Shoot the DJ!

[John Whiting]

Eric Asimov on music in restaurants.

It's the rare restaurant that plays no music. . . .  My own preference would be no music over loud music anytime. But that's about as promising a position to adopt as suggesting that society do away with television. Music in restaurants is a proven enhancer of mood, which of course is directly linked to the spending impulse, and so is here to stay.

I've just realized why I love French bistros so much -- no music!

[FistFullaRoux]

I fully agree that the music is too loud in a number of restaurants. Music can enhance the mood. Persistent mariachi bands being the exception.

But I think it plays another factor besides mood. Music helps cover up the conversation from the tables near the diner. It morphs into a white noise that allows people to carry on a private conversation in low tones without worrying about the rest of the room gleaning private details.

[John Whiting]

Music helps cover up the conversation from the tables near the diner.

That's another thing I object to -- it makes listening more difficult. Eavesdroppings make the best sauce.

[Jonathan Day]

John, I'm 100% with you. No music in restaurants!

For me, music is either worth listening to on its own, or it is noise. The aural joys of a good restaurant are the clink of dishes, the ring of crystal, the sizzle of a hot dish, and most of all the conversation. Music just gets in the way. Either the music suffers, or the conversation, or, more usually, both.

I can't tell you the number of times I've asked staff to turn down recorded music. More than once I've gone and done it myself, including once stealing a cable from a preamplifier after a nasty waiter turned the music even louder. I returned the cable on the way out.

I can think of one exception to this rule. From time to time a dinner is organised where live musicians perform, not as background but as a distinct part of the evening. But then people are asked to be silent while the musicians play, just as they would while a speech is given.

[John Whiting]

From time to time a dinner is organised where live musicians perform, not as background but as a distinct part of the evening. But then people are asked to be silent while the musicians play, just as they would while a speech is given.

From my France travel journal, Through Darkest Gaul with Trencher and Tastevin:

The most memorable meal I ate [at Le Mas, Longuyon] was in 1991 when one of my stopovers coincided with a Saturday night dinner with musique de table provided by a wind ensemble of professors from the conservatory at Nancy. Between courses we were treated to stunningly idiomatic performances of Poulenc, Milhaud, Satie et al, interspersed with idiosyncratic but exciting interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven. Everyone stopped talking and listened. I felt that I was a privileged participant in a total event, in which concert and cuisine flowed seamlessly into one another.

[Mabelline]

The place and the style of music are all-inclusive. But gut-busting garbage all-night,all the time, is obnoxious. Loud music that forces you to shout (God forbid) and not concentrate on the meal, is, I think, a way to force you out quickly. The d-jays need a terminal enema!

[beans]

Somehow this thread inspired Panic lyrics "Hang the blessed DJ, Because the music they constantly play.... Hang the DJ. Hang the DJ. Hang the DJ." from The Smiths.

Oh, that was about a disco.

Nevermind!

[balmagowry]

I can't tell you the number of times I've asked staff to turn down recorded music. More than once I've gone and done it myself, including once stealing a cable from a preamplifier after a nasty waiter turned the music even louder. I returned the cable on the way out.

Sound recordist friend of mine; always had a small pair of wirecutters in his pocket; was very good at casing a joint and arranging to be seated in ideal spot; a little sleight of hand; a discreet little snip; Bob was your uncle and no one ever twigged.

[John Whiting]

Sound recordist friend of mine; always had a small pair of wirecutters in his pocket . . .

As a sound designer for much of my working life, I never travelled without wire cutters, for exactly that reason. With plastic-covered handles, in case the wire turned out to be live.

[jo-mel]

Quiet music, in the background, is fine with me. BUT - I want it to be appropriate music ----- Italian music in Italian places, Chinese in Chinese, etc. When I hear 'elevator music' in ethnic restaurants I want those wirecutters!

We're not talking about that LOUD, objectional music at weddings and such, so I won't go into that!

