Shop workers demand Xmas muzak compensation

ananova ^ | 11:23 Wednesday 3rd December 2003 | no byline

[weegee]

Shop workers in Austria are demanding compensation for the "psychological terror" of being subjected to hours of piped Christmas music. A study by trade union leaders found that listening to endless hours of Silent Night and Jingle Bells made shop staff "aggressive and confrontational".

Austrian Trade Union Federation spokesman Gottfried Rieser said: "By the time Christmas comes around there are large scores of abused shop workers who hate the very idea of it. "They cannot bear to listen to Christmas songs and completely lose their temper at the slightest mention of anything to do with Christmas."

Union lawyers had been instructed to see whether legal action can be taken to stop stores constantly playing Christmas jingles, but it appeared there was little they could do. But he added the unions were now calling on employers to voluntarily introduce a code of practice where Christmas music was limited to a few hours a day in peak shopping hours.

Mr Rieser said: "This is psychological terror for shop workers. I know personally of cases where people have suffered psychological problems in the period leading up to Christmas and become aggressive and confrontational." Rieser said Christmas music should only being played between 3pm and 4pm and only in certain departments. He said: "There's no point playing Christmas jingles in a section selling sausages. It should only be played where Christmas presents are for sale."

But Franz Penz, from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, said the union ideas were not practical as stores could not vary the music in different departments.

[weegee]

earlier this year (March?) I was at a Chinese buffet and they were playing a tape of Christmas songs.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Oh you ain't heard NUTHIN' til you hear what I used to have to go through while working at a clothing retailer in the shopping mall while in college (Paul Harris - same basic stuff as The Limited but Paul Harris is no longer in business). This was during the early 80's, mind you, and the tape that looped around and around and around was like, well, Switched-On Disco Christmas Hits, for lack of a better description. This was pure musical torture for a music major like me ;-).

[Orangedog]

Christmas Muzak is a tool of the anti-christ.

I'm pretty sure they pipe it into the elevator to Hell.

[Jim Cane]

This was pure musical torture for a music major like me ;-).

That's because you've never had to endure "A Crumhorn Christmas". Period instruments are never in tune.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Not so fast. I used to sing in period madrigal groups, and am quite familiar with crumhorn music, in fact. ;-) I'm one of those people who giggle at TV ads that hype the musical "Oldies" - from the 1980's!!! (haw haw haw haw)

I studied the REAL oldies, including crumhorn music, during music history classes. ;-)

[Moose4]

For six out of the past eight weekends, my wife and I have been selling her jewelry at craft shows in Georgia and North Carolina, and have been subjected to the worst, most horrible, cheesiest, most God-awful torturing Christmas music possible as they pipe it into the venues. We're talking a mish-mash of Kenny G instrumentals, chorales, bluegrass, Muzak, show tunes, and bad modern interpretations. And you don't see us suing anybody.

Suck it up and deal, Austrians.

}:-)4

[SAJ]

Heh heh heh...

[SamAdams76]

This need not be. There is an almost infinite variety of Christmas music. No need to play the same old songs over and over again every two hours. I own over 150 CDs of Christmas music as well as countless numbers of tapes I made off the radio (I tape close to 12 hours of Christmas shows every year) and I never get tired of hearing it because I can play my entire collection from November 1st to December 24th and only hear the same songs two or three times.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Crumhorn Discography

.mp3 of solo, unaccompanied crumhorn

Tenor Crumhorn sample (Real Audio) or Bass Crumhorn sample (Real Audio)

And now for something completely different........

.wav file of a crumhorn trio

[Arrowhead1952]

I have a better idea....let's donate the ACLU to Europe. Their gripes are addressed, we're shed of the most pro-communism organization to ever disgrace America.... everybody's happy.

Just happened to find this tee shirt on line at the ProtestWarrior.com web site. Fits perfectly.

[nuconvert]

How's the book selling?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

This is about as close as I can come to "A Crumhorn Christmas".

[wideminded]

Has there really ever been a study done that shows whether assaulting the ears with Christmas Musak repeated ad infinitum gets people to buy more? And how to explain the time I was trapped in an airport terminal waiting for a delayed flight while Christmas jingles played over the intercom for hours? (This was long ago enough that there were no stores in the terminal.) Perhaps the strategy is to increase the stress of the month before Christmas even more. But it seems more likely that the people who order the music to be played and those that put it together simply have no creativity.

[Jim Cane]

I'm one of those people who giggle at TV ads that hype the musical "Oldies" - from the 1980's!!!

Just don't laugh at my parachute pants.

I have a crumhorn and use it to scare the ducks, though the clay in the leather bound "bell" broke and the end sort of flops around. (sounds like a personal problem)

Where did you study?

[DonQ]

I can understand how endless repetitions of Silent Night and Jingle Bells in a factory would start to annoy workers - even those who didn't know they were Christmas songs or who had no objections about Christmas itself. Silent Night has a very slow beat and Jingle Bells a very fast one, and both are certainly out of sync with whatever goes on in a factory, so listening to either tune while trying to do factory work can become stressful.

[Jim Cane]

RE: post 29

You ARE sadistic! :^)

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Nice tag line!

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Geez, I've written chord charts for Muzak. I never wrote a Christmas one, though, so I won't worry about getting named in a law suit. ; )

[Alouette]

Shop workers in Austria are demanding compensation for the "psychological terror" of being subjected to hours of piped Christmas music.

I agree! Being subjected to cheesy piano bar renditions and Johnny Mathis vaseline vocals of "Let it Snow!" "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland" "Sleigh Ride" "Jingle Bell Rock" "You Better Watch Out" and "Chestnuts Roasting" for hours on end is enough to make even Bob Cratchet want to go out and seriously hurt someone.

[nuconvert]

jingle, jingle