It’s oh so quiet in M&S, is this music to your ears?

Chris

I have never spoken to a member of staff in any large shop who liked the music; they either preferred no music or didn’t like the kind of music that the shop played.

I’ve not been in a branch of M&S that was not pretty lively. People talking, laughing, children being children, the infernal self service machines nagging everyone, staff moving boxes and filling shelves. Even the fridges these days seem more powerful and emit a constant low noise. Hardly a morgue.

It’s just the sound of people and life. Life doesn’t need a constant musical soundtrack.

Now thats the best bit of practical philosophy I have heard in a long time Isuze.

Several posters including yourself have commented on hearing aids in relation to noise and you mention TV,s . I too am hard of hearing and wear two hearing aids but I have been provided by the Social Services an electronic unit that has a miniature mike placed near a TV speaker . It has a wearable unit that detaches from the main unit and keeps it charged which you put round your neck . This unit transmits to your hearing aid so that you get clear audio through them and you dont need to strain , if you are like me on a low income your SS should provide it free . I dont mind mentioning the name as it probably wont be available directly in the UK as it is German its Swing – by humantechnik.com/ . As I said on another post do not buy the equivalent from Age UK unless you are rich as their equivalents are dearer than elsewhere.

Duncan

When you are out and about , in shops or restaurants, do you find that piped music makes it harder to hear your companions or the staff?

The people that I know who have hearing aids say that it makes life a lot harder for them.

Thanks for asking Isuze I havent replied to Which,s email on my opinion yet but yes you are dead right general noise dampens the clarity of the person talking to me and by that I mean the music noise as I dont find it the least bit soothing just bl**dy irritating as it impinges on my concentration when inspecting and reading ingredients of food products as well . And yes I am a music enthusiast having expensive hi-fi gear and home built stuff so I am not anti-music its just I like to sit down in a room and listen to it via my Stax electrostatic earphones .

Yes, music, especially with lyrics, is meant to be listened to so it demands our attention. It’s hard to concentrate on anything unless you have the knack of blocking it out.

I think most people who post here like music but we want to choose what we listen to and when, and not have it forced on us. Constant piped noise just cheapens music so that it becomes what many have called “aural wallpaper”.

It’s unfair to make life harder for hearing impaired people by playing totally unnecessary music nearly everywhere. I think there is beginning to be quite a backlash against it. I have read articles that refer to background music ( and other types of noise pollution) as “second hand noise”, like second hand smoke. Something you are having a problem with but did not ask for, create or consent to.

Chris, how can the High St be destroyed by not piping music into shops when Primark is doing brilliantly well, expanding all the time it seems and is always busy despite having no music?

It would be difficult to disentangle the reasons for any drop in sales. The company has reported poor performance in general merchandise and there are also seasonal and competitive factors at work. The BHS clear-out will have some temporary impact. M&S are missing their clothing sales targets, both in terms of volume and in terms of product acceptance, to such an extent that they are setting up a customer panel to advise the company on what customers really want and the right price points. That used to be M&S’s strong retail advantage. As for music, I suspect that once they have got the right style and value offer in their stores customers will return and will disregard the absence of music; if they don’t get it right, music is the least of their worries and will not revive a flagging brand.

One of the things that has put me off M&S is the introduction of logos or other on their clothing. So far I have not encountered music except at Christmas.

I agree about intrusive and unnecessary background music. It seems that some programmes cannot be made unless music fills any potentially silent gaps and “backs” (sometimes swamps) comments being made. When will the News be accompanied by “appropriate” music? It was OK in silent films but now, surely, we can live without constant noise (although judging by the numbers who walk round with earphones I may be wrong).

I suppose if desperate you could press the mute button and switch on subtitles. I used to dislike those but having watched foreign series on Saturday nights – Montelbano, dark Scandinavian crime dramas and so on – I’ve grown quite attached to them.

Watch out !! totally non PC coming up -danger zone ! This background music on the media drives me up the wall , it comes directly from the US , where the attention span is near zero , you are shown half the film/or “entertainment ” at the start to “attract”you . its a product of US advertising where giant companies worked out how to best sell their products – hit you with “innovation ” , incentive , new “never seen before ” wording /new episode to combat US channel switching to keep themselves “entertained ” . Sorry I am not part of this capitalist down market thinking , even when young I went to a special cinema that showed continental films that were deeply engrossing the actors showing great depth of character and the values were of a deep inner study of human nature , what is classed now by TV journals as “boring ” /dont understand it /too long /not “entertaining enough ” . Well I dont have a brain with the same attention span as a slug /snail which is a crawling stomach. Those reviewers give the ones i like 1 star /2 stars and complete rubbish Hollywood low brain cell “entertainment 4/5 stars just because its glossy and keeps the IQ below 100 . But what the heck ! I am a minority so I dont count ( only to myself ). Thats why I watch satellite on the continent, Germany /France /etc a whole level of higher league entertainment.

I had an awful feeling M&S would play music again. At least it’s quieter now than it used to be but their choice of music and cover artistes is absolutely dreadful. Like their advertising, it is also completely out of step with their customer demographic.

I went into M&S to buy a wooly jumper and they had a small CD radio on a high shelf pumping out distorted music. ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’ was playing, followed by ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’ and then ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’. I made a rapid departure and found that I had a couple of wooly jumpers that I had been given last Christmas.

Tesco has been quiet apart from the disembodied voice ‘Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas’ emanating from the self-service checkouts with monotonous regularity. Today there was Christmas music as well.

We found the same thing: a tiny, scratchy, low-cost cassette / CD player on a shelf. I took the opportunity to modify it, by re-tuning the radio section to Radio 3 and left it on 🙂

Sounds like Xmas instead of Christmas Wavechange .