Elevator music

For the trademarked brand, see Muzak. For other uses, see Elevator music (disambiguation).

Elevator music (also known as Muzak, piped music, or lift music) is a type of background music played in elevators, in rooms where many people come together for reasons other than listening to music, and during telephone calls when placed on hold. Before the emergence of the Internet, such music was often "piped" to businesses and homes[1] through telephone lines, private networks or targeted radio broadcasting (as in the BBC's Music While You Work, where powerful speakers were set up in factories to make the broadcast audible).[2][3]

There is no specific sound associated with elevator music, but it usually involves simple instrumental themes from "soft" popular music, or "light" classical music being performed by slow strings. This type of music was produced, for instance, by the Mantovani Orchestra, and conductors such as Franck Pourcel and James Last, peaking in popularity around the 1970s.[4]

More recent types of elevator music may be computer-generated, with the actual score being composed entirely algorithmically.[5][6]

  1. ^ Kate Mossman. 'The science of background muzak' in The New Statesman, 31 March 2021
  2. ^ The Day the Muzak Died, BBC radio documentary by Falling Tree Productions, broadcast 30 March 2021
  3. ^ Reynolds, Brian (2006). Music While You Work: An Era in Broadcasting. Leicester: The Book Guild Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 1-84624-004-2.
  4. ^ Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, and Other Moodsong, University of Michigan Press (2004)
  5. ^ Murphy, Michael (August 26, 2015). "People are confusing computer-generated music with the works of J.S. Bach". Quartz. New York. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  6. ^ Wilson, Chris (May 19, 2010). "I'll Be Bach: A computer program is writing great, original works of classical music. Will human composers soon be obsolete?". Slate. New York. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2021.