Lemond1985

Was in Home Depot the other day and this song was playing obnoxiously loud:


I gotta ask, whose decision was it to have this stupid minor hit from 1979, blaring in my ear while I'm working my way across a 5 acre store, with vague directions, trying to find some tiny item, and figure out where they might put it? The last Youtube comment for this song was made 5 years ago. Must be some cutting-edge stuff.

And then after that, this song played:



And then this:


Needless to say, I barely made it out of the store without losing it.

How do people in a thousand other Home Depos across America, who have to work not only wearing a mask all day, but having to listen to this moron-grade music, non-stop, at inhumane volumes, louder than the PA system. I just don't know how people take it, and I guess I'm glad now that I stayed to school. The student loan payments until I'm 80 don't seem so bad in that light.

ooga-booga

the og neil young version of “lotta love” is
mich more spartan and without the crossover saxophone attempts.

Lemond1985

OK, I got that it's "gonna take a lotta love", but just what is "Uhh-hove"?

3alarmer

AlmostTrick

If I'm in Home Depot I wanna hear Little River Band Reminiscing.

Lemond1985

Song came out in '79, my graduation year. It's not "too uptown" for me, you'll have to take my word on that.

Lemond1985

That one is definitely on their playlist of 100 or so songs. We could probably come up with the whole thing in about 1/2 hour.

I remember when I worked retail, I thought the light pop rock music back then they played was lame, but somewhat tolerable. It definitely wasn't as loud. But all that went out the window when X-mas Time started, and you had to hear that truly awful music over and over again for two months straight.

3alarmer

...I graduated high school in 1967. I can honestly say I've never been able to identify a single song playing on the HD elevator music track since I started shopping there. Eventually, increasing hearing loss fixes the problem anyway, you'll have to take my word on that.

no motor?

What? I'm usually trying to figure out what I need to buy to avoid having to make another trip that I don't pay much attention to the music. It's just background noise like the Polish contractors talking on the phone while they shop.

Olefeller77 

I just don't go to Home Depot.

Lemond1985

As I get older, I'm having a harder time tuning out stuff like that these days. I mean like look at these lyrics:

How to tell you, girl
I wanna build my world around you
Tell you that it's true
I wanna make you understand
I'm talking about a lifetime plan

"A lifetime plan"? I just came in for some nails, WTF? I have no desire for that. Or the Eagles singing "Witchy Woman", maybe I'm a little sensitive, but a bad song like that bounces around in head for days afterwards. I just don't need the aggravation. WHY do they have to play music at all at these places? Why not fake building sounds? They could spray fresh sawdust over the lumber every 15 minutes.

3alarmer

indyfabz

Cats in the Cradle is a great tune.

”But there were trains to catch and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.”

skidder

Quite a while back I went into the local grocery store just after they had opened at 6AM and Sly and the Family Stone was playing over the sound system. I asked about that and an employee mentioned they let the overnight stocking crew play whatever they want (it was a CD player), just change it back to the regular stuff at opening time (too bad!). Had about 4 songs of Sly & Co. before it got switched.

At a small consulting firm I worked at in the 1990s we had an accountant who would come in early to work in the quiet and he'd change the voicemail music CD to something more to his liking. The system could be switched to broadcast over the intercom. Once I came in early AM to go to a jobsite and he was playing Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland", another time it was The Beatles "white Album".

DiabloScott

I knew the ending of the song after the first verse of the first time I heard it... a little too obvious for a great ballad, but not as bad as "Flowers are Red". Harry's more obscure songs were better - like WOLD.

As for music in any store - I have my own playing on my bluetooth headset... or maybe it's a podcast.

Lemond1985

Supposedly there's an updated version of the song where the kids have Covid instead of the flu, but other than that, a very rote songwriting exercise, worthy of a 30 second PSA. Or maybe an after school special or something.

skijor

BT earbud season will begin Anyday Now....just ask Ronnie Milsap
#justsaynotoxmasmusic

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​You don't have to wait! Cochlear implants will completely remove your ability to hear, and replace it with a computerized version. You can turn it off any time you like! And you can listen to music or podcasts without ear buds.

wgscott

Get these:

Apple AirPods Pro

I had a pair for about 20 seconds. My 17 yo kid confiscated them. But they do extremely high-quality noise-cancelling, and they also have a setting that essentially works like hearing aids. The best part is the active noise cancelling works even if you aren't playing music through them. We got them when we arrived back at the house after the CZU fire and everyone was using generators for a couple of weeks until electricity was restored. The constant noise was really unpleasant, especially one set of neighbors who thought it was completely reasonable to leave theirs on all night long. Put the earphones in, and it was dead silence. Almost creepy. (There is another setting that lets through ambient road noise, so you presumably could use them while cycling without endangering your life).

These are cheaper than my B&W cans, and I think they sound better.

no motor?

I went to a local Italian grocery store after they opened 1 morning and wondered why the vocals were in Spanish and they said the same thing except it was satellite radio.

ooga-booga

it's probably the insidious part of corporate's plan to force their employees from pretending to be busy with work minutiae to actually help customers. the more customers you contact/help, the less horrible music heard.
you are collateral damage.

ida probably been humming along with "lotta love" but if it had been jd southers "you're only lonely," i'd have been doing karaoke in the power tools section.

genec

My local lumberyard doesn't play any music. Neither does the local Tractor Supply... nor the local building supply... but then none of them sell lighting, or washers and dryers either.

Lemond1985

I'm gonna start complaining at some local places like that, asking them why I can't listen to 1979 Nicolette Larson songs while I look for a fuel pump that will fit my Hoyt-Clagwell tractor.