elevator music

{{Short description|Background music played in waiting areas}}

{{for multi|the trademarked brand|Muzak|other uses|Elevator music (disambiguation)}}

Elevator music (also known as Muzak, piped music, or lift music) is a type of background music played in elevators, in rooms where many people come together for reasons other than listening to music, and during telephone calls when placed on hold. Before the emergence of the Internet, such music was often "piped" to businesses and homesKate Mossman. [https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music/2021/03/science-background-muzak 'The science of background muzak'] in The New Statesman, 31 March 2021 through telephone lines, private networks or targeted radio broadcasting (as in the BBC's Music While You Work, where powerful speakers were set up in factories to make the broadcast audible).[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tlw8#:~:text=This%20programme%20serves%20as%20part,use%20or%20misuse%20of%20technology. The Day the Muzak Died], BBC radio documentary by Falling Tree Productions, broadcast 30 March 2021{{cite book |title=Music While You Work: An Era in Broadcasting |last= Reynolds |first=Brian |publisher=The Book Guild Publishing |location=Leicester |year=2006 |page=2 |isbn=1-84624-004-2}}

There is no specific sound associated with elevator music, but it usually involves simple instrumental themes from "soft" popular music, or "light" classical music being performed by slow strings. This type of music was produced, for instance, by the Mantovani Orchestra, and conductors such as Franck Pourcel and James Last, peaking in popularity around the 1970s.Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, and Other Moodsong, University of Michigan Press (2004)

More recent types of elevator music may be computer-generated, with the actual score being composed entirely algorithmically.{{Cite news |last=Murphy |first=Michael |date=August 26, 2015 |title=People are confusing computer-generated music with the works of J.S. Bach |newspaper=Quartz |location=New York |url=https://qz.com/488701/humans-are-confusing-music-composed-by-a-computer-for-j-s-bach/ |url-status=live |access-date=June 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710213452/https://qz.com/ |archive-date=July 10, 2022}}