(M60) When I was a teenager I didn’t actually hate the piped in music in stores and shopping malls, but I would “ear bleach” my mind by turning up whatever was playing on the car radio.

I have always enjoyed Jazz. I grew up in the DC area, so I had WDCU and WPFW to soothe my savage breast as I navigated the city streets.

I don’t know how I happened upon the YouTube channels that I subscribed to, I think I was listening to Exotica music, Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny, and saw a video titled “MAGICAL Mall Memories of the 60s-70s | When Shopping Malls Had Panache | Featuring Mall Muzak 1974”. It was posted by @Our Nostalgic Memories.

I was immediately brought back to a time in which I felt safe, secure, ignorant of life’s miseries, and I was completely fascinated by how the music actually made me feel happy. I had a sense of joy. I couldn’t understand it.

My grandparents played easy listening all day. I lived in the DC area and the radio station that played this music was WGAY.

There’s a YouTube channel called Fardemark. This person has archived a lot of Seaburg 1000 music.

Another channel is CrapTwenty. This person has a vintage 3M Cantata tape player that is a reel-to-reel player, but in a cassette form. There are hours long videos that you can play as background music while you go about your day.

MUZAK was a company specializing in background music for commercial settings. Their original motto was “Music to be heard but not listened to.” It was later changed to “specialists in the physiological and psychological application of music.”

Their Stimulus Progression albums, especially #6, are sings designed to increase in tempo and intensity to boost worker output, and to ease tension on “shaky elevator rides”.

When I am whipping up a Saturday morning brunch it is such a happy feeling to have “Birthday At The Waldorf” or “Whole Lotta Sunlight” playing in the background.

Some of the music can be painfully nostalgic though, and I might fast forward through to the next song.

I do think of my grandparents when I turn this kind of music on, and I try to remember the way they would get ready for lunch, or dinner. My grandmother in her brightly colored mu’umu’u (moo moo- loose fitting comfortable robe) and my grandfather still in buttoned down white shirt, tie, and dress slacks even though he’d been retired for five years. They had a weekly menu planned and typed out on paper. Lots of deviled eggs, bacon, and tomato juice with lemon. That’s all I can remember. That and the Hollywood Bread that was found to have wood chips in it.

So, get your Mid Century Modern outfit on and put on MUZAK Stimulus Progression #6 while you wake up with your morning coffee.

Have a great day!