a vanished thing

Well, maybe not so vanished, as I'll note later.

But one of the posts on the "main" Metafilter today was a link to a YouTube video of old "Customusic" background music for stores (this one, from K-Mart):

I remember this! I remember shopping in stores as a kid where this was the soundtrack.

Now, stores do different things. The Pruett's usually plays some kind of Sirius channel, often 70s rock (I think they let the employees choose). Wal-mart has something I'm pretty sure is forgettable, I don't remember what.

But when I was a kid, this kind of "easy listening" stuff was everywhere. This sounds like the soundtrack of Chapel Hill Mall, where we went to see Archie the giant snowman (apparently some kids were freaked out by him? I wasn't) and where we bought our school shoes (at Miller's Stride-Rite) and there was a Penney's and a Sears and an O'Neil's (a nice, and now vanished, chain - gobbled up by Macy's and then Macy's closed many of their outlets) and there was probably a Waldenbooks (I forget), and a toy store, and a Spencer Gifts, and an arcade, and a movie theater (which is where I saw a lot of the first-run Disney movies when they came out, and where I remember seeing "The Goonies"). And there was a Woolworth's, which in my early memories, had a candy counter (If I remember correctly, the Sears did, too).

Anyway. During Christmas shopping, this was very like the music you would have heard in the mall - fairly anonymous, arrangements of well known (probably largely public domain, even back then?) carols, with studio musicians (so no big names, no big license fees).

It is nostalgic to a point. At least for me, an older Gen-Xer, who remembers this. 

It's sometimes interesting (and sometimes annoying) to read the comments over there. An early commenter basically came in and dumped all over it, basically saying "why keep this because newer generations shouldn't suffer" and another commenter noted, and I kind of love this:

"... It's the Paul Lynde Center Square impulse. But again and again we're told not to do this. I fall for it repeatedly. So here's a friendly reminder, and just let's both try to remember not to do it...."

Yes. One thing I admit I dislike about Modern Life is the tendency to be very Above It All and to snark on things to, I guess, score Internet Cool Points or something. And yes, sometimes I find myself falling for it and giving in to it and I want to be better than that. 

And yeah, I get it: this is how some folks relate to the world; I knew someone who had the sort-of-snarky impulse where he often mock-insulted his friends (He never did it with me, and I think I WAS one of his friends, but I also think he realized that I am Sensitive and also wouldn't be able to keep up with the trading of insults - my brain is not wired like that - and so that kind of sparring would not only upset me, it would not be FUN, and so he was earnest with me instead. Honestly, it was mostly his fellow gay-male friends he really went off on, and perhaps there's some kind of solidarity thing there that I don't understand, I don't know. But I don't and can't do cattiness, so....)

 But anyway. Back to the music (not Muzak, this is not the tradenamed version). Someone else pointed out that you DO want unobtrusive background sounds in situations like a mall, because if you have a mass of people and no noise to cover them up, you just hear the people sounds....and also, we've become conditioned to the point where the absence of music would feel a little "off" (I think the word the commenter used was "creepy") 

And another person noted, in response to the complainers: "Is this really worse than the same eight pop-diva Christmas songs on constant repeat?" and while I DO admit a fondness for "All I Want for Christmas is You*" I would tire very fast of it if I were working in, say, Ladies' Separates, and had to hear it every hour on the hour from late November until Christmas Eve.

(*Look at it as a loving callback to the Motown and Darlene-Love-type Christmas songs of the 60s, and it makes more sense and becomes more enjoyable, or at least it did to me)

And so, as someone pointed out, it's the least bad option.

And this is where the "maybe not such a vanished thing" comes in: this is not very far off (as a couple commenters point out) from all the lofi hiphop music that's on YouTube: largely only instrumental, not immediately recognizable in the way a well-known pop song or even classical composition is, doesn't demand your listening attention, forms a sort of pleasant more-complex-than-white-noise that can drown out other things - your neighbor working on their lawn, or traffic, or even just the silence of being alone in the house. (I listened to A LOT of that "lofi hip-hop studying girl" channel during 2020 when I was essentially trapped at home all by myself, it kept me from climbing the walls so much). 

And yes; for someone like me this does call up vague memories of going to Breakfast with Santa or having a grilled cheese and hot chocolate at the Woolworth's lunch counter when out Christmas shopping with my parents. I suppose some folks have unhappy memories (one person described being dragged to the "husky" department by a chain smoking relative, and yeah, I guess) but also, I think of what Jane and Michael Stern said in a chapter of Square Meals: that childhood, no matter how abysmal parts of it was, often looks better the farther you get from it. And yeah. I forget about the lack of agency kids have and the frustration of not being able to do what I want, or not having enough allowance money for the thing I want; I remember that grilled cheese my dad bought for me, and playing "I spy" with him as we sat and waited for the food. And as an adult, I think of having to deal with e-mails from unhappy students or requests from administrators to do something on shorter notice than I actually can, and I miss being able to go to the mall and get a grilled cheese and not have to drive myself there or drive myself home and also if I need school shoes I don't have to pay for them myself....And of course the Christmas music has the overlay of it being the run-up to Christmas, which was always Fun and Exciting when I was a child - wondering what I'd get, trying to parcel out my carefully saved tiny allowance-and-extra-chore money to get the best presents possible for my parents, and there being different and special foods at the candy counters.....