Written on March 18, 2023

As Arthur Schopenhauer has written in his essay on noise, noise can blow your thoughts straight out of your head. He wrote: «I denounce it as making a peaceful life impossible, it puts an end to all quiet thought.»

Sound in general often leaves the mind empty and for this reason it is deliberately used by companies. To constantly empty our minds and to prevent us from starting to think. This is done for different purposes.

Countless studies have been done to test whether if it works and, when it does, how it works. The most interesting are the studies of a company called Muzak.

Muzak grew commercially by delivering their mind-numbing music to companies that wanted their employees to work harder and to complain less.

The company began to adjust the pace and style of their music during the working day in an attempt to maintain productivity. The music was programmed in blocks of 15 minutes and gradually became faster in pace and louder and brassier in instrumentation to encourage employees to speed up their pace.

Music is everywhere. In cars, in homes, in shopping centers and even at the dentist. According to research, unobtrusive music selected by shop managers and companies such as Muzak can influence the thoughts and actions of a person without the targeted person even knowing it.

This is proof that stimuli below the threshold of the conscious mind can influence thoughts, feelings and actions. People do not consciously recognize that they are being manipulated by music when it is happening.

Music is used in workplaces, so that people work harder and complain less. And in stores, so people will think less about how much money they spend and spend even more.

Every time there is a long waiting line, music is often used to calm the waiting people. Music is not only used to temporarily empty our minds, it is used to make us docile.