ride of the Valkaries are ideal piped music with the volume turned down but I reckon they do have less and less impact on the listener the quieter they are played until they become background music.

[jean]

'Background' music makes a different sort of impact, I think

[MrGongGong]

My reference to the volume … perhaps we are safer calling it a dial …. was related to my suggestion that any music can be turned into muzak just by turning its volume down sufficiently. To which the response was words to the effect that volume has no affect on the emotional impact of a piece of music, to which I replied "So what's the point in a volume dial then? Also what's the point in amplifying pop music?". I'm not saying that pieces like Wagner's Ride of the Valkaries are ideal piped music with the volume turned down but I reckon they do have less and less impact on the listener the quieter they are played until they become background music.

I think you misread.

What no-one's pointed out is that 'Muzac' was originally a trade name for specially devised non-music music intended only as background. It never was 'pop' music.

#57

"Muzak" was a company that was bought by these folks http://us.moodmedia.com

[P. G. Tipps]

When all is said and done (sincere apologies in advance for the horrid, teeth-jangling phrase) there are even worse things in modern life for Mr Scruton to get his own jangled teeth into ... the supermarket Christmas TV adverts, for example.

John Lewis/Waitrose predictably lead the way in the nauseating guff stakes, but surely the most appalling have to be those Tesco adverts which never fail to astound one in their level of appallingness, each one even more appalling than the already appalling ones that went before.

Mr Scruton would be truly appalled as well, I'm sure.

[ahinton]

...except that on the Mersey Ferries ones, they play Ferry cross the Mersey at you at the end. Which is piped, and it is a pop song. And it's irritating, but only for a few minutes.

What no-one's pointed out is that 'Muzac' was originally a trade name for specially devised non-music music intended only as background. It never was 'pop' music.

I seem to recall that it was pointed out by someone, actually (although I can't be bothered now to look up by whgom or when) and, in one of my own responses, I did allude to the fact that the lack of distinction at times between the "pop" music of the talk's title and piped music of any kind gave rise to some confusion and to some extent rather undermined - or at least diluted - his point in that this made it less clear against precisely what he was inveighing - "pop" music, piped music in public places or both, either together or separately.