Music for the workplace

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

I work in the item processing department of a bank, and the machinery is very loud. Actually, loud enough that I suffered substantial hearing loss after a few months.

Since then I bought a pair of Etymotic ER-4s, which have 30 db of noise reduction. The machine noise is barely audible when I'm not listening to music, and once I start the music I can't hear the machines at all. Best of all, my hearing has been returning to normal over the last couple of months.

In addition to blocking noise from getting to me, they also prevent anyone else from hearing what I'm listening to, even at full blast. The response curve is flat enough to do mixing, and the articulation is the best I have ever heard. Serioiusly, I don't know why every workplace doesn't provide these things to employees.

When working I have 2 different modes of work, and different styles to listen to at those times. We make incentive depending on how fast we work, and I find that death metal and hard rock are great for this. In other words, Dimmu Borgir and White Zombie get a lot of play during these situations.

However, I find that I severely hurt my fingers and wrists when I work this way for too many nights. My fingers will stiffen up and it will be almost impossible to play guitar for a few days. For that reason I find that every now and then I need to take it easy for a few nights. Listening to audiobooks and more melodic rock and metal help me calm down and not work too hard. Douglas Adams, Pink Floyd and Samael are all good representatives of their genres.

[dystonia_ek]

I have about 30 hours of music archived on my computer at work, eternally on 'random'.

[Ja.x]

yes! perhaps also put subliminal messages to make the drones work harder

maybe even threats of being fired.. put fear into them and they will work themselves to the bone!

I think you're missing the point. I'm not talking about manipulation. I know there are ethic boundaries and I'm not the one who could ever consider to cross then. Besides, I don't believe music can be a way to increase productivity in the quantitative way. Since the thirties we know that there isn't a close relationship between "working hard" and "get results" , although some idiot bosses still think so. I'm talking about a better workplace environment, hence to increase the qualitative side of work.

.. the machinery is very loud. Actually, loud enough that I suffered substantial hearing loss after a few months.

However, I find that I severely hurt my fingers and wrists when I work this way for too many nights. My fingers will stiffen up and it will be almost impossible to play guitar for a few days.

Honestly I think it's a matter of ocupational health and a case to report to the labor board or whatever exists there.

When working I have 2 different modes of work, and different styles to listen to at those times. We make incentive depending on how fast we work, and I find that death metal and hard rock are great for this. In other words, Dimmu Borgir and White Zombie get a lot of play during these situations.

By no means I'm aiming to make people work faster. In fact I want to make people work... slower? Putting manpower into steaming work is something from the Industrial Revolution and good management practises should get away of that.

Anyway I don't think that what I have in my mind applies to industrial plants or noisy workplaces. In fact I was considering the office as the suitable place, and a support for reflective work.

To clarify my reason for this thread, in my professional life I work as a consultant in Human Resources Management, and I already conducted seminars on stress management and time management (I have a degree in Psychology), and I deeply believe that a better work environment can lead to great advantages both for employers and employees. So, maybe I'm dreaming, but I was thinking about the use of music (specific kind, I mean) as a sonic Fenshui. Or maybe I'm just one more idiot on the lose

[Ja.x]

yes! perhaps also put subliminal messages to make the drones work harder

maybe even threats of being fired.. put fear into them and they will work themselves to the bone!

I think you're missing the point. I'm not talking about manipulation. I know there are ethic boundaries and I'm not the one who could ever consider to cross then. Besides, I don't believe music can be a way to increase productivity in the quantitative way. Since the thirties we know that there isn't a close relationship between "working hard" and "get results" , although some idiot bosses still think so. I'm talking about a better workplace environment, hence to increase the qualitative side of work.

.. the machinery is very loud. Actually, loud enough that I suffered substantial hearing loss after a few months.

However, I find that I severely hurt my fingers and wrists when I work this way for too many nights. My fingers will stiffen up and it will be almost impossible to play guitar for a few days.

