Loop one song at low volume at your workplace for a year?
alieNDN
2,181 Posts
I think this is a really tough question....
So here's a a question for mostly those types who know what it's like working in a mundane office environment and you can't really play music you like out loud (headphones not an option and/or co-workers may have different tastes in music). You work on a computer, near other employees. You can loop one song in the music application installed on said computer, and you can set the volume so low, that no one else could hear unless their ear was against your computer speaker, but you know the song like the back of your hand, so though its quiet, you feel every change and peak in the song. You have the pattern, tempo, notes memorized. Your familiarity with it makes it as loud as you want it (imagination-wise)
And yet you're playing this song god knows how many times looped god knows how many times for a 8 hour shift. Yet somehow, you don't sicken of this song. The song may not even be in your top 50 or 100 or 500 songs of all time. Yet you would not have a problem repeating this track every working minute, every day for a year. What song do you choose? For the sake of this post, you can only play one song. I think this song has to be something you've known for 10 years. Because that incorporates the shifts in the recent listening tastes you've had, yet its tried and true.
Above scenario applied to me for a while (about a few months), and that song was New Kid In Town by the Eagles...in terms of genres I listen to on a daily basis, this is like 10%. Yet for me, its so perfect and condusive to the scenario mentioned above. It's calming for me, its inoffensive, even if it was louder than the level I described. Enough changes in the song to convince a slow walking passerby that its a different song each time they walk by. Yet it keeps things interesting for my mind's rhythm, even thought it's not my favorite song. It doesn't distract me from my work. It's also definitely a song you could picture on dental-office adult contemporary music station (which is a true test of inoffensiveness).
So here's a a question for mostly those types who know what it's like working in a mundane office environment and you can't really play music you like out loud (headphones not an option and/or co-workers may have different tastes in music). You work on a computer, near other employees. You can loop one song in the music application installed on said computer, and you can set the volume so low, that no one else could hear unless their ear was against your computer speaker, but you know the song like the back of your hand, so though its quiet, you feel every change and peak in the song. You have the pattern, tempo, notes memorized. Your familiarity with it makes it as loud as you want it (imagination-wise)
And yet you're playing this song god knows how many times looped god knows how many times for a 8 hour shift. Yet somehow, you don't sicken of this song. The song may not even be in your top 50 or 100 or 500 songs of all time. Yet you would not have a problem repeating this track every working minute, every day for a year. What song do you choose? For the sake of this post, you can only play one song. I think this song has to be something you've known for 10 years. Because that incorporates the shifts in the recent listening tastes you've had, yet its tried and true.
Above scenario applied to me for a while (about a few months), and that song was New Kid In Town by the Eagles...in terms of genres I listen to on a daily basis, this is like 10%. Yet for me, its so perfect and condusive to the scenario mentioned above. It's calming for me, its inoffensive, even if it was louder than the level I described. Enough changes in the song to convince a slow walking passerby that its a different song each time they walk by. Yet it keeps things interesting for my mind's rhythm, even thought it's not my favorite song. It doesn't distract me from my work. It's also definitely a song you could picture on dental-office adult contemporary music station (which is a true test of inoffensiveness).
Comments
What if you worked in an anechoic chamber? Then you'd might want any sort of background sound, just to avoid going crazy.
For me it's Digable Planets "For Corners."
B/w
O'Donel Levy - Bad Bad Simba
But for me it would probably have to be something with some ambient type qualities rather than a traditional 'song'. So probably something like Billy Cobham's 'Heather' or one of the jams from Miles Davis' In a Silent Way/Bitches Brew era or the Grateful Dead's 'Dark Star'. Something along those lines...
Ok you bring up a fair point, in that you have control over putting it on or off (or you would indeed go mad). Just hearing one song that you don't like without having the control to put if off can kill you, like "Wonderful Christmas time" by Paul McCartney. The point is when you DO listen to music, it's only 1 track. In reality I'd cycle through a few tracks, but there were days when I just stuck to one song,without realizing it which is why I brought up the scenario. The thing was I would almost not hear the track anymore despite it being on if that makes sense. Like I wouldn't realize I've been listening to it till I stepped away from my desk and returned (it's that low volume-wise, but you can still hear it if you focus on it)
The first one is an album, no?
Good call on Bad Bad Simba.
That would be the song I choose.
Tubby is a good call too. Thought of that one but it lacks the punctuation and build of Simba, which seems vital for a permanent loop scenario.
NY Countrrpoint I'd hoped would not get challenged... but you are correct.
That said, I've probably had these two repeating away on a low volume for hours and never really minded.
It would have to be something similarly unobtrusive and instrumental else you'd get sick of it with the quickness. There's this Japanese sound designer called Hiroaki Ide who made a piece of music from the 'sounds' of cells regenerating. It was made to be played in hospital waiting rooms, so it's pretty chill. That would do I guess. If you're going to torture yourself for some unknown reason by playing the same song over and over, it would a comfort to think that it may be encouraging cell regeneration and healing in some way.
First, KILL ME NOW!
Second, Ain't No Sunshine, perhaps Grover Washington's version.
Third, something classical, a Beethoven symphony lasts about an hour. You could have them all memorized if you did this for 9 years.
Really? I have mine in a few hours a day when I am not talking about doing whatever it is I am supposed to be doing.
Shit, I'd have them in my ears with nothing playing, just to block out the sound of the other shit.
There is this incident I've always remembered, from this David-Brent-style, megalomaniac, can-do, mentally self-high-fiving nutcase I once encountered at work. Someone was poo-pooing one of his ideas and he just stood up, and in a loud voice, announced:
"My ears are not dustbins. Please do not fill them with your rubbish."
He's probably in politics by now.
That said, I am fond of a knowing Brentism.
There's no I in TEAM but there is MEAT if you look hard enough.
Just like a Tesco's ham n cheddar sub
::icegrill::
I have a deep aversion against background music of any kind. Especially at a low volume that bleeds into your subconscious. First thing I do when setting foot into a cab is to ask the drive to turn off the music. I prefer restaurants which do not have any music and I have stopped going to some places that had really good food only because the music was whack, too loud or always the same stuff. Worst offender was an excellent Vietnamese place that constantly blasted a best of Modern Talking CD that was obviously downloaded and contained random 40-90 second clips of each song. Once I worked at a place where they had a rotation who could chose the station or bring a CD or tape and every time it was my turn I simply pulled the damn plug. Worst thing was working at a store that played the same best off UB40 CD all day every day. Still today I hear the first seconds of Kingston Town and my blood boils over. Never felt sorry the store owner ended up getting shot in the fucking head. The entire concept of constant background music to me feels like a form of torture and I don't think there's one song that I could hear on constant repeat for days, weeks or months. If I'd have to I'd actually rather chose something I already hate to not forever ruin a song I love.