Elevator music, also known as lift music (in the Commonwealth), piped music or muzak, refers to the gentle, bland instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for play in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, public toilets, telephone systems (while the caller is on hold), cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and of course, elevators. The term is also frequently applied as a generic term for any form of Easy Listening, smooth jazz, or MOR music, or to the type of recordings once commonly heard on "beautiful music" radio stations. The Muzak corporation is perhaps the best-known supplier of such music. In fact, the term muzak has become a generic epithet for excessively bland music. However, Muzak moved away from this type of music, for the most part, in 1997[1] and now uses only "original artists" for its music source, except on the Environmental channel.[2]
References
- ^ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/10/060410fa_fact?currentPage=3
- ^ Encompass LE Program Listing. Muzak Corporation (November 10 2006). Retrieved on April 19, 2007. (PDF)
See also
External links
- Muzak's own "Environmental" channel sample, the original Elevator Music
- Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, by Joseph Lanza
- The King has Just Left the Building: an art project related to elevator music.
