Misadventures In Music - Thoughts Unfiltered

[BeatleMatt]

A few days ago, my family and I were eating dinner in a local IHOP restaurant. Nothing out of the ordinary. The canned music was playing a variety of music and one of the songs was Janis Ian, “At Seventeen”. It a song that is rarely heard anywhere these days, which is why I found it notable.
Yesterday, in another state, in a different IHOP having breakfast, “At Seventeen” is played again. Now it’s possible the restaurants are all subscribed to the same music source which gets recycled and played over and over. Or it’s pure coincidence that I hear the song twice over a period of a week in two different states. Like, when you have only watched a tv show a few times and years later you randomly tune it in and see the same episode.

 

[BeatleMatt]

There is a song that The Rainmakers would sometimes include in a melody when performing “Drinking On The Job” in concert. One of the songs in the melody I am not familiar with and until now never dug too deep into it. Then I watched an episode of Seinfeld and I believe they referenced the song. This piqued my curiosity so I dug deeper.

 

[Catfish]

This is a really wild random thought and memory that was such a game changer for me way back....

Back in about 1970, I was listening to KAAY, Beaker Street. The DJ at the time, Clyde Clifford was known to take long breaks and play long, often full side of albums.

One late night he played The Doors, The End. Never had this naive, guarded, and innocent 12 year old ever been so floored by the strangeness and macrbe nature of music. At that moment, I knew there was a dark underbelly to life that I had not been introduced. In some ways, at the time, this and Riders On the Storm was disturbing enough that I subconsciously veered away from The Doors as a go to Band.

 

[Catfish]

A few days ago, my family and I were eating dinner in a local IHOP restaurant. Nothing out of the ordinary. The canned music was playing a variety of music and one of the songs was Janis Ian, “At Seventeen”. It a song that is rarely heard anywhere these days, which is why I found it notable.
Yesterday, in another state, in a different IHOP having breakfast, “At Seventeen” is played again. Now it’s possible the restaurants are all subscribed to the same music source which gets recycled and played over and over. Or it’s pure coincidence that I hear the song twice over a period of a week in two different states. Like, when you have only watched a tv show a few times and years later you randomly tune it in and see the same episode.

Great post... I've made it a point for decades to notice the piped in music at restaurants. There is a lot more science involved in this process than you realize. Mostly, that if you notice a song, think of the year it was made.... Then subtract 18-25 to determine the years of birth of targetted demographic.

This not only applies to age, but musical genre.

 

[dr wu]

Music in 'restaurants' is indeed interesting.
I frequent two 'beer pubs/eateries' in my local town. They both have a good selection of craft and regular beers as well as modern 'trendy food'. Over half of the people are usually older adults 40 and up (especially in this one bar area) yet they both play younger modern pop rock/alt rock that would appeal to thirty somethings. I usually dont hear any classic rock unless a band is covering a song. And the one place plays it too loud and my wife comments on this when we go there.
I suppose they are trying to appeal to the crowd but it seems to me a mix of all styles would be better and not so loud.
The two 'expensive' places we go to dont play any music at all as far as I can recall unless its easy listening turned down so low its true background ambience.

 

[mobiusclimber]

@dr wu When I first started dating my wife, she liked to go to this coffee shop that had a small stage and would sometimes have bands play there. They usually just blared loud punk music. I liked it, but she really doesn't listen to that kind of music and I could never figure out why she liked going there. Good coffee tho, so maybe that was it.