[Pickles]

I am very sensitve to noise. Some people just are. When the music's too loud, I don't enjoy my food. I get over-stimulated. Then I get crabby.

[Raynickben]

Just yesterday I was eating lunch at a Thai restaurant and they were playing loud French disco.

It was wierd. And uncomfortable.

I couldn't focus on my book or my lunch and I had this overwhelming desire to start dancing.

Which would have been wierd. And uncomfortable.

[birder53]

There is a restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine called "The Opera House". They have six or seven programs of recorded opera that play. Each table has a list of the programs so you can follow, if you wish, with that evening's "performance". I loved it! It wasn't loud enough take over, but we would stop talking when a favorite aria came along and just enjoyed the music. I shy away from restaurants with live entertainment, particularly where the performers approach each table. It is usually too loud and intrusive. I enjoy good music that adds to the atmosphere of the room.

[alacarte]

If it's too loud, you're too old.

I find Muzak distracting too -- the worst ever was a restaurant playing a Muzak version of Spandau Ballet. Nearly put me off my feed.

[Mabelline]

You are totally right about if it's too loud, you're too old. I lived through Jimi, the Who, and Led Zeppelin, along with 20-plus years of industrial machines, and so now is my 'quiet time'. If I go to a place and spend 80-120 bucks per person, I want to HEAR the food...GET IT??? Besides which, in 10 years you'll say, "Was I listening to this crap?"

By the way though, my exception is mariachi music in little Mezxican towns.

[clothier]

you cut the wires in a restaurant?

in a restaurant you didn't own?

and you admit this, and even sound like you are proud of it?

Shame on you.

[slbunge]

If it's too loud, you're too old.

I find Muzak distracting too -- the worst ever was a restaurant playing a Muzak version of Spandau Ballet. Nearly put me off my feed.

I always thought that Spandau Ballet was the Muzak of 80s new wave anyway.

Back on topic.

I like a bit of quiet, instrumental music at restaurants. Mostly, I find it programmed too loudly and it becomes sort of distracting.

[theclash]

maybe more restaurants should try Brian Eno's Ambient Music

[balmagowry]

you cut the wires in a restaurant?

in a restaurant you didn't own?

and you admit this, and even sound like you are proud of it?

Shame on you.

I have never done it myself, but I frankly admire those who do. And I have often wished I'd thought to bring wirecutters with me. It isn't - shouldn't be - done capriciously or gratuitously or out of mischief; but desperate times require desperate measures, and a restaurant forfeits certain rights by mistreating its clientele. Courtesy begets courtesy; the converse is also apt to be true. A place where the staff refuses to accommodate a customer by turning down loud music at the customer's request does not exactly inspire respect. And it can hardly be regarded as a "service establishment"!

BTW, one of my odder experiences of ambient music (not quite on-topic, strictly speaking, as it wasn't in an eating establishment, but at least we did eat lunch while this was happening!) was on a train in the south of Spain. Anyone else here done this recently? It is a bit disconcerting to spend several hours rolling through the most gloriously beautiful - and unmistakably Mediterranean - countryside while listening to an endless loop of Broadway standards or traditional Irish songs, all in elevator-style arrangements. There are occasional "skips" in the recordings; after a while one becomes adept at predicting when these will occur. Or rather, recur. We found it most entertaining - though possibly not in the manner intended....

[hollywood]

I can't figure out what's going on in LA sushi restaurants with the music. The last 2 I visited were playing MOR rock. It wasn't bad, just a disconnect.

[jo-mel]

If it's too loud, you're too old. 

Maybe so, but when I'm eating and talking, I want to hear the music ----- not feel it!

A raz smilie back atcha! (I don't do smiliecoms, either. It's an age thing) LOL!

[Mabelline]

The music should not dominate the food.

[stovetop]

I am very sensitve to noise. Some people just are. When the music's too loud, I don't enjoy my food. I get over-stimulated.  Then I get crabby. 