Honestly I think it's a matter of ocupational health and a case to report to the labor board or whatever exists there.

When working I have 2 different modes of work, and different styles to listen to at those times. We make incentive depending on how fast we work, and I find that death metal and hard rock are great for this. In other words, Dimmu Borgir and White Zombie get a lot of play during these situations.

By no means I'm aiming to make people work faster. In fact I want to make people work... slower? Putting manpower into steaming work is something from the Industrial Revolution and good management practises should get away of that.

Anyway I don't think that what I have in my mind applies to industrial plants or noisy workplaces. In fact I was considering the office as the suitable place, and a support for reflective work.

To clarify my reason for this thread, in my professional life I work as a consultant in Human Resources Management, and I already conducted seminars on stress management and time management (I have a degree in Psychology), and I deeply believe that a better work environment can lead to great advantages both for employers and employees. So, maybe I'm dreaming, but I was thinking about the use of music (specific kind, I mean) as a sonic Fenshui. Or maybe I'm just one more idiot on the lose

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

It's an interesting idea, but music tends to be kind of like pizza. It can be very difficult to get people to agree on what type of pizza to order. Many like ham and pineapple, a very popular choice would be pepperoni, but seeing as how I don't eat meat, I'm a fan of cheese and onion.

The same can usually be said for music. There is a very large group of people who hate anything with a synth in it. Then there is a very large group of people who listen to music existing of almost nothing but synths.

I know people who listen to nothing but country, but I'd sooner be anally raped by an elephant than listen to country. My point is that I imagine it could be quite difficult to make music that everyone will enjoy.

Still, the experiment sounds interesting. If you succeed then I will be very impressed.

[Doogle]

A place where I used to work (an interactive TV software house), we (the coders) were allowed to hook up an amp and speakers to a spare PC. We ran linux on the machine and installed an mp3 jukebox. We also set it up so it would look on people's mp3 shares (this was around the time of napster and audiogalaxy so we were all d/ling shedloads). Of course, this meant that all manner of crap got played, but you were always free to fire up your browser and queue up something you preferred (or put your headphones on). Unfortunately I was the only person who liked punk and gabba
Even if the music wasn't to your liking, it still did wonders for the 'party atmosphere'. We wanted to hook up another audio system cos it was a pretty big open plan office, and people would often turn it too far down cos they were too close or turn it too far up cos they were too far away. Unfortunately we never got round to it. We did hack at the jukebox code (all in perl) to add a delete function (amongst other things), and it just ended up falling apart, as people could just delete queued items to make way for what they wanted to hear.
It was a really good way to learn about my coworkers.. of course you can talk to someone about the sort of music they like, but what they actually queue up can say a lot about them IMO (eg. the joker who introduced me to loads of excellant bands but was always queuing up William Shatner tracks ). And I also was exposed to a lot of new music that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise.

Nowadays, sometimes I'll go the whole working day w/o listening to any music (apart from the commute) because of meetings etc... other days, I'll have some coding to get stuck into so I'll stick the headphones on. I seem to go through phases switching between electronica (jungle, gabba, breakcore, warped stuff) and guitar music (punk, metal, reggae) (well, that's the main stuff I listen to). Whether the music is chilled or err, angry(?) depends more on my general mood than the type of work I'm doing, though I've found that I code really quickly when listening to Atari Teenage Riot

Someone in the office has just started playing a radio station out on speakers. The music isn't offensive at all (a bit of Dylan atm), but not really stuff I'd listen to. I'm not about to be a dick and ask him to turn it down/off, but because of the fairness and freedom of choice offered by the jukebox system, I now find it kinda presumptuous, almost rude, for someone to do that. But maybe I'm wierd like that.

I'd sooner be anally raped by an elephant than listen to country

I saw some site that was selling two original CDs.. they'd performed a survey of people's music tastes and based on the results, composed music consisting of elements of music that came out top, and also music consisting of elements of music that was most hated (I think country and polka were in there). Be interesting to hear if the desired effect was achieved.

