One day, six or seven years ago, when I was working for a well known high street
coffee chain, I was on the till as the
lunchtime queue stretched up the shop and
out of the door. I took a lady's order and
was about to move on to the next customer,
when she said, 'Why do you put up with this
all day? I wouldn't put up with it'. She
wasn't complaining about the queue, she was
pointing at a speaker in the ceiling.
With a laugh, I apologised for the quality
of the (admittedly crushingly dull) instore
music, but she was deadly serious. 'It's not
THIS music it's
ANY music. Why is there
music everywhere nowadays? I can't stand
music. I don't see the point of it. Why
can't we just live in silence?'
Over the years, in my capacity as a store
manager, I had to deal with all manner of
customer complaints and comments, but that
one had me stumped and has stuck with me.
Had I been on my toes, I could've responded by quoting Nietzsche, 'Without music, life would be a
mistake'. Or maybe Robert Fripp, 'Music
is the wine that fills the cup of silence'. Perhaps even, bizarrely, former LibDem head
honcho Charles Kennedy, 'I couldn't imagine
a day without music. It relaxes and
stimulates me in equal measure. And I hate
the sound of silence. The concept, I mean.
Not the track by Simon and Garfunkel.'
(Inspired by a recent
post over at Grown Up Backwards.)
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5 comments:
I just cannot get my head around people who actually don't like ANY music at all. Having said that, I do have some kind of sympathy with your lady customer: maybe there IS too much music these days. It's so ubiquitous that I think many people take it as just another commodity to consume or dispose of in a casual fashion. Imagine living in the days when you may only have got to hear a great symphony or some such once or twice in a life time? Or when you had to buy the sheet music to recreate your own versions of your favourites from the Musical Hall. I bet people really appreciated the true value of music then. Of course, I'd hate it if we didn't have the easy access to music that we've been blessed with but there are some drawbacks. I really like the Nietszche quote but I bet he was thinking of some sort of abomination like Wagner. Each to their own.
Meant to add - how come The Gaylads start their version halfway through the song? Random editing.
That woman is insane...that's all.
Sadly something is wrong with her. I don't have anything against silence and there is some dreadful background music out there but, to say you hate music...something is wrong.
How odd. I hate these moments when you think off inspired responses too late. There were a few beauties there which she probably would have responded with a blank look. The Art of Noise!
Agreed - there must be something wired differently in her brain! Music is so human, so universal, I think for everyone else an appreciation of some form of music is as natural as having our five senses, and when you think that the medical profession even uses music therapy it makes you realise how positive it is - well, for most people!
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