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There is a large body of literature devoted to examining the effects of music on behaviour and cognition, driven by a desire to understand the effect of playing music on the performance of an ongoing task, e.g., studying, driving, exercising, shopping, or eating. In this sense, background music can be defined as the act of music being played when the music itself is not the main focus for attention. This chapter presents evidence regarding the effects of background music defined in these terms on behaviour and cognition, and draws conclusions with regard to the subsequent impact on general health and wellbeing.

This chapter review research on the effects of music within consumer contexts, grounding this in the debate between those within the music industry who argue for the commercial benefits of piped music, and those campaigners who claim that the background music piped into shops and stores represents an invasion of personal freedom. It presents evidence showing that background music can influence the speed of customer activity, perceptions of the ambiance or atmosphere within a retail outlet, the experience of time spent waiting in queues, and workplace output.

Silence isn’t included in our discussions or definitions of closed captioning but it sometimes needs to be closed captioned. Captioners not only inscribe sounds in writing but must also account for our assumptions about the nature, production, and reception of sounds. This chapter provides an ontology of captioned silences by discussing three types: The illusion of audible speech (mouthed words), the termination of sustained sounds, and the insertion of phantom words. The second half of this chapter discusses the challenges of captioning ambient sounds and music, which are too often reduced to discrete captions and lyrics only. This chapter aims to redraw two main boundaries around captioning. First, the boundary that defines captioning in terms of objectively verifiable sounds. Every definition of closed captioning tends towards positivism by treating captioning as an exercise in translating audio content. But not everything that needs to be captioned can be empirically verified outside of specific visual and narrative contexts. Second, the boundary that equates non-speech information (NSI) with speaker identification and screen placement. A broader view of NSI accounts for how sound functions rhetorically (in specific contexts and for specific purposes) and ideologically (according to the rules and assumptions of how sound works in film).

This chapter examines the orchestras, orchestral procedures, instrumental change and programming involved in song production for the film-music industry in Mumbai, India. It states that the changes in the size of orchestra, the orchestral procedures, surrounding arrangements and background music, and the introduction of new instruments occurred independent of stylistic considerations. It evaluates the notion the Mumbai studio orchestra as an instrumental ensemble through analysis of the cultural and industrial conditions of orchestral musicianship.

This chapter discusses the history of Muzak. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Muzak as “the proprietary name of a system of piped music for factories, restaurants, supermarkets, etc.; also used loosely, with small initial, to designate recorded light background music generally.” Muzak “proper” owes its name to General George Owen Squier (1865–1934), a chief signal officer in the United States Army who, in 1922, founded Wired Inc., a company “employ[ing] electric power lines to transmit news programs, music, lectures, general entertainment and advertising directly into private homes.” In 1934, inspired by the catchy, popular brand name of Kodak, Squier himself renamed his company Muzak. Since then, the brand name Muzak has eased itself into the vernacular language to become a common name denoting an entire genre of music known for being bad. Despite the company's relentless efforts to improve or simply to correct its image, the reputation of Muzak remains frankly disastrous.

This chapter explores the furniture music of French composer Erik Satie (1866–1925). Satie's pieces of furniture music are each fundamentally based on a short musical fragment, to be repeated ad lib (at one's pleasure). As such, they are intrinsically monotonous and can retain the attention of the active listener for only a short span before boredom inevitably sets in. Vexations (1893), for instance, is a short piece consisting of four repetitive phrases to be repeated 840 times. Strictly speaking, three sets of furniture music by Satie exist. The first set, from 1917, is composed for flute, clarinet, and strings, plus a trumpet for the first piece. The second set, from 1920 and labeled Sons industriels [Industrial sounds], was performed at the Galerie Barbazanges. The last piece of furniture music for small orchestra from 1923, was commissioned by Mrs. Eugè ne Meyer Jr. of Washington, D.C. Tenture de cabinet préfectoral (approximately: Upholstery for a Governor's Office) was delivered by Satie to furnish the library of her residence.

This chapter discusses the composer John Cage's interest in Muzak and his concept of “Muzak-plus”. Cage's long-lasting interest in muzak was not because he liked Muzak, or that he was sympathetic to its alleged power. On the contrary, Cage often stated his distaste and, to a certain extent, his fear of Muzak. But he perceived his aversion for muzak as something to be somehow overcome. Cage first alluded to the concept of Muzak-plus in a piece he wrote in 1962 for the collective publication Module, Proportion, Symmetry, Rhythm. Muzak-plus is a situation where being creative never seemed so natural and unnoticeable an act (fulfilled simply while going through the room). In itself, the principle of listeners–performers–composers activating the space by simply traversing it recalls Cage's remark that actually “no one means to circulate his blood.” With Muzak-plus, one could barely dream of a more integrated form of art as life.

This introductory chapter discusses composer John Cage's views about Muzak and his interest in the work of French composer Erik Satie. Muzak is a company that provides functional music as a tool of management in environmental situations. The term has nonetheless a double entendre: muzak (lower case) refers to the genre of background music in general, while Muzak (with a capital) refers specifically to the trademarked product. For Cage, Muzak's discourse clarified the stakes of a competition in which both the arts and the products of industry were engaged. His comparative evaluation of furniture music and muzak may have stressed the possibility of separating one from the other, but by the same token it also indicated that they share a parallel if irreconcilable ambition.