I can't stand evil intercom music!

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They always play music so loud in the stores and through almost every loudspeaker so you can't really escape it if you go shopping in a lot of places. Ugh, and every place plays the same track of music! Granted, I know they can't play power metal or Dr. Dre on the intercom but, seriously, can we get better music if you're going to play it so loud?

And yes, the music is bizarre. Here is what much of the music sounds like to me:

Songs that are whiney and sound like moping
Really bad rap music, like rap music for your 2nd grade music class
One song that sounded like someone mumbling about beans on top of some weird Zelda theme
A song that had someone singing like a squealy cowboy while a dog barked in the background
That stupid song that mentions that the world stops when someone else smiles (I think Uncle Cracker sings it) that plays WAAAY
TOO MUCH
(Plays usually in clothing stores) Songs that sound like the same 20-something from Hollywood squealing about love against a weird disco type beat.

I don't know about anyone else but I just can't stand it sometimes. What has music come to?

I wish power metal was a common thing played on store intercoms....that would be awesome.

But yeah for the most part I dislike what they play to its either annoying pop music, the most annoyingly twangy country music where the vocalist seems to be singing through their nose, or hip hop with way too much auto-tune or nasty lyrics about hook ups/thug life/all them b*tches, ect.

I mean on occasion there may be something better playing, like a few months back when I was at walmart the song Breaking the law by Judas Priest came on, that was a pleasant surprise, since wal-mart tends to be one of the worst offenders with the country.

Where I live Walmart until recently didn't even play music on their intercoms. But, yes, here Walmart now plays the same awful music you described. I haven't heard any rap music but we get country and it sounds like a bunch of farm animals in a dryer as opposed to something that a human can listen to!

I avoid Walmart as much as possible. How do you two put up with it?

Country music feels like a virus is being injected into me whenever I hear it in public. It's also a virus in itself since it will often get played where it doesn't belong. At a Thai restaurant in the city I live in that closed down recently, sometimes country music would play on their stereo system!

I used to work for a party deejay company on weekends, and I still work the rest of the week for a company that counts inventory in retail stores. So I both hear, and used to traffic in, "back ground music" (you gotta put together programs of "dinner music" and "dinner music" at most parties before you bust out with the funky get down music).

So I am quite a conniesseur of piped music in stores.

Most stores do seem to play the same "package" of soft rock. Lots of girls singing whining songs in modern top 40 style mixed with a few oldies. Back-to-back country is actually pretty rare to hear in the DC area. I have only heard nonstop country in a certain of chain of stores that sells farm supplies to farmers (fencing, vet supplies, etc).

Giant Food usually has that same standard mix you hear everywhere, but some Giants have a different mix (stores in Black neighborhoods often have a mix that includes a lot of Fifties soul like Ray Charles that I like).

Read up on "Muzak" and you will find out about the psychology behind those crappy tunes being pumped out of the store/elevator speakers!! !

I for one wouldn't mind hearing all the great Bay Area Thrash bands being pumped out nice and loud!! !

Walmart is a necessary evil in the community I live in and it's a place where a person can be weird and no one really cares. The music is bad there but at least I can get some good deals there for the most part. I was in the mall today and they started to play country music over their intercom and it was traumatic, I tell you . It sounded like the singer was crying about something about a trailer and his dog, I think. I have really no idea since the mall's speakers sounded like they were submerged underwater for about 20 years. The music in the individual stores wasn't much better; it was the same whiney MTV reality TV type music (the really dramatic stuff that they play when there is a sad moment in the show, for example) and that was no better versus the bad country music in the main foyer.

Understandable. Money is quite tight these days for a lot of people. I'm just glad HEB is still affordable for me. It's a little more pricey than Walmart but it won't break the bank.

I used to get video games from Walmart but I stopped when my tastes changed from FPS games to fighting games and Walmart is severely lacking in that area.
The last times I've walked by their video game section, it's practically full on "bro". RPGs like Disgaea? Forget it. Even if they did stock it, some soccer mom would complain about it and it would get pulled.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was indeed about his dog or trailer and I feel your pain in it. Did it make your synesthesia go into withdrawal? I don't watch MTV so I wouldn't really know what the reality show music sounds like.

That's what those soft foam earplugs I bought are for, along with any other sound in a store I find unpleasant. Although last week when I went to the most eeevil store in the world known as Walmart it was noisier than usual and they didn't help much when I did my grocery shopping and was confused and frustrated trying to find anything.

My usual supermarket doesn't play muzak If I were considering shopping elsewhere, muzak would be on the "cons" list. I don't like the stuff and I get mildly angry that they have the cheek to expose us all to it, but somehow I seem to have learned to screen it out. If it ever gets too intrusive I can always use headphones, or just boycott the place.