Muzak is a music-licensing company that services a diverse number of commercial spaces. The company was founded in 1934 by a career Army Officer named George Owen Squier and since the 1940’s the success of the company can be attributed to sustaining the folklore-ish sense that music makes a positive impact in the business environment.
Muzak’s trademark concept “Stimulus Progression” involved sequencing songs in ascending order of stimulation according to rhythm, tempo, instrumentation and orchestra-size followed by a 15-minute period of silence. The general method in developing a functional, background music involved rehashing popular songs of the time by omitting vocals (and all other symbolic content) and emphasizing the formal qualities. Preserving familiarity without arresting attention in the listener was the desired effect--“music meant to be heard but not listened to.”
The over-saturation of this vapid culture-product became more noticeable in the ever-increasing decentralization of culture following the 1960’s. Since then Muzak’s shifted its services from the production of background music into the selection of “foreground music” or “audio-architecture” in the symbolic creation and command of space. Here, a Muzak programmer is more of a curator than a subversive composer and creates a playlist that aims to shape the reception of a particular commercial space through the selection of licensed popular music.
The “muzak soundtrack” for this exhibition is recorded (and rerecorded) directly from promotional material on Muzak’s website. The samples date between the 1960’s and 1970’s when Stimulus Progression was still in favor.
Briefly, some of the decisions/background behind this show's elements: