The relentless parade of familiar holiday tunes pouring out of store speakers is an easy target for Grinchy types like me. I don’t like shopping to begin with, and I also find it hard to ignore background music, so a store that accompanies my feeble attempts at being an “educated consumer” with Santa and Rudolph and Frosty is not a store I’m gonna want to spend a lot of time in.
Having said that, I understand why stores and malls do it. Music is exceptionally good at setting a mood, and it doesn’t have to be loud, or even particularly noticeable, to do its job. The volume in some stores is problematic, but the basic idea is sound. (Oh god, did I just write that? I really and truly did not intend a pun there.) And I suppose the holiday music is no more annoying than the endless parade of Top-40 hits these stores are pumping out the other 46 weeks of the year.
No, Christmas music in stores isn’t the big noise problem during the Holiday season. The big problem is Christmas music outside the stores. Mercifully, we don’t see as much of this as we used to; Christmas tree stands are the main offenders nowadays. But some stores, especially on shopping drags like Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn or Jamaica Avenue in Queens, will still position their speakers outside their front door so people can hear their holiday music. I guess they see it as audio advertising, and for it to work, it has to be loud. So what’s the message here? “Come on in! Save time! Do your shopping and lose your hearing and your sanity all at once!”
Actually, now that I think of it, the insides of those stores are probably quieter than the outsides, but that sort of projected music, besides probably being illegal, has always acted as a big old audio stop sign for me.
So, tell us: What’s the “sound of the season” for you at holiday time?
John Schaefer has hosted Soundcheck since the show’s inception in 2002. He has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (“The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.
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