Christmas Store Music Torture

[Casanundra]

They should come to Thailand and see what noise pollution really means...

OUT-LAW News, 14/12/2006

Christmas music in shops is "torture", the "forgotten pollutant" which shop workers must be able to silence for the sake of their sanity, according to activists, trade unions and a peer. The government is being asked to investigate the problem.

Campaigners and trades unions have spoken out about the playing of Christmas music in shops over an ever-extending festive period and the psychological effects that the repetitive tunes can have on staff who have no choice but to listen to it.

"If people don't want it and if they have a negative response to it and if they're exposed to something continually, the same songs over and over, it's no different to being tortured, it's the same reaction, the body will react in the same way," said Val Weedon, national coordinator of the UK Noise Association.

"We are asking government to investigate this particular area and to look into whether it is something that the Health and Safety Executive could take on board," said Weedon.

Shop workers' union Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) says that it is ready to take action on the issue.

"It's an issue that has been brought to our attention," said Usdaw's Paul Clarke. "What we're saying to managers is if Christmas carols are being played on the same CD repeatedly that could create an unhealthy working environment for people."

"Our first port of call would be our officials or reps talking to managers and saying we're sick of listening to Little Drummer Boy for the 15th time today could we change the CD over?" he said.

The union says that it recommends that staff first negotiate informally with managers over the issue, but that it will back any members who want to take the issue further. "If anyone did want to take it any further we would be happy to do so," he said. "It must drive people to distraction and whether there's a health and safety issue or whether it's actionable it doesn't create a very healthy working environment particularly at what is the busiest time of the year."

One man was so disgruntled about piped music that he decided not to seek redress under existing law, but to create a new one. Life peer Lord Beaumont of Whitley proposed a bill earlier this year which would outlaw piped music altogether in public places related to health and transport. Beaumont believes that it can cause real damage.

"[it would] Certainly have an adverse effect on me, it would drive me to murder I would have thought. I'm not saying necessarily that it would be physically harmful but it would be very annoying, very distressing and something people shouldn't be made to put up with," Beaumont told OUT-LAW.

"I think quite definitely that people who work in shops should have certain rights not to have music permanently pumped into them," said Beaumont.

"All we are asking for is that the staff be given some opportunity to escape, maybe the music should be switched off at certain times, maybe there should be areas of quiet where staff can go during their breaks, it's not even regulated just now," said the Noise Association's Weedon.

The Austrian example will give campaigners hope. "Today we visited the shops and there were no Christmas songs, no carols. I'm very proud about it," said Rieser.

Bah humbug!

[pampal]

I agree with you about the noise pollution. But it's not limited to the christmass season. It prevalent in almost all the shopping areas, and it's not just the stores and shops, everything from the visually challenged (PC for blind) blaring music to the traffic noise etc....

It's a welcome respite to be able to walk around anywhere without being blasted by insanely loud muzak. I can't call it music because it doesn't sound like music, more like a cacophony of misery. I have invested in a good mp3 player and use that to drown out the ambient noise around me.

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

I hate that musak which has kids (but not trained choristers) singing carols in flat monotone tinny voices.

[popshirt]

I am an expat that did not come to Thailand to listen to Christmas music. When Central Chidlom started playing this stuff in mid-November, I stopped going there, or I just retreat quickly to the Food Loft where the music is more palatable.

[steppenfaerie]

I swear I heard a Christmas version of the Macarena in CentralWorld the other day. *scarred for life*

[verzenden]

I used to work in a shop a couple of years ago. Once the manager of the manager of the manager decided we had to promote the new Beegees CD for a ##### 2 months period. It drove me nuts and still drives me nuts whenever I hear the Beegees. I used to like them. Store music #### and research has shown it has no influence on customers anyway so what's the purpose? Driving you nuts!

[Donz]

Christmas carols should be banned.

I loved them like when i was 5 years old, 20 odd years later hearing the same song over and over bugs me.

Especially going into a shop and hearing that "ba la la la la, la la la la"

[LifeConvo]

Music in shops causes people to buy more products, it's well though out, at least in the large chains.

Annoying, but hardly harmful as the article suggests.

[popshirt]

Music in shops causes people to buy more products, it's well though out, at least in the large chains.

It does? I think that's an urban legend!

[taxexile]

tescos in hua hin has got some miniskirted, high heeled , tights wearing and truly gorgeous santa clausesses wandering around the store promoting something or other , soon takes your mind off the awful music .

[LifeConvo]

Music in shops causes people to buy more products, it's well though out, at least in the large chains.

It does? I think that's an urban legend!

Large chains will invest serious money in that sort of research... however, you get stuck with stores that copy the idea with no real clue about what they are doing.

[Simbo]

In a Buddhist country, why do the shops promote a Christian tradition anyway.

Are there really that many westerners here, spending enough money to make it profitable? I'm sure they don't do it to make us feel at home.

[November Rain]

I used to work in a shop a couple of years ago. Once the manager of the manager of the manager decided we had to promote the new Beegees CD for a ##### 2 months period. It drove me nuts and still drives me nuts whenever I hear the Beegees. I used to like them. Store music #### and research has shown it has no influence on customers anyway so what's the purpose? Driving you nuts!

My first job out of school was in a shop & the girl in charge of the record dept used to play her favourite songs over & over. Even now, 18 years later, the sound of T'Pau "China in Your Hands" makes me want to perform some act of unspeakable violence...

[My Friend Same]

The news story in the OP's post is typical anti christian trash that the anti christian mass media and Hollywood have continuously spewed through their controlled mediums for centuries. A mass bonfire should be made of movies and news stories that spew this garbage so that only a massive ash pile would remain of this propaganda. It's getting so that one cannot say Merry Christmas anymore; now you have to say "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings". Well not me, I say MERRY CHRISTMAS! How many times do you see in a Hollywood movie a Christmas tree being burned or smashed. I watched an episode of the Simpson's where a bully takes a toy santa and smashes it to bits and the laughs his ass off. This happens constantly. I say start the bonfire and make the ash pile of this stuff. It belongs in the ashbin of history

Edited December 21, 2006 by My Friend Same

[DrFisher]

I'm glad to see everyone agrees on this. I left my country to get away from anything having to do with archaic ideas and religious commercialism. Seriously, I moved to Thailand because I am a Buddhist and I want to live in a Buddhist society where people were not reminding me on a daily basis I am going to hel_l.

[kmart]

Shopping malls here have those generic Christmas carols seemingly sung by chipmunks on Helium at 130 dB. "Jinga ben, jinga ben jinga awda waaayy!!!" etc. They're amusing until the nth time, and then you want to kill.....

Edited December 21, 2006 by kmart

[jamman]

Ya, I used to set up kiosks in shopping malls at Christmas time to sell imported jewelry and clothes. Before then I had liked Christmas. Our neighbourhood would gather in one house for a real festival, then our family would go home and give stuff to each other. But associating shopping malls and musical torture with the season killed Christmas for me. Never want to see it again.

Edited December 21, 2006 by jamman

[Jenny18]

I went to Tops supermarket yesterday, it was so ###### annoying to listen different versions of Christmas carols for 1hour , at least it was not one cd, apparently it was a radio station, so after each song the guy was repeating NICE AND EASY, NICE AND EASY... nice and easy...bullsh**... it really was like torture!!