Doogle
(sorry for the length of the post!)

[dystonia_ek]

The R&D department of the Muzak corporation has had some very interesting things to say about the use of music to stimulate productivity in workers and impulse buying in consumers. An early brochure stated 'Muzak is a dream of 1984 automation.' Now they're using subtler PR on their website:

"Muzak is about an idea. A big idea. The kind that shoots past the conventional, sharp lefts around the expected and knocks the predictable off its pedestal. Its premise is simple. Every company has a story to tell. What we do is bring that story to life with music, voice and sound in a way that is as powerful as it is persuasive. Emotion is our driver. It is the force that connects people and places. The intangible that creates experiences that builds brands. The passion that fuels who we are and what we design. Seventy years ago, Muzak created an industry. Three generations later, we're still revolutionizing it."

"Audio Architecture is emotion by design. Our innovation and our inspiration, it is the integration of music, voice and sound to create experiences that link customers with companies. Its power lies in its subtlety. It bypasses the resistance of the mind and targets the receptiveness of the heart. When people are made to feel good in, say, a store, they feel good about that store. They like it. Remember it. Go back to it. Audio Architecture builds a bridge to loyalty. And loyalty is what keeps brands alive."

[Stupid American Pig]

so far I got about 16 GB of music on my work machine, and since I do project work, I can listen all day.

[Ja.x]

Thanks guys, interesting ideas so far. My idea is about music (sounds) like a part of the environment; it's just there like walls and lamps. You don't even notice it's there until it stops and you get that uncomfortable silence. So it's not primarly intended to meet people's likes and anyway it can't be like any other music we usually listen to, or stick to a specific genre. In this stage I imagine it should be mainly instrumental, between 90 and 120 bpm, mainly mid-range frequencies (low-end would get lost in a PA, and high-end would be too disturbing), melodic parts alternating with rythmic patterns... it could sound a bit like modern classical, ambient, downtempo, experimental or whatever, but nothing like mainstream genres (pop, rock, metal, reggae, country and all that you-know-what-I-mean genres).

[clueless]

"Audio Architecture is emotion by design. Our innovation and our inspiration, it is the integration of music, voice and sound to create experiences that link customers with companies. Its power lies in its subtlety. It bypasses the resistance of the mind and targets the receptiveness of the heart. When people are made to feel good in, say, a store, they feel good about that store. They like it. Remember it. Go back to it. Audio Architecture builds a bridge to loyalty. And loyalty is what keeps brands alive."

that's f**king evil!

[dystonia_ek]

"Audio Architecture is emotion by design. Our innovation and our inspiration, it is the integration of music, voice and sound to create experiences that link customers with companies. Its power lies in its subtlety. It bypasses the resistance of the mind and targets the receptiveness of the heart. When people are made to feel good in, say, a store, they feel good about that store. They like it. Remember it. Go back to it. Audio Architecture builds a bridge to loyalty. And loyalty is what keeps brands alive."

that's f**king evil!

And that's what differentiates genuine Muzak (which is piped via dedicated lines and/or transmitters from the corporation itself) from run-of-the-mill mall music.
Pretty scary stuff.

[skipscada]

Just to mention the name Brian Eno and the albums "Music for Airports" etc. Fundamental for this sort of discussion. Check them out. The birth of the genre called Ambient. Check that out, too.

[Ja.x]

I'm not talking about music for public spaces. I mean for the workplace (office).

The work of Eno (Ambient I, II & IV, Neroli, Concrete Music, etc.) has a different scope.

[atomic_(no)afro]

I don't work and the last time I did I couldn't listen to any music because my boss was yelling in my ear every five minutes to pick up the pace. Naturally I didn't last too long, I was fired within 2 weeks for "not being a team player". In any case, music is my occupation, that and living off my parents'/government's (i.e. university grants & loans) collective dime.

ATA

PS, D&B is great for school