Waiting is accompanied by music, eating is accompanied by music, having fun is accompanied by music, stage changeovers are accompanied by music, choosing which socks to buy is accompanied by music.
But what if I didn't want it? What if I preferred to hear my own thoughts, what the person next to me is saying, the sound of the electrical control unit?
What if I didn't feel like shouting while I eat in order to top the volume of other people's shouting, who in turn are trying to top the volume of the music?
I simply don't feel like it. Probably there are those who say this practice devalues listening to music understood as art, or there are those who support workers who want music in their venue, from which they take the rhythm of the day… I simply don't feel like it.
I would like to be consenting; I would like to decide to put on music with my friends, for us, to go to a concert, to a listening session.
If only it were at least “Muzak”-style music… If only airports played “Ambient 1: Music for Airports” by Brian Eno over the speakers… Instead it is often songs, people talking or shouting through the speakers in the shared space; for some people it is even pleasant, or is it merely tolerated?
I don't blame those who go, for example, to particular pubs expressly for the musical selection, although personally I prefer an attraction, like a live show, a DJ set, an installation or something of the sort…
There are sites, coaches, apps, that are primarily based on the promise of “sonorizing your business”, among the requirements: having an adequate sound system that evenly reaches every corner of your premises. (The makings of an anxious trip with no escape.)
Perhaps the time has come to challenge the idea that music must always be present and to embrace a perspective in which silence and freedom of choice can coexist without compromise.
Perhaps, in the near future, we will be able to enjoy environments in which music is appreciated as a consensual experience and not an imposed one.
Top 3 music that traumatizes me in shared environments: Rock Classics, music sung in Italian, music that lets others sing along.
English translation of the Italian original. Read the original →