Posted On: Saturday - August 8th 2026 6:31PM MST
In Topics: Music Humor
I don't know if the term "Muzak" is used so much anymore, or Muzak itself, for that matter. There is hold music, of course. Muzak was a brand name*, from back in 1954, though the type of music, instrumental versions of pop music for background music in stores, etc., has apparently been around since 20 years earlier than that.
A generic name for this was "Elevator Music", because yes it was played in elevators. You can see that in old TV shows and movies, but this is no longer a thing. (It interferes with the computer-generated fake old-timey mechanical sounds, I guess.)
In a post about Haitians in Ohio, Peak Stupidity embedded a great Pretenders song, My City Was Gone, in which Chrissy Hynde sings "and Muzak filled the air, from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls." That line came right to me one day, when I stopped to take a break on a long road trip in Marshall, Minnesota. There was Muzak playing out of speakers on the main street sidewalks! That was pretty annoying and a good reason to vow to never set foot again there. This was well before Minnesota was subjected to a whole lot more woe than Muzak. Now perhaps the Muzak could be used to calm down protesting snowflakes and keep any potential aliens away. Slim Whitman music is, of course, even better for the purpose:
It was always fun to catch songs you really liked being played as Muzak and make fun. It is still around to some degree, as last week somewhere I heard a Muzak version of Guns & Roses' Sweet Child 'o Mine. The Muzak folks have been ... sort of ... keeping up, I'll give them that, but, no, you can't be doing this! It hurt my brain to where I felt like one of the Martians. Here's the original:
Whewww. Much better! We feature 1970s music a lot here, but G&R sang this in the late '80s, and I remember right where I was when I first heard the great guitar riff by Slash, and it was on a TV at a bar with this very video. (One BILLION. views... probably some
Going forward into the next calendar decade, commenter Mike Tre on TUR embedded this Summer of '93 song by The Breeders that I hadn't heard since that time period. As with old REM music, the lyrics are hardly intelligible, but this doesn't matter. Cannonball was considered "Alternative Rock", and NOBODY said "Alt-rock". I'd call that a fairly vague genre - mostly stuff that wasn't "hair band" music or Grunge, I guess.
The song's most definitely not Muzak, but we can't be sure there's no Muzak version of it either. This mostly girl-band was:
Kelley Deal and Kim Deal (sisters, I gather): Guitars and lead vocals
Josephine Wiggs: Bass and vocals
Jim MacPherson: Drums
That's it for the blog-week, Peakers. I WILL get to that Chinese (money) Laundry story shortly - there's just too much stupidity in tabs on tablets and phones all over the place to handle. Have a restful Sunday.
* Wiki says the brand name is gone now and all operations "have been integrated into Mood Media".
Comments:
Moderator
Sunday - August 9th 2026 6:54AM MST
PS: So you did too. I'm glad it was not just my NI hallucinations, Alarmist! I must have heard to story about John Lennon already from you, Alarmist (probably on TUR), as it seems familiar.
Moderator
Sunday - August 9th 2026 6:53AM MST
PS: The Sound of Muzak! Brilliant. I should have used that in the post "The streets are alive, with the sound of muzak" (in Marshall, Minnesota)
I'll have to listen later to the 2 songs, Adam - bad spot here.
I'll have to listen later to the 2 songs, Adam - bad spot here.
The Alarmist
Saturday - August 8th 2026 7:31PM MST
PS
I heard the G&R muzak in a restaurant last week.
I had a friend in NYC who did time as a gofer for John Lenon in the ‘70s. They stepped into an elevator one day and were greeted by the Muzak version of “Imagine,” at which point Lennon said, ”I’ve lived too long.”
🕉
I heard the G&R muzak in a restaurant last week.
I had a friend in NYC who did time as a gofer for John Lenon in the ‘70s. They stepped into an elevator one day and were greeted by the Muzak version of “Imagine,” at which point Lennon said, ”I’ve lived too long.”
🕉
Adam Smith
Saturday - August 8th 2026 7:18PM MST
PS: Muzak & Guns & Roses...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ulgVOBpNWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5d8nXAngw
☮️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ulgVOBpNWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5d8nXAngw
☮️