Elevator Music

From Audcwiki, the free encyclopedia.

Sending music to the workplace was in keeping with the vision that Squier had left for the company. As Chief Signal Officer of the US Army Signal Corps, Squier used music to increase the productivity of his secretaries, Afterwards, he investigated ways to use music to recapture the benefits of pre-industrial song, in order to soothe the nerves of employees while increasing their output. The idea of using music to improve an environment was not uncommon by the 1930s, when dentists used music to augment or even replace anesthetic.

Starting also in the 1930s, the Hawthorne Effect, named after a study at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois provided a rationale for human relations in the workplace. The Hawthorne Effect simply concluded that individuals would be more productive when they knew they were being studied or paid attention to, regardless of the experimental manipulation employed. The Hawthorne studies suggested that the workplace was, first and foremost, a social system made up of interdependent parts. According to this theory workers are more influenced by social demands from inside and outside the workplace, by their need for recognition, security, and a sense of belonging, than by the physical environment that surrounds them. Being the object of a study made workers feel involved and important.

At this time Muzak simply provided an unreflective programming that mimicked radio, with a hotel orchestra sound developed by Ben Selvin, a prolific bandleader who had recorded 1,000 records by 1924 and whose Moulin Rouge Orchestra had extensive experience in early radio. Named vice-president for recording and programming at the corporation in 1934, Selvin provided programming ideal for Muzak at this stage. The music provider acted much as a radio station, with distinct programs featuring types of music such as marches for breakfast and pipe organs for lunch. Selvin preferred a quiet and restrained sound with few brass instruments and an emphasis on strings. Muzak provided a gesture to the workers—deploying the Hawthorne Effect—a constant reminder that the boss was thinking of them. To prevent the music from lulling workers to sleep, however, Selvin chose popular songs familiar to everyone, thereby keeping workers’ attention.

Within the workplace, Muzak distinguished between four basic conditions—public areas, offices, light industrial settings, and heavy industrial settings—each of which they determined should be addressed by a different music program. In industrial settings, where loud noises make traditional background music hard to hear, Muzak turned to sounds with a greater penetration, favoring percussion instruments and melodies with more distinct timbres. Even if the factory was loud, the difference in pitch made the music audible. Studies produced by Muzak showed that it reduced absenteeism in the workplace by 88 per cent.

Muzak soon proved useful in locations beyond the office or factory floor. As skyscrapers reached ever taller in North American cities, building owners employed Muzak to calm anxious elevator riders; quickly earning Muzak’s programs the name “elevator music.”

next: A Median Level of Arousal