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The Unheard Influence of Background Music The Unheard Influence of Background Music An STS Research Paper presented to the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia by Scott Lebow March 21, 2016 On my honor as a University student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment as defined by the Honor Guidelines for Thesis-Related Assignments. Signed: _______________________________________________ Approved: _________________________________ Date ________________________ Peter Norton, Department of Engineering and Society Background music has a profound effect on its listeners. It can change individuals’ perception of their environment, their emotional state and their behavior. Technical innovations in background music can induce large cultural changes and extend its reach. Innovators who understand these effects and how music technology, background music and the listener are related can take them into accounts. Background music is useful in marketing (Anderson, 2015) in workplace management (Burris-Meyer, 1943), and in commercial accommodations such as in hotels and restaurants (Anderson, 2015). Music has been recorded for just 139 years (Kramer, 1997) of its history of at least 40,000 years (Barras, 2014). Since then, recording and broadcast innovations have been frequent. This history offers lessons in how such innovations influence individuals and groups. Innovations’ effects can be hard to predict. The Sony Walkman TPS-L2, for example, was intended let two listeners share music (Morita, 1986) but it was primarily used individually (Schönhammer, 1989). Innovators who understand such effects can develop more effective designs (Hosokawa, 1984). “Piped music” or muzak was once the dominant form of background music but now competes with online streaming (Anderson, 2015). Vaporwave shows that innovations originally anti-commercialization can later be commercialized (Nguyen, 2015). Literature Review Researchers have studied how background music affects listeners. Antrim (1943) showed that background music can increase productivity. Burris-Meyer (1943) documented such effects on factory workers. Jucan and Simion (2014) found that 1 background music in the classroom can benefit a child’s emotional, educational and social development. Medvedev (2015) found that background music can aid in physiological recovery. Morris (1998), however, found that in advertising, background music had mixed results in changing listener’s emotions. Oldham (1995) found that personal stereo headsets can influence listeners more than speaker systems. Shih (2011) found that different types of background music can influence listeners differently. Some unscientific findings are useful. Eno (1978; 1986) studied background music through his ambient music work. Roquet (2009) analyzed the artistic background music of Brian Eno and Tetsuo Inoue. Anderson (2015) and Vanderbilt (2014) wrote about music and mood. Music technology history accounts for much of the evolution of background music. Barras (2014) wrote about early humans and music. In “Before the Phonograph” (1890), the New York Times considered the impact of the phonograph. Frazer (1983) wrote about the audio technology used in early 1980s urban Japan. For Time magazine, Haire (2009) wrote a history of the Sony Walkman. Hosokawa (1984) wrote about the cultural friction caused the Sony Walkman; Jarman and Jarman (2005), The Verge (n.d.) and Kim (2014) examined its design. Kramer (1997) considered how music technology expands artistic possibilities. Lanza (1994) offered a historical analysis of background music. Levy (1966) filed a patent for music on hold for telephone calls which was explained by Vanderbilt (2014). Morita (1986) and Sony Corporation (1996) discussed the history of Sony Corporation, known for audio technology. Morton (2016) wrote a history of sound recording. Schoenherr (2005) wrote a history of recording technology for the Audio Engineering Society. Schönhammer (1989) studied the cultural effect of 2 the Walkman. Anderson (2015) studied the relationship between muzak and streaming services. Davis (2015) provided a database of K-mart background music from the 1970s to 1990s. Streaming services were described by Sisario (2013), Peoples (2015), and Alexander (2015). The Empire State Building’s was described by Penafield (2006) and Richman (2008). Its background music was described by Lanza (1994). Pearson (2015), wos Z (2015), Nguyen (2015), and Harper (2012) studied the history and impact of vaporwave. The Individual Listener and Background Music Listening to background music can profoundly affect listener perception of their surroundings, their emotional state and their behavior. This interaction has been observed by both scientists and artists. Background music changes listeners’ perceptions of their environment. Musician Brian Eno explored this effect in his ambient music (Roquet, 2009). In a 1986 interview (Korner), Eno explained that background music can: give us an instant sense of location. When I was traveling a lot, I used to carry four or five cassettes that I knew could reliably produce a certain condition for me. If I wanted to write letters, I'd put one particular cassette on, and that piece of music would make the letter-writing space for me. (Eno, 1986) Eno attempted to instill a sense of place through ambient music. His 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports was designed to be a fixture in a Cologne airport terminal. In the liner notes, Eno describes how his ambient music differs from other background music: Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to 3 `brighten’ the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and levelling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. (Eno, 1978) Yamasaki (2013) studied the relationship between listeners’ environment and background music. When the music’s properties contrasted with the environment, perception was more affected than when the music’s properties were in agreement with the environment. For example, when listening to active music in an inactive environment (the researchers used a park and a residential area), listeners perceived more activation than if they were listening to no music (Yamasaki, 2013). In a related experiment, Masakura and Ichikawa (2005) studied the effect of different types of noise at various volumes on the perception of the listener’s environment. They found that relaxing and well-known music caused listeners to perceive their environment more favorably, independent of noise type, as long as the music was audible. Medvedev, Shepard and Hautus (2015), studied the impact of background music on physiological recovery. Soundscapes found “pleasant” by subjects promoted recovery. They suggested that a hospital could tailor the soundscapes of its wards to patients to aid recovery. These studies all conclude that background music changes environmental perception in the listener. Eno’s work attempts to change the listener’s environment (Eno, 1978). These findings all suggest that background music plays an important role in sense of place. 4 Researchers have studied the relationship between background music and behavior since 1922, with R. D. Smith’s “Sorting Mail to Music” (Smith, 1922; Oldham, 1995). In 1943, Burris-Meyer studied background music’s influence on factory production. He found that background music of any kind boots employees’ motivation and stamina (Burris-Meyer, 1943), but noted that some music is more suited to a factory setting than others. “Deep in the Heart of Texas” led workers to clap, not work. Wyatt and Langdon (1937) found a 6% to 11% increase in factory worker productivity (Wyatt, 1937). Music relieved the boredom of factory work, boosting productivity. One typical statement from Wyatt and Langdon’s study was “It makes you work better because you talk less” (Wyatt, 1937). Music can influence behavior outside of work too. In a 2014 study of Romanian classrooms, researchers Jucan and Simion found that background music can encourage children to network socially, and further apply themselves to learning. Shih (2011), however, found that background music with lyrics diminishes attention (Shih, 2011), but that instrumental music can improve morale and job satisfaction (Shih, 2011). Background music can also affect emotions. Jucan and Simion (2014) found that background music in the classroom can stimulate children’s emotional development, improving their social and educational development. Anderson (2015) characterizes background music as “mood delivery systems,” noting that online streaming has made it ubiquitous. To Anderson: “Music obviously primes emotional states directed toward very distinct objects (whether lullabies whispered into a baby’s ear or loud anthems declaring love of God and country) as well as more diffuse psychic states with no 5 particular object in mind (ambiguous moods).” Morris (1998), however, studying how background music affects the emotional states of listeners, finds mixed results. Music Technology and Cultural Shifts Innovations in music technology extend music’s uses, changing its social role. In 1877, Thomas Edison’s phonograph changed how listeners perceived audio (Kramer, 1997). Edison saw the phonograph as a dictation tool for businessmen
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