Try being a restaurant owner;

A customer saying: "Can you Turn it down sir" , "the music is a little loud"

Another customer saying: "Sir the music is a little quiet can you turn it up"

Have you ever thought that a owner is trying to cater to a certain market and the music is loud because it is the type of customer that the owner is trying to cater to.

The music should be in tune with what the restaurant is,.. like Indian music-Indian restaurant, Chinese music-Chinese restaurant but in the end it is the restaurant owners right to play what they want, if you do not like it you can always leave.

Cutting the speaker wires is a little deviant; I do not think that is the right behavior, it tends to be a little bit of a passive aggressive kind of behavior. If the waiter or owner does not want to turn it down, maybe they do not want you there, maybe they are just %*&%*%* and do not care, well maybe you could look for a place that has the music or lack of music and you can be happy.

The owner should accomadate the customer to the best of his or her ability but you know what, the owner also decides what his or her customers are, and it is not the athority of public to dictate what music the restaurant should play, if you do not like the music but love the food, live with it, or just dont go.

stovetop

[mags]

I am very sensitve to noise. Some people just are. When the music's too loud, I don't enjoy my food. I get over-stimulated.   Then I get crabby. 

Try being a restaurant owner;

A customer saying: "Can you Turn it down sir" , "the music is a little loud"

Another customer saying: "Sir the music is a little quiet can you turn it up"

Have you ever thought that a owner is trying to cater to a certain market and the music is loud because it is the type of customer that the owner is trying to cater to.

The music should be in tune with what the restaurant is,.. like Indian music-Indian restaurant, Chinese music-Chinese restaurant but in the end it is the restaurant owners right to play what they want, if you do not like it you can always leave.

Cutting the speaker wires is a little deviant; I do not think that is the right behavior, it tends to be a little bit of a passive aggressive kind of behavior. If the waiter or owner does not want to turn it down, maybe they do not want you there, maybe they are just %*&%*%* and do not care, well maybe you could look for a place that has the music or lack of music and you can be happy.

The owner should accomadate the customer to the best of his or her ability but you know what, the owner also decides what his or her customers are, and it is not the athority of public to dictate what music the restaurant should play, if you do not like the music but love the food, live with it, or just dont go.

stovetop

I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. Leaving aside the question of cutting the wires -- which I admire, but can understand why others might not -- as a customer I'm entirely within my rights to ask that music be turned down, that air-conditioning be turned up, that a window or door be closed or opened, whatever. The restaurant, in the person of a waiter or manager or owner can tell me that's not possible, for whatever reason ("The owners insists on this/three tables have asked us to turn it up/it's already too cold for the people sitting near the vent/whatever"), at which point I get to sulk quietly. I do not get to make a scene, be rude in any way, punish the waiter by leaving a lousy tip, or otherwise make trouble because my needs weren't met. But I certainly have a right to state them.

The owner may very well be trying to create a certain kind of vibe for a certain kind of customer. But if those customers aren't there, and I am, it is not my job to help perpetuate the owner's fantasy of his dream-restaurant.

[McDuff]

This is all nothing compared to what I go through every working day, in the earthy crunchy grocery store, where the default choice seems to be all Madonna all the time. The thrashing pounding electronic drums of that music make me nuts. I've scoped out the location of every volume control in every department where I need to work. I even got up on a ladder and lifted the ceiling panel to see if I could disable the speaker in my production area, but it was hard wired and I wasn't about to cut the wires and have everything in the store go out. Eight hours of this swill every working day...If I walked into a restaurant and heard crap coming out of the ceiling I didn't like, I'd walk right out. I live in a duplex and told the twentysomethings who just moved in, live and let live, but if I hear your music, I'm not calling you, I'm calling your landlord. I almost dread the first nice day of spring where the idiots go out to clean their cars, and blare the music while doing it. And people walking or running with earphones? For what? At least if I want to annoy someone with loud music, it's Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle, or Stairway to Heaven, played wicked loud.