Work music

[Dave2002]

I didn't anticipate some of these issues when I started this thread. I'm very sorry for those of you who "have" to work in an environment where there's music played which you don't like, or where you'd prefer not to have any music at all. While I would probably prefer to listen intently and deeply to music, I can usually manage to have some on as background while I work. If I'm driving I'd concede that it could be a distraction - but to date it hasn't been a great problem. If I get really involved I have to either pull over or switch off.

One advantage of music is that it doesn't require focusing on a particular visual field, which is an issue with watching TV. I can't really work and watch TV at the same time. I'm guessing from the discussion so far that most people who don't want music would also find any audio - e.g. BBC radio dramas a distraction.
It has taken me about 7 iterations for the most recent Rumpole episodes to get to the end of each. We sometimes listen to these just before sleep, so quite often we can't figure out the end as we are asleep well before the denouement. Perhaps we are conditioning ourselves to go to sleep, so it could be dangerous to drive with those on.

[oddoneout]

I feel sorry for the customers!

Why? They can at least exercise a choice about whether to stay in the building and hear it.

[french frank]

That is why I could never listen to music when driving.

Me neither. I don't think of driving long distances as 'boring' and therefore needing to be enlivened. The only time when I listened/could listen to music for a sustained period was when I was in hospital and there was really nothing else of interest going on that needed my attention. Then it was welcome!

[MrGongGong]

Me neither. I don't think of driving long distances as 'boring' and therefore needing to be enlivened. The only time when I listened/could listen to music for a sustained period was when I was in hospital and there was really nothing else of interest going on that needed my attention. Then it was welcome!

I listened to all the Mahler symphonies in succession when I was in hospital a few years ago
not able to sleep so had the CDs and a player ....

[Lat-Literal]

It can take the conflict out of it. Cab drivers from Kosovo or Kabul are either very talkative (and often politically annoyed) or minimal in speech and morose (and often socially angry). I manage to get from most of them that they can't stand the drunks on a Friday night. It strikes me beyond their family (always) and money (essential) that if they are not necessarily listening to/imprisoned by LBC's news hype that their Britain by virtue of the need for distraction is Magic, Heart or Smooth.

That fascinates me endlessly.

Mild probing tells me that they are rarely taking in the content. Yet I am aware that they find the modern mainstream as alien as I and many of my age group do. Musically they could have chosen worse. But this is a scenario in which decades of nuanced and often vibrant youth culture has been boiled down to a few hundred songs on a playlist. It is so repetitive I know exactly which station they are on. And while there is a presenter, the product for that is what it is, is essentially the robot.

It is as if in those rides that the soul has been removed, especially in the night, and ironically they remind me of the lone DJ in Harry Chapin's WOLD or a number of characters in Tom Waits. Except with hindsight I doubt that they had so much reason to whinge as at least they had a media that was more emotional. Often I want to tell them about United Biscuits and how it was Workers Playtime, not as in easing the monotony of the conveyer belt as in the intensity between the employees.

While getting on well they would have found the sheer proximity to each other in silence too stifling. And how the revolution could not have happened with or without those broadcasts although it always seemed within reach of a bourbon. But I don't as it might upset those drivers and also I wasn't there or ever in biscuits. I was in an office where there was no music and in the sheer competitiveness of it, it was like everyone was crawling over each other sexually even though it wasn't wanted.

Harry Chapin - WOLD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SubLzRKYuo4
Harry Chapin - "Taxi" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qYU9b5OF8M

Chapin, a dedicated humanitarian, fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. He is credited with being the most politically and socially active American performer of the 1970s. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

(7 December 1942 – 16 July 1981)

[teamsaint]

Me neither. I don't think of driving long distances as 'boring' and therefore needing to be enlivened. The only time when I listened/could listen to music for a sustained period was when I was in hospital and there was really nothing else of interest going on that needed my attention. Then it was welcome!

Fair enough, but 30k miles a year might tend to make a difference....

And, having music on while working/driving does tend to be "hearing" rather than "listening". But I don't think that hearing is necessarily of no value. I suspect that most of us listen at differing levels of intensity at different times.

[EdgeleyRob]

And, having music on while working/driving does tend to be "hearing" rather than "listening". But I don't think that hearing is necessarily of no value. I suspect that most of us listen at differing levels of intensity at different times.

Agreed ts,there are certainly some works and composers that I couldn't possibly listen to while driving or doing other things but I always have some music on

[Dave2002]

Fair enough, but 30k miles a year might tend to make a difference....

And, having music on while working/driving does tend to be "hearing" rather than "listening". But I don't think that hearing is necessarily of no value. I suspect that most of us listen at differing levels of intensity at different times.

I think it depends how you listen - and who's to know or say what is the "correct" way. If you're the sort of person who uses music to go into a trance, then having it on while driving is definitely not a good idea - unless you wish to have a permanent "trance". OTOH I can usually follow the music sufficiently well to be able to distinguish different ways of phrasing, overall structure etc., and fortunately, so far, I still seem to have an emergency override which kicks in if things get difficult. If I get to awkward traffic situations I turn the music off. I can usually identify any piece I know moderately with only a few seconds excerpts, wherever in the piece the notes are from. I don't know how I do that.

Yesterday a cat ran out in front of my car and I was still able to do an emergency brake - though I didn't have any music on (I knew there wasn't anything behind ... ).

re msg 35: not quite sure of the points, but I'd never heard of Henry Chapin before. I quite liked the WOLD song, the other one much less so.
Also, FWIW, I went through Boise Idaho last year.

[MickyD]

Some people do manage to block music out from their minds whilst working.

I remember having a meal in a large eatery in an airport whilst waiting for a flight. There was constant pop music pounding away in the background. A very nice young waiter said to me during my meal 'Is there anything else I can do for you?' I said: 'yes, is there any way you can stop that dreadful music?', to which he replied 'what music?'

[visualnickmos]

Agreed ts,there are certainly some works and composers that I couldn't possibly listen to while driving or doing other things but I always have some music on

Reminds me of a story I once heard on Radio 4 (I suspect) of a chap in USA, pulled over for speeding;
officer: 'Do you realise you were doing 20 mph over the limit,'
Driver: 'Have you ever tried driving slowly to the last movement of Beethoven's 7th?'

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My daughter always says I drive dangerously to Tchaikovsky's music.

[LMcD]

My daughter always says I drive dangerously to Tchaikovsky's music.

Russian along are you?

[Serial_Apologist]

Russian along are you?

Well to be fair, EA does sometimes seem rather Glinka'd in his opinions.

[teamsaint]

Well to be fair, EA does sometimes seem rather Glinka'd in his opinions.

I think the problems may come when he is changing gliere.....

[Serial_Apologist]

I think the problems may come when he is changing gliere.....