there are times when I need music playing

there are times I just need silence or ambient sounds

how about a "sometimes yeah ice cream truck, sometimes **** off, ice cream"?

That's crazy. A real music lover always has an open mind.

An individual may like music at work, but the problem is it's normally a communal environment where everyone will have a different opinion as to if or when they want music or what type of music they will tolerate. Somebody is likely to be aggragraved.

^^I sit pretty isolated from the people who hate my music

and next to someone who loves it

With music played over loudspeakers nobody can avoid it and it invades everyone's space.

Hell yeah, ice cream!

I would groan and moan about just about every song played, and what's worst is they have a small enough playlist to hear the songs everyday.

The store has the idea that if it plays generic radio music that won't offend anyone it will put people in a better mood. My qualms were that it was too G-rated, and that I wish I could pump through something of my own with a little more flai, but still acceptable, like Incubus for example, or maybe some mellow jazz.

I am talking about corporate Safeway by the way, but I don't think I've ever seen a grocery store that didn't have something playing.

For example, right now most businesses are playing Christmas music. I generally despise most all Christmas music and try to bring headphones into stores this time of year. But their idea is solid in their viewpoint... they feel it's more welcoming than silence ... which it is. I think it's eerie when stores are silent. They don't care that they're not pleasing the 10% of us that like music enough to care that they play generic adult contemporary radio music, because most of the families listen to that stuff.

I don't think they should cut the music out of the store because they play upbeat family-approved music like Alannis Morisette, etc. (I don't know the names of most of the artists, but have heard them on the radio growing up with my mom for example)

On the flip side, I went to the Dollar Store where I used to work. They USED to have a control box for the music where I could change the genre from adult contemporary, and they had holiday, surf, and soul genres. Quite limited but I enjoyed the surf channel the most, with the likes of Dick Dale and so on...
Well I went back there and corporate policy is now NO music. They weren't even playing Christmas music. It was akward.. I don't think that was a good policy decision. It's like a funeral procession. Very quiet, people whisper FFS ... and all you hear is the sound of the cash registers and cashier up front, and occasionally someone drops something. That's not a very inviting place to shop. I'm happy they're not playing Christmas music, but who wanted them to turn off ALL the music.

Sounds like the Dollar Store has been having conversations such as we are in this thread.

I'm not sure stores are that silent, grocery stores certainly aren't. I suppose it might depend how busy they are. Offices are probably far more silent. But really people are just there to buy things and leave anyway. I think it's probably just a matter of getting used to it, maybe some people are so used to hearing music in every store now they just expect it.

Frankly, I would rather listen to music I hated, or news radio, than the sounds of my work environment. The sounds present in my work environment include an assortment of whirring fans, rushing heaters, buzzing and clicking equipment, beeps and bells and chimes, and when I focus on all of that, I develop a raging migraine so intense I verge on throwing up.

Music, of any sort, gives me something else to focus on and use to drown out those sounds.

I imagine you'd notice a hell of a lot more sound-pollution in your various environments if you didn't have the organized sound of music to distract from them, and it's not the pleasant silence you would hope for.

And that's why you don't dance in the mother****ing street. Save it for the sidewalk.