There are some aspects of contemporary life that completely mystify me, and music is one of them, at least the music that plays constantly in every store, restaurant and mall. I don't know who decided that we need to have every moment of our life scored, but obviously everyone agrees since I seem to be alone in my detestation of background music, loud of otherwise (though it's rarely otherwise). I would prefer silence in most social occasions. And, if not silence, at least music that I like, which is never the music I hear anywhere these days. I have to assume that most people are quite content to have second rate singers screaming at them with third-rate songs that are incredibly repetitious Some songs only have a single line. Others a theme screeched endlessly like, "I haven't got time for the pain." or "What's love got to do with it. " Is this really the music people want to hear all day every day? Is there no room for something a bit more classical? Not that I even want that. I want quiet, silence, serenity. I want to choose a book at Barnes & Noble without having to hear Rod Stewart frogging out old standards. I want to shop at Publix without having some pop diva screaming at me on every aisle. In a restaurant, I want a comfortable conversation not a yellfest. I find it impossible to believe that most people really want endless music, that may or may not be their taste, everywhere they go. I can't be the only person who loves, as Paul Simon wrote,"The Sound of Silence." When I was a kid, it was pretty well known that the mafia operated the jukebox industry. Lots of eateries who didn't want to have music were soon persuaded that a jukebox would be a very good idea. I can't escape the belief that even today when a business, any business, opens somebody scary shows up to take their order for a sound system and music program whether they want it or not. That's the only way I can explain the cacophony of mediocrity that assails my ears everywhere I go.
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