Silence Please If there
is one group of workers across the Western world who will be glad that Christmas
is over, that group is shop workers. It is not that they like
to complain. They realize that they are going to be rushed off their feet at
Christmas. They know that their employers need happy customers to make their
profits that pay their wages. But there is one thing about working in a shop
over Christmas that is too bad to tolerate. That thing is
music. These days, all shops and many offices have what is known as "Piped
music" or "muzak" playing for all the hours that they are open. Muzak has an odd
history. During the 1940s, music was played to cows as part of a scientific
experiment. It was found that cows which listened to simple, happy music
produced more milk. Perhaps workers and customers who listened to simple, happy
music would be more productive and spend more money. In fact,
nobody knows what effect playing muzak in shops has on profits. It is simply
something that everybody does. But we are learning more about the effect of
constantly repeated hearings of songs on the people who have to hear them all
the time. Research shows that repeated hearings of complex
pieces of music bring greater enjoyment before becoming tiresome. And that point
come much sooner with simple songs. "That’s especially the case
with tunes that are already familiar. Once that tipping point is reached,
repeated listening become unpleasant, says Professor John Sloboda of UK’s Keele
University’s music psychology group. "And the less control you have over what
you hear, the less you like it. That’s why police forces in the
US often try and resolve hostage situations by playing pop songs over and over
again at high volume. Eventually, it becomes too much for the criminals to stand
and they give up. The problem gets particularly bad at
Christmas, when the muzak consists entirely of the same few festive tunes played
over and over again. What makes it worse for the shop workers is that they
already know these runes. They get bored very quickly. Then they get irritated.
Then they get angry. Shop workers in Austria recently
threatened to go on strike for the right to silence. "Shop workers can’t escape
the Christmas muzak. They feel as if they are terrorized all day. Especially
‘Jingle Bells’. It arouses aggressive feelings," said Gottfried Rieser, of the
Austrian shop worker’s union. It is not just shop workers who
complain. A survey this year by UK recruitment website Retailchoice. com found
that Christmas is not only the most testing time for shop workers, but that
almost half had complaints from customers about muzak. And the British Royal
National Institute for the Deaf estimates that some stores play Jingle Bells 300
times each year. "That’s acoustic torture, says Nigel Rodgers
of Pipedown. A group against muzak. "It’s not loud but the repetitive nature
causes psychological stress. " The group wants the government
to legislate against unwanted music in stores, hospitals, airports, swimming
pools and other public places, claiming it raises the blood pressure and
depresses the immune system. Perhaps groups like Pipedown don’t
really have much to complain about. After all, surely the real point is that
people have money to spend. Why complain about a bit of music
The shop workers in the Western world are glad when Christmas is over because they don’t have to
A．rush their feet off all day. B．listen to the music playing all the time in the shop. C．work overtime to make more profits for the boss. D．try to please the customers.
