Word: muzakal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Good Friday, thousands of radio stations, from Rome, Ga., to the Voice of America, broadcast We Are the World simultaneously; even Muzak shattered its sacrosanct format to chime in. In New York City, radio station WYNY-FM invited citizens to join a chorus on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral; hundreds showed up and let loose. In Indianapolis, three clubs donated their facilities and three local bands their talents. Latin artists, featuring Jose Feliciano and Julio Iglesias, have already made their own recorded contribution, Cantare Cantaras, which is projected to pull in $15 million for hunger relief; gospelers have...
...baby boom generation, an audience that he felt was growing tired of rock. He recorded melodic albums like Pianist George Winston's Autumn, which cost just $1,720 to produce but has sold more than 500,000 copies. Some critics regard Windham Hill's silky sound as yuppie Muzak, but young professionals cannot get enough of it. Sales reached $20 million last year, up 230% from 1983. Ackerman now chums with Apple Computer Chairman Steven Jobs and gives lectures on his success at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business...
...gentler inspirations that Muzak calls "environmental music" work for several reasons, particularly for people subject to either stress or boredom. Music is soothing. Oddly enough, Muzak even claims that its recordings make workers feel more in control of their environment and more cared for by their employers. Most important, though, is that workers slow down in mid-morning and midafternoon, and music can counteract that. Muzak's selections get faster as the workers near those slack periods. The company calls that "stimulus progression...
...Muzak music is not supposed to be consciously heard. "Once people start listening they stop working," says Muzak's president Tony Hirsh. That is why its songs never have words. But though Muzak has come to seem synonymous with slushy string tones, the company makes a great effort to keep up to date. Its current repertory of 5,000 includes songs by Michael Jackson and the Police, as well as Cyndi Lauper's All Through the Night. In fact the company records about 1,000 new hits every year. It makes its selections with the help...
...Muzak at 50 is so useful and productive and successful and popular (the company says its polls repeatedly show that more than 85% of its customers enjoy what they get), why do some people hate it so passionately? One reason is simply that they believe this system perverts and prostitutes one of life's greatest pleasures, listening to music. And it probably deadens people's ability to enjoy music that they do listen to by choice. And the whole process is coercive. People who did not want to hear radio music pumped into them on Washington buses carried...